"Yes, _very_. I wish he would turn round and show his face."
But her wish was not granted, for the captain walked slowly forward in
conversation with the "_very_ handsome figure," which obstinately,--we
might almost say carefully,--kept its back turned towards them.
Great was the satisfaction of the captain when he found not only that
one of the subordinate engineers understood a good deal about diving,
but that the chief himself was a diver! It was accordingly arranged
that a descent should be made without delay. The dresses were got up
and unpacked, and one was found suitable for a large man.
Soon the air-pumps were set up and rigged on deck. One of the
sub-engineers was set to work them, with one of the crew, while another
sub and an officer, having been previously instructed by our hero, were
detailed to the important duty of holding the life-line and air-pipe.
Thereafter the engines were stopped, and the dead-calm that followed,--
that feeling of unnatural quietude to which we have referred
elsewhere,--did more perhaps to arouse all the sleepers, readers, and
dreamers on board, than if a cannon had been fired. Of course the
descent of a diver over the side was a point of great interest to the
passengers, coupled as it was with some anxiety as to the leak, of the
existence of which all were fully aware, though only a select few had
been informed of its serious nature--if not checked. They crowded round
the apparatus therefore, and regarded its arrangement with the deepest
interest.
When all was ready Edgar issued from the deck-cabin, in which he meant
to dress, to take a final look at the air-pumps. In the flutter of
excitement he had for one moment, and for the first time since the
beginning of the voyage, totally forgotten the existence of Aileen.
Now, she and Lintie, the Scottish maiden who sang so well, chanced to be
looking with much interest at the helmet which lay on the deck, when his
eye fell on them. At once he turned on his heel and retreated towards
his cabin.
"That's the man who is to go down, I believe," observed one of the
passengers, pointing to him.
Lintie looked up and saw his back.
"Oh!" she whispered to Aileen, "it is the _very_ handsome man!"
"Is it?" replied Aileen, with indifference, for she was engrossed with
the helmet just then.
Greatly perplexed as to how he should escape observation, poor Edgar
began to dress--or, rather, to be dressed by his assistants,--delaying
the operation as long as possible; but delay did not seem to increase
his inventive powers, and could not prevent the completion of the
process.
The guernsey, drawers, and outside stockings were drawn on, and Edgar's
brain worked the while like the great crank of his own engine; but no
feasible plan of escape was evolved. Then the "crinoline" was drawn on,
but it added no feminine sharpness to his wits, though it seriously
modified and damaged the shape of his person. The crinoline, as we have
said elsewhere, is seldom used except at great depths, where the
pressure of water is excessive. It was put on Edgar at this time partly
because it formed a portion of the dress, and partly because, his mind
being preoccupied, he did not observe with sufficient care what his
attendants were about.
After this came the shoulder-pad, and then the thick dress itself was
drawn on, and the attendants hitched it up with difficulty over his
spreading shoulders, but they could not hitch up an idea along with it.
The forcing of his hands through the tight india-rubber wrists of the
sleeves was done with tremendous power, but it was nothing compared with
the energy he put forth to force himself through his mental difficulty--
yet all in vain! The outside stockings and the canvas "overalls"
followed, and he finally put on the red night-cap, which seemed to
extinguish all capacity for thought.
"You seem to be a little nervous, sir," remarked one of the attendants,
as he affixed the back and chest weights, while the other put on his
ponderous boots.
"Am I,--eh!" said Edgar, with a grim smile; then he added, as a sudden
idea flashed on him; "go fetch me the dirtiest bundle of waste you can
find below, and give it a good scrape on the blackest part of the boiler
as you pass."
"Sir!" exclaimed the attendant.
"Go; do what I bid you." said Edgar, in a tone that did not brook delay.
The attendant vanished and speedily returned with the desired piece of
waste.
Edgar at once rubbed it over his face and became so piebald and hideous
that both the attendants laughed.
Not heeding them, and only half sure of the completeness of the
disguise, Edgar issued boldly from his cabin, and walked with heavy
tread towards the place where he had to sit down to have the helmet
screwed on.
A loud roar of laughter greeted him.
"Why, you've been kissing the funnel," exclaimed one of the mates.
"That'll do me no harm," growled Edgar, stooping to catch hold of the
air-tube, and making an excuse for sidling and backing towards his seat.
"Oh! What a fright! And _such_ a figure!" exclaimed Lintie; "come
round, let us try to get a nearer view of him."
She dragged the laughing Aileen with her, for she was an impulsive
little woman; but at whatever opening in the crowd she and her friend
presented themselves, they were sure to find the diver's ridiculously
broad and now inelegant back turned towards them.
"Plague on him!" she exclaimed, for she was an impatient little woman,
just then, "I don't believe he's got a front at all! Come round again--
quick."
"Why, what are you turning about like that for?" exclaimed one of the
exasperated attendants, who stood ready with the helmet.
"His head's turned wi' fear, an' he's a-follerin' of it," growled the
boatswain.
"Why don't you sit down?" said the attendant.
"Are you ready?" asked Edgar, in a low gruff voice.
"Of course I am--don't you see me?"
Another happy idea came into Edgar's head at that moment. He pulled his
red night-cap well down over his eyes, and sat down with a crash, while
another hearty laugh greeted his supposed eccentricity.
"Hallo, I say, you're not going to be hanged--no need to draw it down
like that," said the first officer.
"Drowning comes much to the same thing; let's do it decently--according
to rule," retorted Edgar, with a grin that displayed a brilliant set of
teeth.
"H'm! We shan't see him _now_," whispered Lintie, in disappointment,
forcing her way once more to the front.
