she quoted softly to herself
as she watched.

The next moment her hands made an involuntary movement in the water. Had
she been on land her gesture would have meant that she was fighting for
breath. To her horror she realized that she was slowly suffocating.
Something must have happened to her air-pump above the water. She was not
faint from any other cause, but was getting an insufficient supply of
fresh air.

At this moment Madge proved her mettle. She remembered Captain Jules's
injunction, "Keep a clear head under the water and there is nothing to
fear." She knew the signal for more fresh air, and gave two hard, quick
pulls on her life line. Then she waited. Relief would surely come in a
moment.

For the first and only time since their descent to the bottom of the bay
Captain Jules had temporarily neglected Madge. He certainly had not
expected to find any pearls in so unlikely a place as Delaware Bay; yet
the shells he held in his hand were most unusual. The thrill of his old
occupation seized hold of the pearl fisher. His big hands fairly trembled
with emotion. He felt, rather than saw, Madge jerk her life line twice,
but it never dawned on him that her signal for more air might fail to be
answered.

Madge signaled again. A loud buzzing seemed to sound in her ears. Her
tongue felt thick and swollen. She could not see a foot ahead of her. All
the dazzling, shimmering beauty of the world under the water had passed
into blackness. The little captain's eyes were glazing behind the glass
windows of her helmet. She felt that she must be dying. But she had
strength to give one more signal. Air! air! How could she ever have
believed that there was anything in the world so precious as fresh air?
Madge had a vision of a field of new-mown hay in her old home at "Forest
House." The wind was blowing through it with a delicious fragrance. Had
she the strength to pull her life line once again? The water that she
loved so dearly was to claim her at last. She made a motion to go toward
Captain Jules, but she had no control of her limbs.

Then Captain Jules became aroused to action. He realized that Madge had
signaled for air, not once, but several times. This meant that her signal
had not been answered. The captain had been for too many years a deep-sea
diver not to guess instantly the girl's condition. The groan inside his
helmet came from the bottom of his heart. Captain Jules's hands shook. He
dropped the shells that he bel