"Perhaps it's only a surface-current," rejoined Harborough. "If so, so much the better. Sharks? No, I don't fancy they'll dare attack a diver. They'd be more frightened than the man. An octopus is another proposition. They are apt to be found in weed; but they don't grow to any very large size in these parts."
"If that's the wreck, sir," said Claverhouse, who, having seen the Cormorant safely moored, had rejoined the boats, "it would be better to get to her from the land, I think. She's within a hundred yards of the beach, and, although the water deepens pretty quickly, a diver ought to make his way up and down with very little trouble."
"Good scheme, Claverhouse," replied Harborough approvingly. "We might even rig up a semi-permanent guide-rope, and later on an endless line for getting the stuff ashore."
"He's returning, sir," announced Villiers, pointing to the line of bubbles.
"That's splendid," exclaimed Harborough.
He could hardly conceal his impatience, for there were moments when the generally-inscrutable features of the baronet did betray the state of his mind, and this was one of them.
The quivering of the rope-ladder under the influence of the current gave place to a series of violent jerks. Swaine was ascending.
"Trim the boat!" ordered Harborough, as the crew leant over the gunwale from which the rope-ladder hung.
It was a necessary caution, for in their eagerness to witness the return of their comrade the men had put the gunwale dangerously low down.
At length the great copper helmet, showing green in the clear water, came into view. Another twenty rungs and it appeared above the surface.