"Bromides, Doctor?" queried the lieutenant, who had come in.
"Yes. Give him just one of the triple. No, that won't hurt him," he continued in answer to a look; "it's excessive stimulation that a man with smokers' heart can't stand."
The life-saver gave the required dose and succeeded in soothing the poor fellow, who was still terribly weak. The men sat on the steps outside, talking in low tones. Every one of them was keenly conscious of the strain. For twenty minutes there was no sound from within the station except the hard breathing of the man who was putting in all his strength to give the recumbent figure the motions of respiration.
"Ryan!" the doctor called suddenly.
A strapping young fellow jumped up like a shot and darted into the station to take the place of the exhausted worker. Wiping his forehead and breathing hard, the latter came out to his companions.
"Do you think there's any change, Jim?" one of them asked.
"Not so far as I can see," the other answered, shaking his head.
"How long do you suppose he was under?" queried another.
Close comparison of watches gave the actual time as between nineteen and twenty-one minutes.
"Has any one ever been saved who has been under water as long as that?" asked Eric.