"Guess you were too busy getting your sea serpent," smiled Ned.
"Did you pull?" asked Jimmie.
"Sure. Jack and Frank are out there now, ready to beat you up for keeping them out so long."
The prisoner turned his face away from the two and sulked.
"There's the boys now," Jimmie said. "Let them in."
In ten minutes Jack and Frank were in the large room, busily engaged in taking off their deep-sea clothes.
As Frank threw his helmet into a corner he held up the end of a line.
"You see," he said, glancing angrily at the prisoner, who had moved as far away as possible. "The line was cut."
"Aw, it would have come away in your hand when you pulled, then," said
Jimmie. "You'd have found that out quick enough."
"I tell you it was cut," Frank insisted. "It was cut and tied to a rock that lies at the bottom. When we pulled we pulled at the big old boulder we saw lying there on the sand. Now, what do you think of that?"