Menhardoc | Page 4

think of trying on a diver's suit, and
being supplied with air from above, through a tube into your helmet."
"This here dress is good enough for me, and my sou'-wester's a sight

better than any helmet I know, and the only air as I care about having
through a tube's 'bacco smoke."
"But shouldn't you like to go and see the diving?"
"Not I," said Josh, staring hard at the great lighter. "'Sides, when we've
done here, and the fish is all salted down, I want to row across to the
lighthouse."
"That will be going close by, Josh. I'll take an oar with you, and let's
stop on the way."
"Just couldn't think o' such a thing. Come, work away, lad," cried Josh;
and both he and Will did work away, the latter saying nothing more, for
he knew his man, and that there was eager curiosity and also intense
longing in the looks directed by the fisherman across the water from
time to time.
The result was, that, armed with a couple of good-sized pollack as a
present to the skipper in charge of the lighter, Josh Helston and his
young companion rowed alongside the well-moored vessel before the
morning was much older, and were soon on deck watching the
proceedings with the greatest interest.
One of the divers was just preparing to go down as they set foot aboard;
and they were in time to see the heavy leaden weights attached to his
back and breast, and the great helmet, with its tail-like tube, lifted over
his head and screwed on to the gorget. Then with the life-line attached
he moved towards the gangway, the air-pump clanking as the crew
turned the wheel; and step by step the man went down the ladder lashed
to the lighter's side. Josh involuntarily gripped Will's hand as the diver
descended lower and lower, to chest, neck, and then the great
goggle-eyed helmet was covered, while from the clear depths the air
that kept rapidly bubbling up rendered the water confused, so that the
descending figure looked distorted and strange.
"Three fathom o' water here, my lad," whispered Josh, as with his
companion he leaned over the side and gazed down at the rocks below.

"Three and a half, isn't it, Josh?" said Will in a low tone. "Mike always
says there's three and a half here at this time of the tide."
"And I says it's three fathom," growled Josh dogmatically. "My, but it's
a gashly sight for a man to go down like that!"
"Why, I wouldn't mind diving down, Josh," said Will excitedly.
"Diving down! Ay, I wouldn't mind diving down. It's being put in
prison, and boxed up in them gashly things as makes it so horrid. Here,
let's be off. I can't stand it. That there poor chap'll never come up again
alive."
"Nonsense, Josh! He's all right. There, you can see him moving about.
That pump sends him down plenty of air."
"Lor', what a great soft sort of a chap you are, William Marion!" said
Josh. "You'll never larn nothing. The idee of a pump pumping air!
They're a-pumping the water from all round him, so as to give the poor
chap room to breathe. Can't you see the long soft pipe? Here, I don't
like it. I want to go."
"No, no: not yet," cried Will excitedly. "I want to watch the diver."
"An' I don't," said Josh, turning his face away. "I never could abear to
see things killed, and I never would go and see it. I can stand fish, but
that's enough for me. Here's a human bein' goin' to be as good as
murdered, and I won't be one o' them as stands by and sees it done."
"What nonsense, Josh!" cried Will. "This is regular diving apparatus.
That's an air-pump; and the man has air pumped down into his helmet
through that india-rubber pipe."
"Garlong; don't tell me, boy," cried Josh indignantly. "Into his helmet
indeed! Why, you can see all the water bubbling up round him. That's
what it is--pumped away. I tell 'ee I'm off. I won't stop and see the
gashly work going on."

Just then there was a cry from one of the men by the gangway, for the
life-line was jerked.
"More air!" he shouted; and the men spun the wheel round faster; but
the line jerked again.
"There's something wrong!" shouted one of the others. "Here, lay hold
there--quick! Keep on there with that handle, stupids! Do you want the
man to choke? Pump, I tell you. Now, then, haul!"
"There, I told you so, Will," cried Josh, whose ruddy-brown face was
looking mottled with white. "I know'd the gashly old job was wrong.
Come away, boy, come away."
For answer, in his excitement