ed him in closer and closer to the shore,
amid the cheers of our friends, until at last it was evident to every
one the punt was no longer of use.

Still, he let us sidle close up to him before he abandoned his craft;
then with a sudden bound he sprang overboard and disappeared from view.

It was no use going after him, I knew, till I could see where he would
rise, and so I waited, ready for a plunge, watching the water where he
would probably turn up. Several seconds passed, but there were no signs
of him. He was a good diver, we all knew, but this was surely a very
long dive. Had an accident happened to him? A minute elapsed, two, and
yet he never appeared! We in the boat were aghast; he must have come to
grief. Ah! what were the people on the bank laughing at? Could there
be some trick? Next instant the coxswain called out, laughing--

"He's hanging on to the rudder; over you go, Adams!"

At the word I slipped overboard and gave chase. And now began an
exciting pursuit. Haigh, though perfectly at home in the water, was not
a rapid swimmer; but in point of diving and dodging he had a tremendous
advantage over any of his pursuers. The moment I got near him, and just
as I was thinking to grab him, he would disappear suddenly and come up
behind me. He would dive towards the right and come up towards the
left. He would dodge me round the boat, or swim round me in circles,
but no effort of mine could secure him. The time was getting on, and I
was no nearer having him than before. With all his dodges, too, he
never seemed to take his eyes off me for an instant, either above or
below the water.

Once, as I was giving him chase, he suddenly dived, and the next
intimation I had of his whereabouts was a sly pinch of my big toe as he
came up behind me. This was adding insult to injury, so I dashed round,
and made at him. Again he dived; and this time, without waiting an
instant, I dived too. I could see him distinctly under the water,
scuttling away in a downward direction just below me. Shutting my lips
tight, I dug my way down after him; but, alas! under water I was no
match for Haigh. I felt an irresistible temptation to gasp; my nose
smarted, and the water round my head seemed like lead. As quickly as
possible I turned my hands up, and struck out for the surface.

What ages it seemed before I reached it! A second--half a second
longer, and I should have shipped a mouthful, perhaps a chestful of
wa