mately came up, dead); of one whose head swelled
up, so that they could scarcely remove the helmet.
The diver’s life in these seas is a risky one, short,
riotous, lucrative ; and there is no lack of apprentices
to the trade. And so as we talk, the German, finishing
his work, falls back into a long armchair ; the poultry
in the hen-coop cackle, and fill the air with the scent
of feathers; the schooner’s dog, still wet with the sea,
dozes under the lantern’s light; a kettle boils on the
hob in the cabin below, and oars splash in the darkness(
as boats go to and fro. From the distance there-are
borne upon the swaying sea the voices of the assembled
crews/in song, in laughter, in the telling of strange
tales before they sleep.
“ Well,” says Allingham mournfully, “ I haven’t
given up hope yet. From now till A p ril. there are
still four months to run, and who knows what, we may
find.” .
She.— “ Oh, but England is already—what you say ?
-Anternatsio ; but in Shermanie they do think much
of a tiger-claw necklace. Nicht Mark ? ” and at intervals
she says soothingly: “ So—o ” . . . “ So—o.”
V. W i t h t h e S a l 6 n
During the night the launch and the schooner
Bertha developed an intimacy, and the dawn, as it
came stealing over the seas, found them linked in an
embrace of their anchor chains. When at length we got
away, the day had broken, and we steered into the lake
of water between Jane and Charlotte, and thence across
550