At the third attempt Jack laid the hammer down in disgust, then picking up a crow-bar he applied the wedge-shaped end to the bar and bore down with all his weight, planting one leaden-soled boot against the door to give greater leverage.
The steel bar gave. Villiers found himself deposited gently on his back. Agreeably surprised that he hadn't fallen violently, he realized that the resistance of the water that had rendered the hammer-blows almost useless had also let him down softly.
It took him some moments to regain a vertical position. He could see his companion grinning at him through the plate-glass front of his helmet. Then almost the next instant he became aware that he could not keep contact with the floor but was rising through the water. Inadvertently, in his struggles he had opened the release-valve to the compressed-air reservoir, and but for the intervening roof he would have been well on his way to the surface.
It had taken place so quickly that Swaine had no chance to come to the luckless diver's assistance, while most of the compressed air had found its way into Villier's diving-dress. By the time Swaine succeeded in closing the valve Jack was pinned pretty firmly against the ceiling.
Vainly he strove, by pushing against the roof, to force himself down. A mild panic seized him. He struggled so violently that he rasped the skin from the knuckles of his bare hands.
Raising one arm and securing a grip on Villier's gorget, Swaine pulled himself up until the metal of his helmet was in contact with that of his companion's. By this means he could shout and be understood.
"Don't struggle," urged Swaine. "I'll get you out if you don't. Quite simple."
Making his way to the companion-ladder, Swaine opened the double doors, then, by dint of an acrobatic feat that would have been impossible to perform in air, he dragged the buoyant, distended form of his companion to the opening.
Given a final push to speed him on his way, Villiers shot like an arrow to the surface. The sudden change of pressure wellnigh deprived him of his senses, but he was just conscious of floating face uppermost on the surface within a few feet of the motor-boat that supplied the electric current to the interior of the wreck.
Great was Beverley's consternation when he saw one of the divers blown to the surface. Bobby had been having an easy task of standing by attending at intervals to the motor, when the inflated diving-dress, and its unrecognizable occupant, suddenly emerged alongside.