"He is slowly recovering, but of course he is older than you and not so strong, and it will, consequently, take longer." "But he will get well?" "I think so." After that Dave was silent for a long while. Then Captain Broadbeam came in, his face covered with smoke and grime. "I suppose you thought we had deserted you," said the captain. "We had a hot time of it, I can tell you." "A hot time? What do you mean?" "Don't you know the ship has been afire, lad?" "No." "Well, it has been, and that's why we didn't haul you up before. I was afraid we were all bound for Davy Jones' locker, sure." Of course, Dave was surprised and he listened to the particulars of the fire with interest. "The galley is burned off clean and clear," said the captain, "and we've got an ugly hole in the forward deck. But otherwise the ship is all right." The remainder of the day was spent in cleaning up the muss, and then the ship's carpenter went to work, with several sailor assistants, to build a new galley and mend the burned deck. It was several days before Dave felt able to do any more diving, and even then it was only the thought of locating the sunken treasure that made him go down. Amos Fearless was too weak to do anything, so Dave had to go down alone. "Be sure and pull me up," said the young diver, as he was about to enter the diving bell. "I will see to that," replied Amos Fearless, in his sign language. "Don't stay down too long." Down and down into the dark and cold waters of the Pacific sank the diving bell. The trip before had been about half a mile; this time Dave intended to go down twice that distance. If this trip was successful he was resolved, on the next day, weather permitting, to go down to the very bottom, two miles below the surface. After what seemed a journey without end the diving bell came to a stop. The mile limit had been reached. The young diver turned on the electric lights and gazed around him, curiously. He gave a start of surprise, and not without reason. The waters were no longer dark and black. There was a peculiar glow of light coming up from somewhere below, and in the water floated something closely resembling smoke or clouds. "What did this mean?" "It's like another world," he thought. "And what strange fish!" But then he caught sight of something which filled him with alarm. A number of small fish had come up around the diving bell and were now swarming all over it, inside and out. Each fish was less than six inches long, but there were hundreds of them darting hither and thither, churning up the water as before, and emitting a strange, hissing sound. He tried to get back to the diving bell, but found the effort a failure. The fish swam against him, plunging and leaping, and finally turned him completely over. He was in the power of a new enemy, and what the end of this adventure would be there was no telling.