“There, you may say what you like,” he growled, “I know my dooty, and I’m a-doing on it. You should never meddle with a man as is down till he asks for help—go on with that pumping, my lads, keep it up,” he said, interrupting his didactic remarks to admonish the sailors at the air-pump—“’cause if you do, you means well p’raps, but you only flurries the man, and that’s the very thing as you oughtn’t to do. Do you know what would make the best divers, Oakum?”
“No,” growled that worthy.
“Cowcumbers, ’cause they’re so cool. Now, lookye here everybody, he’s going on as right as can be. Mr Dutch keeps on giving the signal ‘All right,’ so why should we interfere. I’m master o’ this descent, and he shan’t be interfered with.”
“But, you madman, there’s a huge shark just going to dash at him,” cried Mr Meldon excitedly.
“Then I’m very sorry for the shark,” said Rasp coolly. “Lor’ bless you, Mr Dutch is too much for any shark as can swim. Madman, eh, Mr Doctor. What would you say to me if I called you a madman for not letting me interfere when you’d got your patient a-going on all right, and just because I thought he was in danger? My patient’s a-going on all right. There, he says so himself,” he continued, as the customary signal passed along the line.
“Rasp is quite right,” said Mr Parkley, who stood there with a cartridge in one hand, the wire in the other, and the battery between his feet. “A diver should never be interfered with.”
“There, hear that?” said Rasp, watching the tube where it descended into the water.
“But look! Good heavens, it is horrible!” cried the doctor.
Hester’s hands dropped from her face, and she gazed down now to see a thick cloud of blood rising through the water, shutting out the figure of him she loved, and white as ashes, with eyes starting, and parted lips, but without uttering a word, she gazed on.
“Well, what o’ that?” said Rasp coolly, as he held the signal-line delicately in his hand, drawing in and slackening out like a man feeling with a ground line. “He’s as right as a trivet, and I’ve felt him all along with the line here, and he’s give the shark such a one-er. I felt him let go at it.”