The men looked helplessly from one to the other as they lifted their
eyes from the blackened countenance that one of the lighter's men was
supporting on his arm. No one seemed to know what would be best to do,
and a couple were ordered into the boat to row ashore for the doctor.
"Why don't you take off them gashly things?" cried Josh, who had now
helped Will to the deck, where he stood holding on by a stay, trembling
in every limb.
Two men immediately began to take off the heavy india-rubber diving
suit, with its copper collar and heavy leaden-soled boots, with the
result that when the poor fellow was freed from these encumbrances and
once more laid upon the dock, the lifting and moving he had received
proved so far beneficial that he uttered a low sigh, and the purple
tinge began to die out from his face.
"He's a coming to!" said the skipper eagerly; and his words proved to be
right, for at the end of half an hour the poor fellow had recovered
consciousness, and was able to say that his life-line had become hitched
round a mass of rock, to which was attached some very long grown strands
of sea-weed, and these had been swept by the water right over the line.
Then when he had tried to free it his hands only came in contact with
the loose slimy wrack, and after a trial or two he had become confused
and excited.
"And you know I've allus told you as a diver should be as cool as a
cucumber," said his chief.
"Yes, I know all about that," said the diver huskily, "and so I meant to
be; but when you're shut-up in one o' them soots and are down in three
or four fathom o' water, and thinking your life-line's fast, you don't
seem as if you could be cool, mate."
"But you ought to be," said the chief severely; "and now, all along o'
your getting in a flurry, here's the newest helmet with a great dent in
the neck, so as it won't screw down on the collar, and I shall have to
pay damages out o' my wage."
"Better than having to pay to keep my wife and weans," said the diver
huskily; "and now I want to have a look at that young chap as dived and
set free the line."
"Here he be!" cried Josh eagerly, hauling at Will's arm; "here he be,
lad. Ain't much of a chap to have done it, be he?"
Josh laughed, and gave Will a thrust forward, much to the lad's
discomfort, for there was a low murmur of admiration from the little
group around.
"Oh, it's nothing to make such a fuss about!" said Will, whose cheeks
were burning now, as he stood there with the sea-water slowly soaking
from his clothes, and making a little puddle on the deck.
"No!" said the diver huskily; "it's nothing to make a fuss about; only
one man saving another man's life, when nobody else knew what to do!"
"Oh, it was an accident!" said Will kindly; "and they hadn't time to
think."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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