“He says he’ll bet you he’ll dive to the bottom and be back again sooner than you will, Togle. So overboard with you, and show him he’s wrong,” said Duff, trying to heave over his messmate.
“He says he’ll bring up a shilling if you heave it overboard,” answered Togle, retaliating by seizing the first coin he could lay hands on out of Master Jemmy’s waistcoat pocket—it was fortunately only half-a-crown. “There, Smaitch, it’s too much for one of you though, so both of you be after it.”
And holding it up to show, before Duff could snatch at it, it was glancing through the clear water of the harbour. Over went both the lads after it, eager to appropriate so rich a prize, and it is to be feared, had they had knives, they would have fought for it under the waves, and have neither of them returned. Luckily Duff, as he could not save his own coin, had managed to seize a shilling from Togle, which served to attract the attention of the one who was furthest from the great prize, and both of them came up to the surface an instant afterwards, with the pieces of money in their hands.
“Me for dive, signor—me for dive,” they both again sung out, hoping to get another coin from Raby.
“No, no more me for dive, you blackguards,” he answered, shaking his head. “You’ve had quite enough from these two Master Greens already.”
And the lads, after singing out a few more times, pulled on ahead, still crying, “Me for dive, signor; me for dive;” though little, beyond a few pence, did they get from the crew of an old Mediterranean cruiser like the Ione.
“Now suppose there were sharks here as they have in the West Indies, it would not be quite so easy to go overboard as it is,” observed Duff, who quickly recovered his temper, which he had lost with his half-crown.
“Oh, these fellows would laugh at a shark,” answered Raby. “Why even the blackies don’t fear them, and will attack and kill the largest. By the by, did you ever hear of the big fellow they keep in Port Royal harbour to do the duty of guard-boat? Not a man dares swim on shore when big Tom is on duty, and he never takes a snooze they say.”
“You don’t mean to say so,” said Togle, “but how do they manage to keep him there?”
“Oh, the Government promised him a superannuated pension when he’s no longer fit for work; but, as he finds he must go on shore to receive it, he is obliged to keep afloat; though he’s been so many years at it that no one remembers when he first came on the station.”