"Come down, come down. Oh! why be so obstinate?" cried the Eel, lashing the water. "Gentlemen," said Umberufen, sticking one hand in the breast of his coat and bowing very low--almost too low, for just at that moment the plank twisted and he came very near going overboard--"gentlemen, you are doing very, very wrong." "Bravo!" cried the Sea Urchin, "thank you for the compliment." "Stop it and get away," cried Billy. "Ingrate," cried Umberufen, "can't you see that already I have won their hearts--did you not hear the applause?" "Of course I did," said Billy, "but it's only because they want to keep you here so that they can pull me down. But if you really want to help me, for goodness' sake pump me up and stop the leak in my suit." "I wish I could," said Umberufen; "but I am not a mechanic, I am a thinker." "You're a nuisance----" but just at that minute Billy's feet touched bottom. Looking up he found that in the excitement of the events he had drifted within a few feet of shore. Splash, dash, curl bing! and a wave had carried him well ashore. Ne'er Do Eel let go his hold when he saw the case was hopeless, and he and Sea Urchin bobbed about on the waves, shaking their fists and gnashing their teeth in despair at having lost him. "Ugh!" cried Umberufen, "I told you I'd get wet helping you," and there stood the miserable little man soaked through and through. "I warned you," said Billy. "I--I--I kn-n-ow you-u-u d-d-did," said Umberufen, his teeth chattering, "but I stood to my post like a man--that's what comes of being brave and brainy. Good-bye. I'm going home to change my clothes," and away he went. "Good-bye, Ne'er Do Eel and Sea Urchin," called Billy, running up the beach. "Death on the bounding wave isn't as easy as you thought, is it?" CHAPTER XI. IN DERBY TOWN. Poor Billy was in despair over his punctured suit. It is a good thing he had no mirror to see how like a broken toy balloon he looked, or he would have felt even worse. He tried pumping it up with his hot air pump, but it was no use--sizz-z, the air came right out of the hole. "If I had just thought to bring some bicycle tyre tape," he said, examining the puncture carefully, "or if I had some gum." When he said this Barker ran up to him, and laying his head in his lap, looked up at him knowingly. "What is it, old doggie--do you feel sorry too? I'm sure I don't know what is to become of us; we shall have to walk now. Of course we still have the Singing Tree. That's so, the tree--do you suppose you could bark up any other kind of tree? A gum tree--but how?" Barker nodded his head and wagged his tail, as much as to say, "Of course I can; just try me."