hey set foot aboard;
and they were in time to see the heavy leaden weights attached to his
back and breast, and the great helmet, with its tail-like tube, lifted
over his head and screwed on to the gorget. Then with the life-line
attached he moved towards the gangway, the air-pump clanking as the crew
turned the wheel; and step by step the man went down the ladder lashed
to the lighter's side. Josh involuntarily gripped Will's hand as the
diver descended lower and lower, to chest, neck, and then the great
goggle-eyed helmet was covered, while from the clear depths the air that
kept rapidly bubbling up rendered the water confused, so that the
descending figure looked distorted and strange.

"Three fathom o' water here, my lad," whispered Josh, as with his
companion he leaned over the side and gazed down at the rocks below.

"Three and a half, isn't it, Josh?" said Will in a low tone. "Mike
always says there's three and a half here at this time of the tide."

"And I says it's three fathom," growled Josh dogmatically. "My, but
it's a gashly sight for a man to go down like that!"

"Why, I wouldn't mind diving down, Josh," said Will excitedly.

"Diving down! Ay, I wouldn't mind diving down. It's being put in
prison, and boxed up in them gashly things as makes it so horrid. Here,
let's be off. I can't stand it. That there poor chap'll never come up
again alive."

"Nonsense, Josh! He's all right. There, you can see him moving about.
That pump sends him down plenty of air."

"Lor', what a great soft sort of a chap you are, William Marion!" said
Josh. "You'll never larn nothing. The idee of a pump pumping air!
They're a-pumping the water from all round him, so as to give the poor
chap room to breathe. Can't you see the long soft pipe? Here, I don't
like it. I want to go."

"No, no: not yet," cried Will excitedly. "I want to watch the diver."

"An' I don't," said Josh, turning his face away. "I never could abear
to see things killed, and I never would go and see it. I can stand
fish, but that's enough for me. Here's a human bein' goin' to be as
good as murdered, and I won't be one o' them as stands by and sees it
done."

"What nonsense, Josh!" cried Will. "This is regular diving apparatus.
That's an air-pump; and the man has air pumped down into his helmet
through that india-rubber pipe."

"Garlong; don't tell me, boy," cried Josh indignantly. "Into his helmet
indeed! Why, you can see all the w