ing away from the wreck. So far, he had not moved.
Now, as he tried to turn about, he found himself bounding up several
feet, and laughed to himself as he remembered Jerry's lessons.

But he had turned about--and the scene before him made him start back in
awe and amazement. Hardly ten feet away from him was the wreck--a great
dim shape with streaming sea growth and barnacles that rose more like a
huge rock than anything else. A trifle above the level of his head
flamed out a little silver line of light--it was the kris, protruding
handle outward from the barnacled wood. But where was Jerry?

Then he saw, and moved forward with a terrible fear lest he had been too
slow. The kris was stuck in the wreck at a corner, where the huge mass
had split apart and had made a V-shaped opening. Just inside this lay
the motionless form of Jerry, who must have become insensible from lack
of air. Beyond a doubt he had penetrated into the opening, and as he did
so his hose and line had caught on the kris and parted. The very weapon
he had counted on for safety had betrayed him!

As he moved forward, Mart took precautions against the same danger, by
pulling out the kris and sticking it into the wood again farther ahead.
Then, with that strange lightness that divers feel, he leaped forward,
clutching at his spare line. Swiftly drawing his knife across it, for he
had no time now to untie knots, he caught the end under Jerry's
shoulders and knotted it. Looking down into the glass of Jerry's helmet,
he could make out that the old man's eyes were closed, while his mouth
was open and was feebly gasping for air.

"By golly, I just got here in time!" thought Mart with a quick breath of
relief. "He'll have to go up first, I guess. Bob can't haul us both."

With that, he separated the spare line from his own, and tugged it four
times. Bob must have been in desperate fear, for he never paused to
reply, but the form of Jerry rose almost at once.

Mart could still hear the pump-strokes going, however, and the air he
breathed was fresh and pure. He thought of Bob, pumping with one hand
and hauling up with the other, and at the same instant he thought of the
four mutineers ashore. What if they had seen the whole affair and were
to come out in their boat and recapture the ship?

At the very thought he felt the perspiration stand out as he gazed dully
at the swaying figure of Jerry which was slowly vanishing above him.
However, there was no use spe