This time there was no reply from Aileen, for a strange shock passed
through her as she observed the momentary smile--and no wonder, for many
a time had that same mouth smiled upon her with winning tenderness.
Of course she did not for a moment suspect the truth, but she thought it
strange, nevertheless, that the diver's mouth should have such a strong
resemblance to--she knew not precisely what! Afterwards she confided to
Lintie that it had struck her as bearing a faint--very faint--
resemblance to the mouth of a friend.
"Of a very particular friend?" inquired Lintie, who was sharp-witted.
Aileen blushed and hid her face on the neck of her friend, and suddenly
poured out her soul, which the other drank up with avidity.
That same night, lying in her berth, which was a top one, and looking
languidly over the side at her friend, who lay in the berth below
looking sympathetically up, she revealed her hopes and fears and
sentiments, to the edification, (it is to be hoped) of a mean-spirited
passenger in the saloon, who stood on the other side of the very thin
partition, and tried to overhear. If he succeeded it must have been a
new sensation to him to listen to the gentle streams of hope and love
that flowed through to him--for Aileen's thoughts were gems, as pure and
beautiful as the casket which contained them. We are not quite sure,
but we more than half suspect that if his presence there had been
discovered, and himself had been within easy reach, the casket's palm
would have evoked something resembling a pistol-shot from his dirty
cheek!
But to return to our diver. The moment his helmet was on he breathed
freely, recovered his equanimity, and went down the rope-ladder that
hung over the side, with an air of easy decision that checked the
criticisms of the men and aroused the admiration--not to mention the
alarm--of the women.
"The puir felly'll be droon'd," pitifully observed a fore-cabin
passenger from Edinburgh, as she gazed at the mass of air-bubbles that
arose when Edgar's iron head had disappeared.
"Nothink of the sort," responded a fore-cabin passenger from London, who
had taken an immense liking to the fore-cabin passenger from Edinburgh,
in virtue of their total mental, moral, and physical dissimilarity;
"divers are never drownded."
We need scarcely observe to the intelligent reader that both females
were wrong--as such females, in regard to such matters, usually are.
Edgar was _not_ "droon'd," and divers _are_ sometimes "drownded."
So far from being drowned, he was remarkably successful in discovering
the leak on his first descent.
It was caused by one of the iron-plates near the keel having been badly
torn by a coral rock.
Thoroughly to repair this was a difficulty. Our diver did indeed stuff
it with oakum in a way that at once diminished the influx of water; but
this was merely a makeshift. It now became a question whether it were
possible to effect the necessary repairs while at sea. Our young
engineer removed the difficulty. He undertook to rivet an iron-plate
over the hole--at least to make the attempt.
In order to effect this, a rope-ladder was constructed long enough to
pass entirely under the ship's bottom, to which it was tightly pressed
by means of tackle at both ends. The rounds of this ladder were made of
wood, and all along its course were fastened rough balls or blocks of
wood about four inches in diameter, which prevented it coming too close
to the ship's bottom. Thus there was secured space for the diver to
place his feet on the rounds. This ladder having been affixed, so as to
pass close to the injured plate, a boat was lowered, and from this boat
descended a small ladder, hung in such a way that the diver, when a few
feet under water, could easily step from it to the fixed rope-ladder.
In addition to this, a small plank suspended to a rope, somewhat after
the fashion of a familiar style of bed-room bookshelf, was taken down by
the diver and hung to the rope-ladder by a hook, so that he could sit on
it while at work, and move it about at pleasure.
All having been prepared, our engineer descended with the necessary
tools, and, to make a long story short, riveted a new plate over the old
one in such a way as effectually to close the leak, so that thereafter
it gave no further trouble or anxiety.
But for this the vessel would certainly have been lost, unless they had
succeeded in beaching her before the final catastrophe, on some part of
the neighbouring coast; in which case they would have run the chance of
being taken by the pirates who at that time infested the China seas.
Delivered from this threatened danger, the good ship sped merrily on her
course; most of the crystallised groups grew closer together--in some
instances, however, they burst asunder! Musical tendencies also
developed, though in some cases the sublime gave place to the
ridiculous, and music actually, once or twice, became a nuisance. As
the end of the voyage drew near, the hearty captain grew heartier, the
bosom-friends drew closer; the shy passengers opened up; the congenial
passengers began to grieve over the thought of parting; charades were
acted; concerts were given: the mean-spirited passenger became a little
less vile; the fore-cabin passenger from Edinburgh observed to her
friend that the "goin's on a'boord were wonderfu';" to which the
fore-cabin passenger from London replied that "they certainly was;"
flying-fish and porpoises, and sharks and albatrosses, and tropical
heat, ceased to furnish topics of interest, and men and women were
thrown back on their mental resources, which were, among other things,
largely wid pleasantly--sometimes even hotly!--exercised on religious
discussion. In short the little community, thus temporarily thrown
together, became an epitome of human life. As calm and storm alternated
outside the iron palace, so, inside, there was mingled joy and sorrow.
Friendships were formed and cemented. Love and folly, and hate and
pride, and all the passions, were represented--ay, and Death was also
there.
In the silent night, when nothing was heard save that ceaseless music of
the screw, the destroying angel came--so silently that only a few were
aware of his dread presence--and took away the youth whose sole
occupation seemed to have been the watching of the ever-increasing
distance from that home which he was destined never again to see. It
was inexpressibly sad to those left behind when his coffin was committed
to the deep amid the solemn silence that once again ensued on the
stoppage of the engines, while the low voice of a pastor prayed for
those who wept his departure; but it was not sad for him who had been
taken--he had reached the "better home," and, sitting by the side of
Jesus, could doubtless afford to think, at last without longing, of the
old home beyond the sea.