stood the chest containing the air-pumps. It was open, the
pumps were in working order, with two men standing by to work them.
Coils of india-rubber tubing lay beside it. Elsewhere were strewn about
stones for repairing the pier, and various building tools.

"Has Machowl come on board yet?" asked Baldwin, as he stepped on the
deck. "Ah, I see he has.--Well, Rooney lad, are you prepared to go
down?"

"Yis, sur, I am."

Rooney Machowl, who stepped forward as he spoke, was a fine specimen of
a man, and would have done credit to any nationality. He was about the
middle height, very broad and muscular, and apparently twenty-three
years of age. His countenance was open, good-humoured, and
good-looking, though by no means classic--the nose being turned-up, the
eyes small and twinkling, and the mouth large.

"Have you ever seen anything of this sort before?" asked Baldwin, with a
motion of his hand towards the diving apparatus scattered on the deck.

"No sur, nothin'."

"Was you bred to any trade?"

"Yis, sur, I'm a ship-carpenter."

"An' why don't you stick to that?"

"Bekase, sur, it won't stick to me. There's nothin' doin' apparently in
this poort. Annyhow I can't git work, an' I've a wife an' chick at
home, who've bin so long used to praties and bacon that their stummicks
don't take kindly to fresh air fried in nothin'. So ye see, sur,
findin' it difficult to make a livin' above ground, I'm disposed to try
to make it under water."

While Rooney Machowl was speaking Baldwin regarded him with a fixed and
critical gaze. What his opinion of the recruit was did not, however,
appear on his countenance or in his reply, for he merely said, "Humph!
Well, we'll see. You'll begin your education in your noo profession by
payin' partikler attention to all that is said an' done around you."

"Yis, sur," returned Machowl, respectfully touching the peak of his cap
and wrinkling his forehead very much, while he looked on at the further
proceedings of the divers with that expression of deep earnest sincerity
of attention which--whether assumed or genuine--is only possible to the
countenance of an Irishman.

During this colloquy the two men standing by the pump-case, and two
other men who appeared to be supernumeraries, listened with much
interest, but the diver seated on the plank, resting and calmly smoking
his pipe, gazed with apparent indifference at the sea, from which he had
recently emerged.

This man was a