"I don't guess it, I know it," answered Billy, striving to keep his courage up.
"No, is the right answer," said the Sea Urchin.
"Why shouldn't I go ashore?"
"Just because," replied the Eel, "oh! gracious what a sad world it is—here's a boy that thinks he knows."
"But how are you going to prevent it?" said Billy. "I'm not afraid of you."
"We will prevent it this way," said Ne'er Do Eel, winding his tail around Billy's legs.
"And this way," said the Sea Urchin, pricking a hole in Billy's suit with one of his bristles.
Poor Billy felt himself getting thinner and thinner as the air bubbled out of the suit. And while he knew that he could swim and so keep afloat a while longer, he was well aware that in a very few minutes all would be over and he would go down, down, down to the bottom of the sea.
Barker seemed to know it too, for he whined piteously.