Exploring the Depths
When Likake disappeared beneath the surface, Biff glanced quickly at his
watch. He tried to remember the record for a person’s holding his breath
while under water. Was it three minutes? Four? He remembered reading of
some Polynesian divers in Bali who had remained submerged for six
minutes.
How long could Li hold his breath? Biff looked at his watch again.
Already the sweep hand had passed the two-minute mark.
Biff began to worry. The seconds ticked by slowly, as if held back by a
magnet. The three-minute mark was approaching. Surely Li couldn’t hold
out much longer. Biff’s eyes kept shifting from the water to the sweep
hand of his watch. Three minutes! Still no sign of Li. Biff made up his
mind. He was going in after Li. He slipped off his watch and peeled off
his shirt. Just as he was preparing to dive, Li’s head broke the
surface.
[Illustration: _How long could Li hold his breath?_]
For several moments, the Hawaiian boy lay in the water, head back, body
floating. He needed time to recover. Biff could see his chest heaving up
and down beneath the two inches of water covering it. Finally, Li turned
his head. He looked up at Biff and smiled. He turned over, and with one
powerful stroke, propelled himself to the side of the yawl.
Biff’s eager hands helped heave Li overside.
“You all right? You were sure down long enough!” Biff said.
Li nodded his head, his chest still moved in and out as he took deep
breaths, exhaling them slowly. Biff was dying to find out what, if
anything, Li had learned on his dive, but he didn’t want to press his
friend.
Li let out a “H-a-a-a-a-a. Boy! Guess that’s the deepest I’ve ever
dived.”
Biff couldn’t stand the suspense any longer.
“And what did you find? Was it a sloop? Was it the _Sea Islander_?”
“Yes to both questions, Biff.”
“Whoopee! Eeeowie! We’ve found it! We’ve found it!”
Biff grabbed Li by the shoulders and whirled him around.
“You sure, Li? You’re positive it’s the _Sea Islander_?”
“I’m sure, Biff. There was a life preserver still attached to the side
of the sloop’s cabin. I could make out the letters spelling the boat’s
name. And those letters sure did spell out _Sea Islander_.”
“What condition’s she in?”
“Well, I couldn’t tell much. She’s heeled over on her starboard side, I
think. Not all the way. Her mast is broken off, as far as I could tell.
Some of her ropes are still attached. I brushed against them both going
down and coming back up.”
Li had stretched out on the deck of the _Easy Action_. Strength was
flowing back into his body. Staying submerged as long as he had takes a
lot out of a person physically.
“Well, Li. I think we’d better get back to our original anchorage. Your
dad and mine must be back there by now. If they’re not, well, we’ll have
to forget about the _Sea Islander_ and really look for them. We may have
to go for help.”
“Before we go, though, Biff, I’d like to go back down to the _Sea
Islander_—”
“Again? What in the world for?”
“Not all the way. But don’t you think it would be a good idea if we
could attach a marker to one of the loose lines? Then we’d be able to
spot this location easily.”
“Good idea, Li. How near the surface do those loose lines come?”
“Oh, I’d guess twenty, maybe twenty-five feet. Won’t be much of a dive
this time. Not after going down over forty feet.”
“Okay, Li. You lie there and rest. I’ll rig a marking buoy.”
Biff went below and took out another buoy from the yawl’s captain’s
chest. This was an all-white one. He attached a short length of nylon
rope to the buoy, and a metal clip to the other end of the rope.
Returning to the deck, he showed it to Li. “How will this do? I figure
you can tie a fast knot in one of those loose lines, then just snap this
metal fastener below the knot. Then it won’t slip off.”
“Swell, Biff. I’ve got my breath back now. This won’t take a minute.”
Li took the buoy. A frown came over his face.
“What’s the trouble?” Biff asked.
“Well, with this buoy, it’s going to make it tougher to get down. The
other time, remember, I had the help of a weight pulling me down—the
dinghy’s emergency anchor. Now I’ve got this buoy, which will be working
against me. I don’t know—”
“I’ll fix that.” Biff went astern. He pulled in the dinghy which was
tied to the stem of the yawl, hopped in, and cut its anchor.
“Here you are, Li. That cleans us out of dinghy anchors. They go fast on
a day like this.”
“Marked down. Special sale.” Li grinned in reply. He stepped to the side
of the yawl. Holding buoy and anchor in front of him, once more the
Hawaiian boy jumped feet first into the blue water.
Biff looked at his watch again, but he wasn’t worried this time. Li was
only going down twenty feet. Feeling quite happy over finding the _Sea
Islander_, Biff whistled a popular tune. He looked up at Mauna Loa,
wondering where his father might be at the moment. He glanced down at
his watch. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Unless he had misread the time
of Li’s submersion, three minutes had already passed.
Biff swiftly went into action. Li shouldn’t have taken more than two
minutes—not that long—for this dive. Biff’s body split the water. He
pulled himself downward. The water pressure at the depth of fifteen feet
was already exerting abnormal pressure on his chest. Still he pulled
himself downward. He had to. _I’ve got to find Li_, he told himself.
At twenty feet beneath the surface, with his lungs screaming for air,
Biff’s hands touched Li’s head. The Hawaiian boy was fighting
frantically to free one leg from a rope entwined around it.
