"Yes, yes," she whispered; and she swooned away, while Laure removed his foot from the tube. STORY ONE, CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR. RASP'S ADVENTURE. "Quick, my lads, with a will," shouted Rasp. "Haul! Run him up." For the old diver had suddenly awakened to the fact that something was wrong below, and at his command the men holding the life-line ran forward along the deck, drawing Dutch rapidly to the surface, where half-a-dozen willing hands, the Cuban's among them, seized him and laid him on the deck, where Rasp rapidly unscrewed the helmet and exposed the young man's face, blue and distorted with strangulation. "Quick! some more of these things off," exclaimed Mr Meldon. "You let him alone," growled Rasp. "I'll bring him to in a jiffy;" and, rudely elbowing the doctor aside, he seized Dutch's arms, pumped them up and down a few times, and then forcibly pressing on his breast produced a kind of artificial respiration, for at the end of a minute Dutch sighed, and then rapidly began to recover. As he commenced breathing more regularly, those surrounding became aware that Hester was trying to get to his side, for, unnoticed in the excitement, she had recovered her senses, and then, pale and sick at heart, crept to the group, where she dreaded to look upon the form of him she loved lying dead. A look of joy, succeeded by one of intense despair, crossed her face as she knelt down by Dutch's head, waiting to see his eyes open and to hear his words, as she shudderingly recalled the promise she had made to save his life. She was so behind him that he did not see her, when at last he opened his eyes, and gazed wildly about him as if not comprehending where he was, and directly after he placed his hands to his face as if to feel the helmet. His eyes opened more widely then, and Rasp held the cup of a brandy flask to his lips. "Take a sup o' this here, Mr Pug," he said in his rough way. Dutch obeyed without a word, and his face began to resume its natural aspect. "That was a near touch, Mr Dutch, sir," growled the old fellow. "You would stop down too long." "Too long?" said Dutch faintly, as he tried to sit up. "No, no, be still for a few minutes," said the doctor, who had been pushing up the india-rubber bands of his sleeve, and feeling the sufferer's pulse, to Rasp's great disgust. "Who said I stopped down too long?" said Dutch faintly, as Hester crouched at his head, with her hands to her face. "I did," growled Rasp. "You shouldn't have overdone it the first time." "I did not stay down too long," said Dutch angrily, but in rather a feeble way. "The supply of air was stepped." "What!" cried Rasp, fiercely. "I say the wind was stopped." "Hark at him," cried Rasp, looking round from one to the other. "Hark at that, Mister Parkley, and you, too, captain. Why, I sooperintended it all myself, and the supply never stopped for a moment." Hester shuddered.