For the next half hour the boys talked back and
forth between the workshop and the bottom of the river and then Rawlins and Tom ascended the ladder and removed their suits.
For fully five minutes, the boys pranced, danced, hurrahed, yelled, laughed and made such a racket celebrating their success that it was a wonder the river police did not break in thinking a horde of Indians had taken possession of the dock. And if the truth must be told, Rawlins was just about as excited and acted as crazily as the youngsters.
But at last they calmed down and Frank, mad to go down, donned Tom’s suit.
“Try it without the phones,” Tom advised him. “Then you can talk loudly enough to be heard up here without deafening Mr. Rawlins.”
To Tom, listening at the set on the dock, it seemed little short of uncanny to hear Rawlins and Frank talking from under the water, and indeed, it impressed him as even more remarkable than hearing those on shore when he was below the surface.
Both Rawlins and Frank assured him that the sets worked far better without the receivers on
their heads, and even when Frank spoke in his loudest tones Rawlins replied that it did not deafen him as before.
“Now let’s try tuning, Frank,” said Tom. “I’m going to vary my wave length and see if you can pick it up. Then change yours and I’ll see if I can get you.”
As Tom spoke, he altered the sending waves slightly and breathlessly waited. Presently Frank’s voice came in.