atter looked
earnestly in at the window--if we may so call it--of his visitor, and,
recognising Joe, shook hands with him. Joe pointed to a rock, and sat
down. Maxwell sat down beside him, and then ensued the following
conversation. Using the slate, Baldwin wrote in large printed
letters:--

"I've got a splendid offer to go out to dive in the China seas. Are you
game to go?"

Taking the slate and pencil, Maxwell wrote--"Game for anything!"

"We must finish this job first," wrote Joe, "and I shall send Rooney out
before us with some of the gear--to be ready."

"All right," was Maxwell's laconic answer.

Baldwin nodded approval of this, but the nod was lost on his comrade
owing to the fact that his helmet was immovably fixed to his shoulders.
Maxwell evidently understood it, however, for he replied with a nod
which was equally lost on his comrade. They then shook hands on it, and
Joe, touching his signal-line four times, spurned the ground with a
light fantastic toe, and shot to the realms above like a colossal
cherub.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1. A "job" precisely similar to this was undertaken, and
successfully accomplished by Corporal Falconer of the Royal Engineers,
and assistant-instructor in diving, from whom we received the details.
The gallant corporal was publicly thanked and promoted for his courage
and daring in this and other diving operations.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

DIVING PRACTICE EXTRAORDINARY IN THE EAST.

In a certain street of Hong-Kong there stands one of those temples in
which men devote themselves to the consumption of opium, that terrible
drug which is said to destroy the natives of the celestial empire more
fatally than "strong drink" does the peoples of the west. In various
little compartments of this temple, many celestials lay in various
conditions of debauch. Among them was a stout youth of twenty or so.
He was in the act of lighting the little pipe from which the noxious
vapour is inhaled. His fat and healthy visage proved that he had only
commenced his downward career.

He had scarce drawn a single whiff, however, when a burly sailor-like
man in an English garb entered the temple, went straight to the
compartment where our beginner reclined, plucked the pipe from his hand,
and dashed it on the ground.

"I _know'd_ ye was here," said the man, sternly, "an' I _said_ you was
here, an' sure haven't I _found_ you here--yo