“What’s the matter? What happened?” they all asked as the Captain shook the water out of his eyes and looked around with a relieved expression.
65“Suck hole, I guess,” he said. “I had only gone about twenty-five feet when something caught hold of me and dragged me down, turning me around all the while. It lifted my feet and pulled me down head first, but I managed to hold my breath and not swallow water. Then all of a sudden some other current got ahold of me and shot me up and pretty soon somebody grabbed my feet and there was Uncle Teddy and the boat right beside me. It’s a suck hole all right, I think.”
“Are you sure that was the place, where I pulled you out?” asked Uncle Teddy.
“Quite sure,” replied the Captain. “I came up right beside the boat.”
“We’ll have to mark the spot in some way,” said Uncle Teddy, “so we will know how to avoid it when we are swimming. Let’s see, it’s right about in line with those twin pines on the bank and about thirty feet from the shore. We’ll rig up some sort of a floating buoy there and then give the place a wide berth. It’s a good thing it’s out of line with our sandy beach, so it won’t interfere with any water sports we may want to have there.”
“Don’t look so scared, I’m not drowned,” said the Captain to Hinpoha, who was as pale as a ghost.
“But you might have been,” said Hinpoha in an agitated voice. “I thought I should die until I saw you coming up. I never was so scared.”
The Captain began to think it was worth while 66 to go down in a suck hole to make Hinpoha feel so much concern about him.
“I’m sorry I scared you,” he said, “but it really wasn’t so terrible after all. I wasn’t very much frightened.” Boylike, he must begin to boast of his exploit in the presence of his feminine friends.
“Please be careful after this,” begged Hinpoha. “Those suck holes are dreadful things. Why, once my cousin—”