“Well, and if I’m going to be drowned you’ll haul me out. You’re strong enough now, aren’t you?”
“Oh, yes; but you mustn’t risk it.”
“You wait till I get these things off, my lad, and I’ll show you. Why, you’d have done it splendidly if you had dived off the rock instead of going in flip-flap like a sole out of a basket. I’ll show you how to do it.”
“You’d better take my word for it that it can’t be done. Let’s wait till the tide’s low enough, and then swim out in daylight.”
“You wait till I get out of my uniform,” said the middy, stubbornly, “I’ll show you, my fine fellow. I’ve practised diving a good deal. Some day, if we get to the right place in the ocean, I mean to have a go down with the sponge divers, and if I’m ever in the South Seas I mean to try diving for pearl shell.”
“Well,” said Aleck, rather sadly, “I’ve warned you, and I suppose it is of no use for me to say any more?”
“Not a bit,” said the middy, dragging off his second stocking. “You make fast the dry end of the line round my noble chest. Not too tight, mind, and a knot that won’t slip.”
The young sailor possessed the greater will power now, for Aleck was yet half stunned by what he had gone through. He obeyed every order he received, and carefully knotted on the rope.
“Now, are you ready?” said the middy. “Feel up to hauling me back if I don’t get through?”
“Yes.”