As Jay was ready for the finishing touches Dick leaned close and peered into the face of his old chum.
"All right, old boy," he comforted. "I'll be right here on this end keeping close watch. If anything happens just give me the emergency quick. And, for the love of Mike, keep your googley-eyes on that bird Weddigen."
Jay smiled, an answering "Yes," and motioned for the eye-pieces to be closed. Immediately the air pump was started, feeding its supply of fresh oxygen to the imprisoned diver. With a man on each side of him Jay scuffed across deck and went over the side on a ladder leading down into the water. Just before his helmeted head went under he took one last look around for direction and fixed in his mind the path to be taken in the journey toward the Dominion.
Down he went. The sun shone into the water, and with the sand for a background the light in the sea was fairly good.
"Well, here we are—and now for the Dominion," Jay chuckled to himself as his feet hit bottom and he started along, using a small peak-nosed shovel as a push-pole to help himself along.
Through his bull's-eyes he could see ahead some distance. Vainly he cast right and left for some trace of Weddigen, but nowhere was his diving companion to be seen.
"I'll just be careful not to run afoul of that big boy's lines down here," Jay told himself. It was not so easy to defend against an attack of any kind under water clad in heavy diving habiliments.
Groping his way forward steadily inch by inch, Jay figured soon he must be in the neighborhood of those ships' ribs. The breathing was good and the air lines were working fine under the expert direction of his chum. These two had teamed together before; always when one of them was down the other looked after the equipment above deck, keeping a sharp eye on the air pump to see there was no let-up in its functioning.
Pretty soon Jay saw something looming up directly ahead. For the moment it assumed fantastic shape and the youth was unable to determine whether it was just some sort of an apparition or some tangible substance. But only for a moment.
In another instant the specter of the wrecked ship filtered through the greenish haze of the water into the eyes of the groping diver; a weird spectacle that danced and eddied to the tilt of the waters like the wavering film of a cinematograph.