By and by they who ministered to the unconscious diver were rewarded
by a flicker of the eyes and a stirring of the pulses that bespoke the
return of life. The pulmotor with its stores of precious oxygen was
getting in its effective work. And none watched more solicitously than
Jay Thacker as he knelt close beside his old Brighton chum.
"Dick! Dick! Open your eyes. Speak to me," pleaded Jay.
And presently the eyes opened. Just for an instant and then closed
again. Slowly but surely respiration became normal again. The splendid
physique of the boy who had always taken good care of himself and lived
a normal outdoor life was standing him good in the pinch. Where a
weakling would have succumbed to such an ordeal the athletic Brighton
student who had served his country so faithfully and efficiently in the
Navy was pulling through.
After what seemed an eternity to Jay consciousness came back at last to
his chum. Opening his eyes Dick gazed first into the face of his old
"bunkie."
"It's you, Jay," he mumbled feebly.
"Yes, Dick, old boy, it's Jay," sobbed the latter. The strain had told
on Jay. He was about ready to collapse but held himself together by
sheer grit. And now he was rewarded, for Dick had been saved. Jay could
only throw his arms around Fismes and hug the dog in his delight.
Jay told them all and in turn asked what had happened on the mother
ship that had put the air pumps and the engines out of commission.
Engineers were still working on repairs, and by now had succeeded in
getting the engines working again. But it was some time before the air
pumps were working.
In the meantime Dick responded wonderfully to treatment. For a time
he was completely bewildered, knowing not what had happened to him,
where he was and how he had been brought back again safe on the _Jules
Verne_. But slowly it all came back to him and he was able to tell what
had happened to him.
It developed that just as he had lowered away through the trap of the
_Nautilus_ to follow Jay in a desperate effort to escape to the surface
from the depths the bomb in the coal barge had exploded. Just as he
had dipped his head into the water it had gone off. Caught off balance
in an awkward position before he had had a chance to dive from the
deck of the barge, he had been flung against the steel side of the
_Nautilus_. He had felt the impact, and then he knew nothing more, for
the blow had rendered him unconscious.
And then, in turn, Dick heard the story of how his body had been
discovered floating in the water, and how Fismes had dived overboard to
the rescue, and held his friend safely until a rescue boat picked them
both up. Dick's eyes gleamed as he heard of the splendid part played in
the rescue by the war dog.
"Where is he?" asked the Brighton boy.
Jay sprang up on deck and came back presently with Fismes, fairly
carrying him all the way.
"Here he is," he cried, as he appeared again in Dick's bunk room with
the dog.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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