at the life, the other
at the head-line ;
the latter the tender
and leader of
the boat.
For some little
space of time we
wait, listening to
the monotonous
screeching of the
wheel ; then the
rope tightens, the
tender h a u l s , a
burst of bubbles is
borne up in tumult
to the surface, the
tenders run swiftly
together, and the
diver, like a strange
beast hooked up
HIS JAPANESE HEAD _ , , from the sea-deeps,
emerges and clings to the ladder over the side of the boat.
And there he lies, bent over, the type of exhaustion. The
crew hasten to raise his helmet, and, lightened of its burden,
he steps on deck, his startled Japanese head showing
out of his monstrous clothes, his eyes blinking with the
change from the deep floor of the sea to its sunlit
surface. In a small brown net, like those which old
ladies use in England when they go a-shopping, lie
the shells he has found.
THE DIVER BELOW
