Graham watched Paula poise at the forty-foot top of the diving scaffold
and swan-dive beautifully into the tank; heard Bert's admiring "Oh, you
Annette Kellerman!" and, still chagrined by the trick that had
threatened to outrage him, fell to wondering about the wonder woman,
the Little Lady of the Big House, and how she had happened so
wonderfully to be. As he fetched down the length of tank, under water,
moving with leisurely strokes and with open eyes watching the shoaling
bottom, it came to him that he did not know anything about her. She was
Dick Forrest's wife. That was all he knew. How she had been born, how
she had lived, how and where her past had been--of all this he knew
nothing.
Ernestine had told him that Lute and she were half sisters of Paula.
That was one bit of data, at any rate. (Warned by the increasing
brightness of the bottom that he had nearly reached the end of the
tank, and recognizing Dick's and Bert's legs intertwined in what must
be a wrestling bout, Graham turned about, still under water, and swam
back a score or so of feet.) There was that Mrs. Tully whom Paula had
addressed as Aunt Martha. Was she truly an aunt? Or was she a courtesy
Aunt through sisterhood with the mother of Lute and Ernestine?
He broke surface, was hailed by the others to join in bull-in-the-ring;
in which strenuous sport, for the next half hour, he was compelled more
than once to marvel at the litheness and agility, as well as strategy,
of Paula in her successful efforts at escaping through the ring.
Concluding the game through weariness, breathing hard, the entire party
raced the length of the tank and crawled out to rest in the sunshine in
a circle about Mrs. Tully.
Soon there was more fun afoot, and Paula was contending impossible
things with Mrs. Tully.
"Now, Aunt Martha, just because you never learned to swim is no reason
for you to take such a position. I am a real swimmer, and I tell you I
can dive right into the tank here, and stay under for ten minutes."
"Nonsense, child," Mrs. Tully beamed. "Your father, when he was young,
a great deal younger than you, my dear, could stay under water longer
than any other man; and his record, as I know, was three minutes and
forty seconds, as I very well know, for I held the watch myself and
kept the time when he won against Harry Selby on a wager."
"Oh, I know my father was some man in his time," Paula swaggered; "but
times have changed. If I had the old dear here right now, in all his
youthful excellence, I'd drown him if he tried to stay under water with
me. Ten minutes? Of course I can do ten minutes. And I will. You hold
the watch, Aunt Martha, and time me. Why, it's as easy as--"
"Shooting fish in a bucket," Dick completed for her.
Paula climbed to the platform above the springboard.
"Time me when I'm in the air," she said.
"Make your turn and a half," Dick called.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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