"It's only a couple of hours to dark and we have had enough for one day anyway," he remarked to his chum.
When the diving boat reached the schooner his shipmates prepared the dead man for burial. The body was sewed up in stout canvas and a piece of iron fastened to it. It was then gently lowered over the side and sank slowly beneath the waves.
With its disappearance all vestige of gloom disappeared from the crew. The dead man's scanty belongings were brought forth and auctioned off to the various bidders, and an hour after the crew were chatting and laughing with each other as cheerfully as ever.
"Mr. Williams was right, this is a man's game, and a game for rough, fearless men only," Walter remarked thoughtfully, for a second time.
CHAPTER VIII.
TROUBLE.
After the crew had eaten their supper and rested a bit, the captain had them transfer the sponges from the diving boat to the deck of the schooner. The sponges made quite an imposing pile which the old sailor surveyed with satisfaction. "You've done well to-day," he remarked, "if every day's work is as good we'll have a valuable cargo before our three months are up. I reckon, thar's all of two hundred dollars' worth of sponges in that heap."
"Are you sure that you know how to clean and cure them right?" Charley enquired.
"I don't, but Chris knows that part of the business from A to Z. Where he comes from the people live by sponging and pearl fishing."