s face with
her most earnest expression. "Captain Jules is going to do something else
for me; he is going down to the bottom of the bay again in his diving
suit, and he is going to take me with him."

"What a ridiculous idea!" protested Eleanor. "Just as though Captain
Jules would think of doing any such thing."

Lillian laughed unbelievingly, but Phil's face was serious. "It would be
awfully jolly, wouldn't it? There wouldn't be any danger if Captain Jules
should take you. Do please take Madge down with you, and then take me,"
she insisted coaxingly.

Captain Jules shook his head, but the little captain observed that he did
not look half so shocked at the idea as he had the first time she
proposed it. This was encouraging.

Phil took hold of one of the captain's hands, and Madge the other.

"Please, please, _please_!" they pleaded in chorus.

"Miss Jenny Ann wouldn't let you," objected Captain Jules faintly.

"But if we were to get her permission," argued Madge triumphantly, "then
you would take us down to the bottom of the bay. I just knew you would,
you are so splendid! I shall send to New York to see if we can rent a
diving suit."

"Never mind about that, I'll see about the suit," promised Captain Jules.
"But it's all nonsense, and I have never said that I would take you. I
wish I weren't a sailor. There is an old saying that a sailor can never
refuse anything to a woman."

"Here comes Tom," announced Lillian hurriedly.

"Then don't say anything to him about the diving," warned Madge. "He will
think it is perfectly dreadful for girls to attempt it."

CHAPTER XV

THE GREAT ADVENTURE

The news that old Captain Jules Fontaine, the retired pearl diver, whose
history was a mystery to most of the inhabitants at Cape May, was to take
Madge Morton down to the bottom of Delaware Bay with him spread through
the town and seaside resort like wildfire. It was in vain that the
houseboat party and Captain Jules tried to keep the affair a secret.
There were necessary arrangements to be made, men to be engaged to assist
in the diving operations; it was impossible to deny everything.

At first the plan seemed to outsiders like mere midsummer madness. Then
the story began to grow. Cape May residents learned that Captain Jules
had found pearls in the bottom of the bay. No one would believe the
captain's statement that the pearls were of little value; gossip made the
tiny pearls grow larger and larger, until the