o and Ram-stam, forsaking the pump, lent their aid and
soon hauled the luckless diver into the boat, when his first act was to
deal the Chinamen a cuff each that sent one into the stern-sheets on his
nose, and the other into the bow on his back. Immediately thereafter he
fell down as if senseless, and Molly, with trembling hands, unscrewed
the bull's-eye.

Her horror may be imagined when she beheld the countenance of her
husband as pale as death, while blood flowed copiously from his mouth,
ears, and nostrils.

"Niver mind, cushla!" he said, faintly, "I'll be all right in a minute.
This couldn't have happened if I'd had one o' the noo helmets.--Git off
my--"

"Ochone! He's fainted!" cried Mrs Machowl; "help me, boys."

In a few minutes Rooney's helmet was removed and he began to recover,
but it was not until several days had elapsed that he was completely
restored; so severe had been the consequences of the enormous pressure
to which his lungs and tissues had been subjected, by the powerful
working of the pump on that memorable day by Ram-stam and Chok-foo.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

TREASURE RECOVERED--ACCIDENTS ENCOUNTERED--AN UNEXPECTED DISCOVERY--
ENEMIES MET AND CIRCUMVENTED.

It is pleasant to loll in the sunshine on a calm day in the stern of a
boat and gaze down into unfathomable depths, as one listens to the slow,
regular beating of the oars, and the water rippling against the prow--
and especially pleasant is this when one in such circumstances is
convalescent after a prolonged and severe illness.

So thought Edgar Berrington one lovely morning, some months after the
events related in the last chapter, as he was being rowed gently over
the fair bosom of the China sea. The boat--a large one with a little
one towing astern--was so far from the coast that no land could be seen.
A few sea-gulls sported round them, dipping their wings in the wave, or
putting a plaintive question now and then to the rowers. Nothing else
was visible except a rocky isle not far off that rose abruptly from the
sea.

"Well, we're nearing the spot at last," said Edgar, heaving that
prolonged sigh which usually indicates one's waking up from a pleasant
reverie. "What a glorious world this is, Baldwin! How impressively it
speaks to us of its Maker!"

"Ay, whether in the calm or in the storm," responded Joe.

"Yes; it was under a very different aspect I saw this place last,"
returned Edgar. "Yonder is the cliff now coming