“I shall get scratched and scraped going under the rocks.”
“You’ll get caught by them and hung up if you keep your clothes on. Have ’em all off, man; you’ll slip through the water then like a seal.”
“Yes,” said Aleck, calmly, “I suppose it will be best.”
It did not take him long to prepare, and as soon as he was ready his companion made the rope fast just round beneath the arm-pits with a knot that would neither slip nor tighten.
“There!” said the middy, as he finished his preparations by laying out the rope in rings and curves of various shapes, such as would easily run out. “I say, you are perfectly black when I look at you from behind, but in front you seem like a white image on a black ground. Now, then, what do you mean to do?”
“Dive in from here and try to keep right down and swim as deeply as I can for the mouth.”
“Try to swallow the job at one mouthful?”
“Yes.”
“Won’t do,” said the middy, authoritatively. “You couldn’t do it. You must slip in gently here and swim to that rock that’s just out of the water.”
“What! That one that seems just to the left of the arch?”