of gutta-percha led away across a hoarding built of
planks over the sunken middle of the ship. At the
edge a strange man in blue, with a Chinese hat, was
standing, acting as a human pulley for the tube.
Another sat holding a rope connected with the diver’s
helmet. Yet another held the tube of air—the life-hne
-f-and let it slowly slip through his half-closed hand,
With head bowed down and hands outstretched, he was,
I could see, concentrated in the delicate work that was
his. There was something electric in the slow rustle
of the rope through his nervous hands. And he had
in his keeping the life ol the man below, in the
blind water.
To my unaccustomed eyes there was nothing visible
but a hoarding below the surface, and a tube let into
the water, but the silent men, clustered in the daylight
above, knew well what was afoot below. Old McPhairson,
the speculator, interjected occasional remarks. '‘ He
is walking now, along the lower deck,” as the line
suddenly ran out.
“ Eh, but he is in the hold away below now, lifting
the cargo,” as a few bubbles rose to the surface.
I He would be about there now,” pointing to a
white stanchion out of the water ; and then quickly,
“ Here she comes,” as a sudden turbulence in the water
and a rush of air bubbles heralded the approach of a
sack of cargo.
“ Chillies,” he observed sententiously, as a party of
red skirmishers rose up, and spread out in a fan on
the water, to be followed by a black and rotten sack,
532 TH E HUMAN PULLEY