Li took the buoy. A frown came over his face.
“What’s the trouble?” Biff asked.
“Well, with this buoy, it’s going to make it tougher to get down. The other time, remember, I had the help of a weight pulling me down—the dinghy’s emergency anchor. Now I’ve got this buoy, which will be working against me. I don’t know—”
“I’ll fix that.” Biff went astern. He pulled in the dinghy which was tied to the stem of the yawl, hopped in, and cut its anchor.
“Here you are, Li. That cleans us out of dinghy anchors. They go fast on a day like this.”
“Marked down. Special sale.” Li grinned in reply. He stepped to the side of the yawl. Holding buoy and anchor in front of him, once more the Hawaiian boy jumped feet first into the blue water.
Biff looked at his watch again, but he wasn’t worried this time. Li was only going down twenty feet. Feeling quite happy over finding the Sea Islander, Biff whistled a popular tune. He looked up at Mauna Loa, wondering where his father might be at the moment. He glanced down at his watch. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Unless he had misread the time of Li’s submersion, three minutes had already passed.
Biff swiftly went into action. Li shouldn’t have taken more than two minutes—not that long—for this dive. Biff’s body split the water. He pulled himself downward. The water pressure at the depth of fifteen feet was already exerting abnormal pressure on his chest. Still he pulled himself downward. He had to. I’ve got to find Li, he told himself.
At twenty feet beneath the surface, with his lungs screaming for air, Biff’s hands touched Li’s head. The Hawaiian boy was fighting frantically to free one leg from a rope entwined around it.
Biff used Li’s body to pull himself the four feet farther downward to reach the rope. He tore at it, felt it give, and Li’s leg was free. Biff placed his hands on Li’s body and gave it a powerful thrust upward. Then, barely able to hold his breath any longer, he spread his hands, palms downward, pushed with all his might and shot toward the surface.