Biff used Li’s body to pull himself the four feet farther downward to
reach the rope. He tore at it, felt it give, and Li’s leg was free. Biff
placed his hands on Li’s body and gave it a powerful thrust upward.
Then, barely able to hold his breath any longer, he spread his hands,
palms downward, pushed with all his might and shot toward the surface.
When Biff broke the surface, gasping for breath, he looked for his
friend. There was Li, only a few feet away. But from the position of his
head, lolling to one side in the water, Biff knew the boy was
unconscious. Tired as he was, his own lungs aching from the recent
strain put upon them, Biff swam to Li’s side. At first, all he did was
support Li’s head, keeping his nose and mouth from going under water.
After a few moments, Biff kicked his way to the side of the yawl. He
felt the need of support, too. With one hand holding on to the _Easy
Action_ amidship, he held onto Li with the other. Biff had no way of
knowing as yet whether Li had swallowed so much water that his lungs
were filled. He kept the word “drowned” out of his mind.
When he had regained his strength, Biff let go of the yawl. Treading
water, he took Li’s head in both hands and drew it right up to his own
face. He placed his cheek against Li’s nose.
Thank heavens! He could feel Li’s breath on his face.
Biff pulled himself and Li back to the side of the _Easy Action_. He
placed Li directly against the side of the yawl. He released him and at
the same instant, pulled himself quickly onto the deck. Then, belly
down, he leaned over and was just able to grasp Li under the arms. With
a powerful tug, he pulled the still unconscious boy onto the deck.
His first action was to turn him over and administer first aid. He
raised and lowered Li’s body to expel any water that might still be in
his lungs. Then he placed Li on his side, his face turned toward the
deck. He watched Li’s troubled breathing become easier.
Biff sank back with a sigh of relief. His friend was going to be all
right. A tremendous weariness swept over Biff. He hadn’t known how near
to the point of exhaustion he had brought himself. For the next half
hour, both boys lay on the deck regaining their strength.
The slanting rays of the setting sun were casting long shadows on the
slope of the Mauna Loa. Biff sat up. He didn’t know at first what had
caught his attention. He stared at the side of the volcano. He saw it
again. A quick flash, a bright reflection. It disappeared. Biff kept his
eyes trained on the spot. There it was again. He turned. The sun was low
on the horizon, but still bright. He realized that the _Easy Action_ was
directly between the setting sun and the flash of reflected light he had
spotted.
What could it be? Was it his imagination?
Biff felt Li stir beside him. The Hawaiian boy opened his eyes. A feeble
smile touched his lips. He tried to speak.
“Take it easy, Li. Rest a little longer.”
Li closed his eyes.
Biff looked again at the spot on the Mauna Loa where he had seen the
flash. It came again, then disappeared.
Biff heard Li’s faltering voice behind him.
“You saved my life, Biff.”
Li was sitting up now. Biff felt embarrassed. What was there to say? He
turned to his friend, and the smiles they exchanged expressed more than
any words could possibly do.
“What happened, anyway, Li?”
“It was my own fault, Biff. I guess I panicked. I got down easily. Found
a loose rope. But I had trouble staying submerged while I tried to tie a
knot. So I made a quick slip knot and hooked it over my leg to hold me
steady while I tied the knot to fasten the clasp to.”
Biff frowned. “You mean you sort of anchored yourself to the _Sea
Islander_?”
“Guess you could call it that. Anyway, it took longer than I figured.
Once I had hooked the buoy on the rope, I tried to free my leg from the
slip knot. My body pulling on the knot had tightened it. The wet rope
made the knot even harder to undo. That’s when I panicked, I guess. The
more I worked on the knot, the tighter it seemed to get. Then I sort of
blacked out. I don’t even remember you’re coming down to rescue me.”
“Thank goodness I got there in time!”
Li put his hands over his face. His shoulders shook. Biff realized the
boy was crying. He said nothing. Better to let Li get the shock out of
his system. He continued to watch his friend carefully. Li had come
close to death.
Li, after a few moments, removed his hands and grinned. “Sorry, Biff, I
guess I’m acting like a baby.”
“Nonsense. After what you just went through, well—Say, I want you to see
if you can see what I just saw—if you can follow all that ‘see’ and
‘saw.’” Biff wanted to change the subject, stop Li from thinking about
his narrow escape. He also wanted to check the flash he had just seen.
“Look over there, Li. About two thousand feet up the slope of Mauna
Loa.” He pointed with his arm. “I’d swear I’ve just been seeing light
reflected. Seems like a mirror pointed into the sun—you know, the way
kids sometimes signal to one another.”
Li raised his eyes. Both boys saw the reflection come at the same time.
“I see it, Biff. There it is. Now it’s gone.”
“What do you think it could be, Li?”
“Like you said, maybe a mirror or—or glasses.”
“That’s it! Glasses. Someone’s got binoculars trained on us. And we’re
right in the path of the setting sun. Someone’s watching us through
binoculars.”
“I’ll bet you’re right. It’s probably my dad and yours.”
“Hey, I sure hope so.” But even as Biff spoke the words, another idea
came into his head. “Or, Li, it could be Perez Soto.”