which a waiting man with a large pole thrust away
to sea. In this way rice, chillies, prawns, and tobacco
came up and floated away, the bay becoming alive
with them.
McPhairson, who goes down frequently himself, said
the prawns cut his skin, and he pointed to his red
scarred feet.
Silently a diver came up, had his iron helmet lifted
off his collar-bones, and sat dazed and dull in the
sunlight, shivering in the gills. Another took his
place.
“ They get mortal cold down there,” said McPhairson.
“ It’s a warm day,” I said.
“ And may it continue so,” he replied ; “ for the
water takes all the heat out of you down below, and
the wind cuts you when you come up. The other day,
when it was a bit cold, every time I came up I had
to get them to wrap me in a blanket.”
All this time there was an anxious manner about
the man. His launch, the wrecker, and Captain Le
Fevre had not yet come in.
“ And the Lord,” he said, “ knows what has become
of her. Oh! but, if she is wrecked, there will be a
shindy at home, when her owners come to hear of it.”
At last the laggard hove in sight.
“ There she is,” I said.
“ Time she was*” he replied. “ I have passed but
a poor night because of her. If I am so fortunate as
to get this job through successfully, I will never again
undertake another like it. I am fifty-five the day,”