“Danny, Danny!” someone was shouting. “Where are you, you young rotter? Danny, come on, we’re going bathing!”
He started to his feet and rubbed his eyes.
“Here I am!” he called, emerging from the gooseberry bushes as if he had been there all the time.
His Sixer and two Cubs were waiting for him. Very soon the four boys were running gaily off across the marsh with towels round their necks.
It was only about ten minutes’ run down to the seashore. Before long the Cubs were splashing about in the cool green water. It was ripping! In the old London days Danny had bathed all the year round in the baths, but it was not half as jolly as this. All the same, his swimming-bath experience had been useful, for he had learnt to swim well, and to dive.
“I can swim and float,” said Sixer Fred Codding, “but I can’t dive. Show us how you do it, Daniel.”
Danny ducked down his head, chucked up his heels, and vanished. The cool green water closed over his head. Everything looked so funny down there—all a lovely pale green colour, full of myriads of bubbles. Red and brown seaweed waved lazily on the pebbly bottom. Danny swam gently forward, looking for a stone to bring up to show the other chaps he had really been to the bottom of the deep pool.
Suddenly, down there in the dim, bubbly water, among the shells and shrimps and seaweed, a great idea came to him. He would dive down into the mill pond himself and see what there was at the bottom, and why those strangers were so fond of going down there! He swam quickly to the surface, his heart high with resolve. It would take some pluck to do it. “But a chap’s not worth calling a Cub if he can’t do a thing like that!” he said to himself, as he dried vigorously and got into his clothes again.
Tea was ready when Danny got in. He was as hungry as a wolf—or rather a Wolf Cub! But if he was to go down that day he must go before the sun set; it was past six already. So he contented himself with a cup of tea and a small piece of bread and butter. “I won’t give in to myself,” he said, thrusting his hands deep into his pockets, as his mother offered him a big slice of the most lovely plum cake.
Running up to his room, he changed into a pair of old shorts, a cotton shirt, and some old gym. shoes. Then he set out along the well-known road that had proved to be so full of mysterious adventures.