"It's no use scolding, Captain, I've quite made up my mind to try it. I've been thinking it over the whole day."
"I say you sha'n't do it," roared the old sailor. "I'll put you in irons first, I'm captain of this schooner."
"But I'm captain of the diving boat," Charley reminded him with a grin, "If anyone interferes with my doings on my own ship it's mutiny, you know."
"Walt, say something to get him out of that fool notion," pleaded the old sailor, helplessly.
Walter turned to his chum with a twinkle in his eye, "If you go down, I'm going too," he said, decidedly.
"You're two young lunatics," the captain declared, wrathfully. "You're bound to always run yourselves into danger whenever you get a show. Neither one of you will ever live to see twenty."
But, although he fumed and threatened for a long time, the matter ended, as was always the case when the boys had determined upon a thing, in his, at last, giving a grudging consent to their plan.
Chris had followed his little friend Ben on deck as soon as he finished his supper, but soon after the discussion was ended he returned below grumbling.
"Dat white child ain't no fitten company to-night," he declared. "He acts plum scart to death an' won't talk none tall."