n' over the pool, I think," replied another.

"Ye don't mean he's sick?" cried a third.

The smile with which this was received was changed into a roar of
laughter as poor Forsyth's long legs were seen to tip up into the air,
and the whole man to disappear beneath the water. He had overbalanced
himself in his frantic efforts to reach the fish, and was now making its
acquaintance in its native element!

The pool, although small in extent, was so deep that Forsyth, long
though he was, did not find bottom. Moreover, he could not swim, so
that when he reached the surface he came up with his hands first and his
ten fingers spread out helplessly; next appeared his shaggy head, with
the eyes wide open, and the mouth tight shut. The moment the latter was
uncovered, however, he uttered a tremendous yell, which was choked in
the bud with a gurgle as he sank again.

The men rushed to the rescue at once, and the next time Forsyth rose he
was seized by the hair of the head and dragged out of the pool.

It has not been recorded what became of the fish that caused such an
alarming accident, but we may reasonably conclude that it sought refuge
in the ocean cavelets at the bottom of that miniature sea, for Long
Forsyth was so very large, and created such a terrible disturbance
therein, that no fish exposed to the full violence of the storm could
have survived it!

"Wot a hobject!" exclaimed Joe Dumsby, a short, thickset, little
Englishman, who, having been born and partly bred in London, was rather
addicted to what is styled chaffing. "Was you arter a mermaid,
shipmate?"

"Av coorse he was," observed Ned O'Connor, an Irishman, who was
afflicted with the belief that he was rather a witty fellow, "av coorse
he was, an' a merry-maid she must have bin to see a human spider like
him kickin' up such a dust in the say."

"He's like a drooned rotten," observed John Watt; "tak' aff yer claes,
man, an' wring them dry."

"Let the poor fellow be, and get along with you," cried Peter Logan, the
foreman of the works, who came up at that moment.

With a few parting remarks and cautions, such as,--"You'd better bring a
dry suit to the rock next time, lad," "Take care the crabs don't make
off with you, boy," "and don't be gettin' too fond o' the girls in the
sea," etcetera, the men scattered themselves over the rock and began
their work in earnest, while Forsyth, who took the chaffing in good
part, stripped himself and wrung the water ou