When Billie arose to the surface, after his dive, he looked about to see what had become of the boats. There they were, not twenty feet away, side
by side! One might have thought they had met on purpose, rather than by chance, so friendly was their appearance.
And this was exactly the case, although that purpose came very near being thwarted by Billie’s activity.
“Well,” thought Billie, as he shook the water from his eyes, “seeing that I am here, I might as well find out what is going on.”
Slowly he approached the boats, and now that he was bareheaded, he could not be distinguished from the water.
“He must be somewhere around,” he heard one voice declare.
“Unless he has been drowned,” suggested another.
“No such good fortune,” said a third, which Billie recognized as belonging to Don Pablo.
“Do you know who he was?” asked another voice, this in English.
“He said he was a messenger,” replied Don Pablo, also in English. “He said something about going for help for some Americans who are in danger.”