Sure the rounds o yer ladder was slippy, answered Rooney, with some indignation. Didnt ye see, I lost me howld? Come, putt on the glass an Ill try again. Never say die was a motto of me owld father, an it was the only legacy he left me.Im ready, sur.
It is right here to remark that something of the pupils return of courage and resolution was due to his quick perception. He had time to reflect that he really had been at, or near, the bottom of the seaat all events over head and ears in waterfor several minutes without being drowned, even without being moistened, and his faith in the diving-dress, though still weak, had dawned sufficiently to assert itself as a power.
Ha! My lad, youll do. Youll make a diver yet, said Baldwin, when about to readjust the glass. I forgot to tell you that when your breath clouds the front-glass, youve only got to bend your head down, and wipe it off with your night-cap. Now, then, down you go once more.
This time the pat on the head was followed by a descending motion. The mailed figure was feeling with its right foot for the next round of the ladder. Then slowlyvery slowlythe left foot was let down, while the two hands held on with a tenacity that caused all the muscles and sinews to stand out rigidly. Then one hand was loosened, and caught nervously at a lower roundthen the other hand followed, and thus by degrees the pupil went under the surface, when his helmet appeared like a large round ball of light enveloped in the milky-way of air-bubbles that rose from it.
Youd better give the signal to ask if alls right, said Edgar, who felt a little anxious.
Do so, said Baldwin, nodding to the assistant.
The man obeyed, but no answering signal was returned.
According to rule they should instantly have hauled the diver up, but Baldwin bade them delay a moment.
Im quite sure theres nothing wrong, he said, stooping over the side of the barge, and gazing into the water, its only another touch of nervousness.Ah! I see him, holdin on like a barnacle to the ladder, afraid to let go. Hell soon tire of kickin therethats it: there he goes down the rope like the best of us.
In another moment the life-line and air-pipe ceased to run out, and then the assistant gave one pull on the line. Immediately there came back one pullall right.
Thats all right, repeated Baldwin; now the ice is fairly broken, and well soon see how hes going to get on.
In order that we too may see that more comfortably, you and I, reader, will again go under water and watch him. We will also listen to him, for Rooney has a convenient habit of talking to himself, and neither water nor helmet can prevent us from overhearing.
True to his instructions, the pupil proceeded to fasten his clew-line to the stone at the foot of the ladder-rope, and attempted to kneel.
Well, well, he said, did ye iver! What would me mother say if she heard I couldnt git on my knees whin I tried to?
Rooney began this remark aloud, but the sound of his own voice was so horribly loud and unnaturally near that he finished off in a whisper, and continued his observations in that confidential tone.
Och! Is it dancin yer goin to do, Rooney?in the day-time too! he whispered, as his feet slowly left the bottom. Howld on, man!
He made a futile effort to stoop and grasp the mud, then, bethinking himself of Baldwins instructions, he remembered that too much air had a tendency to bring him to the surface, and that opening the front-valve was the remedy. He was not much too soon in recollecting this, for, besides rising, he was beginning to feel a singing in his head and a disagreeable pressure on the ears, caused by the ever-increasing density of the air. The moment the valve was fully opened, a rush out of air occurred which immediately sank him again, and he had now no difficulty in getting on his knees.
Theres little enough light down here, anyhow, he muttered, as he fumbled about the stone sinker in a vain attempt to fasten his line to it, sure the windy must be dirty.
The thought reminded him of Baldwins teaching. He bent forward his head and wiped the glass with his night-cap, but without much advantage, for the dimness was caused by the muddiness of the water.
Just then he began to experience uncomfortable sensations; he felt a tendency to gasp for air, and became very hot, while his garments clasped his limbs very tightly. He had, like Maxwell, forgotten to reclose the breast-valve, but, unlike the more experienced diver, he had failed to discover his omission. He became flurried and anxious, and getting, more and more confused, fumbled nervously at his helmet to ascertain that all was right there. In so doing he opened the little regulating cock, which served to form an additional outlet to foul air. This of course made matters worse. The pressure of air in the dress was barely sufficient to prevent the water from entering by the breast-valve and regulating cock. Perspiration burst out on his forehead. He naturally raised his hand to wipe it away, but was prevented by the helmet.
Rooney possessed an active mind. His thoughts flew fast. This check induced the following ideas
What if I shud want to scratch me head or blow me nose? Or what if an earwig shud chance to have got inside this iron pot, and take a fancy to go into my ear?
His right ear became itchy at the bare idea. He made a desperate blow at it, and skinned his knuckles, while a hitherto unconceived intensity of desire to scratch his head and blow his nose took violent possession of him.
Just then a dead cat, that had been flung into the harbour the night before, and had not been immersed long enough to rise to the surface, floated past with the tide, and its sightless eyeballs and ghastly row of teeth glared and glistened on him, as it surged against his front-glass. A slight spirt of water came through the regulating cock at the same instant, as if the dead cat had spit in his face.
Hooroo! Haul up! shouted Rooney, following the order with a yell that sounded like the concentrated voice of infuriated Ireland. At the same time he seized the life-line and air-tube, and tugged at both, not four times, but nigh forty times four, and never ceased to tug until he found himself gasping on the deck of the barge with his helmet off and his comrades laughing round him.
Its not a bad beginning, said Baldwin, as he assisted his pupil to unrobe; youll make a good diver in course o time.
Baldwin was right in this prophecy, for in a few months Rooney Machowl became one of the best and coolest divers on his staff.
We need not try the readers patience with an account of Edgars descent, which immediately followed that of the Irishman. Let it suffice to say that he too accomplished, with credit and with less demonstration, his first descent to the bottom of the sea.
Chapter Three.
Refers to a small Tea-Party, and touches very mildly on Love
Miss Pritty was a good soul, but weak. She was Edgar Berringtons maiden auntof an uncertain ageon the mothers side. Her chief characteristic was delicacydelicacy of health, delicacy of sentiment, delicacy of intellectgeneral delicacy, in fact, all over. She was slight tooslightly made, slightly educated, slightly pretty, and slightly cracked. But there were a few things in regard to which Miss Laura Pritty was strong. She was strong in her affections, strong in her reverence for all good things (including a few bad things which in her innocence she thought good), strong in her prejudices and impulses, and strongremarkably strongin parentheses. Her speech was eminently parenthetical, insomuch that the range of her ideas was wholly untrammelled by the proprieties of subject or language. Given a point to be aimed at in conversation, Miss Pritty never aimed at it. She invariably began with it, and, parting finally from it at the outset, diverged to any or every other point in nature. Perplexity, as a matter of course, was the usual result both in speaker and hearer, but then that mattered little, for Miss Pritty was also strong in easy-going good-nature.