n hurled to the ground
with great force. But he managed to recover himself, and caught a
shadowy glimpse of the great shark darting off, as the knife dropped
from the wound and sank to the bottom. Not wishing to lose the
valuable weapon, Storms walked forward, and seeing it lying on the
bottom, at a point which seemed to be the edge of the oyster-bed, he
stooped over and recovered it.

He had now been down a considerable while, and muttered:

"The captain promised to signal me if trouble came, and he hasn't done
so. But, for all that, I don't believe it will be safe for me to stay
down here much longer. I may as well----"

The sentence was never finished, for it received a startling
interruption. The rubber pipes by which he breathed were suddenly
closed, and Abe Storms knew it had been done purposely by some one
above.

CHAPTER XIV

THE REVOLT

For a brief while after the descent of the mate of the _Coral_,
incased in his new diving armor, the four men above did nothing more
than merely wait for his coming up. But all the time the parties were
watching each other, for Captain Bergen was convinced that the crisis
was at hand. The mutineers had learned where the oyster-bed was, and
therefore could be no longer restrained by that consideration. They
could get on without the diving-armor, though they saw how convenient
it might be to have it; but, since it was connected with the shore, it
could be drawn in and recovered if they should need it.

The mate was down in the ocean, and the captain was standing on terra
firma. What more favorable separation was likely to present itself?
Here were three men against one, and the three had gained the secret
which had restrained them so long.

"I say," said Hyde Brazzier, "does the mate down there find things as
he expected?"

"We can tell that better after he comes up," was the reply of the
captain, who kept his hand at his hip, where it could rest on the butt
of his revolver. "But there is reason to believe that he isn't
disappointed."

"And he breathes through these pipes that lie here?" pursued Brazzier,
while the expression on the face of Pomp and Redvignez convinced
Skipper Bergen that serious mischief was coming.

"You can see that without asking me," replied he, stepping back a pace
or two so as to keep the men before him.

"Well, if a man can't get what air he wants, what is likely to
happen?" continued Brazzier, with an insolent swagger that was
ex