back
at the boat, he saw the Eel wave his hand in a direction a little south
of where he had dived before.

Following out the suggestion, Eric took a long breath and went down. It
was a deep dive, and he thought he saw a gleam of white below him. The
boy tried to swim down a foot or two farther, but his breath failed him,
and he shot up, gasping, to the surface. Not wanting to give a false
alarm, yet knowing well that every second counted, the boy merely stayed
long enough to get his breath, then, putting every ounce of power he
possessed into a supreme effort, he went down again. This time he got a
foot nearer, but not near enough to be quite sure. Again he darted up to
the surface.

"Here, fellows!" he shouted.

The boat shot up beside him.

"Found him, Eric?"

"I think so, sir," the boy answered, "but he was too far down for me."

The Eel had stripped. He stood up and looked pleadingly at the
lieutenant.

"Sure you're not tired?"

The Eel smiled.

"Overboard with you, then!"

He dived.

Dozens of times though Eric had seen the Eel dive, and often as he had
tried to imitate him, the boy never ceased to envy his comrade his
extraordinary power of going into the water without the slightest
splash. Powerful dive though it was, scarcely a drop of water seemed to
be displaced as the Eel went down.

During the few seconds that passed while these sentences were being
interchanged, three or four others of the life-savers had rallied to
Eric's call and were headed for the boat. One man, especially, a big,
burly fellow who looked as though he would be too heavy to swim, but who
possessed an astounding amount of endurance and who could hold his
breath longer than any one else in the station, followed the Eel to the
bottom. Eric was game, and although he was beginning to feel thoroughly
done up, he joined the quest in the depths of the sea.

Moonlight gives no reflections beneath the water, and the sea was dark.
The Eel was already out of sight below him, but as the boy made his way
down, the powerful figure of the heavy swimmer came past him like a
shadow.

A few seconds later, the Eel shot up by him, bringing an unconscious man
in his grasp. The other swimmer followed. By the time Eric reached the
boat he was exhausted and had to be helped in. The rescued man had been
lifted into the large boat, and before the boy was even aboard, the
other craft was half-way to the shore, racing like mad. The other boats