ght into
Bob's mind, and he stooped, peered through the window of that other
world, and beheld the face of its inhabitant wet with streaming tears.
Ah! the man was in pain! And Bob, glancing downward, saw what was the
trouble: the block had been lowered on the foot of that unfortunate--he
was caught alive at the bottom of the sea under fifteen tons of rock.

That two men should handle a stone so heavy, even swinging in the
scissors, may appear strange to the inexpert. These must bear in mind
the great density of the water of the sea, and the surprising results of
transplantation to that medium. To understand a little what these are,
and how a man's weight, so far from being an encumbrance, is the very
ground of his agility, was the chief lesson of my submarine experience.
The knowledge came upon me by degrees. As I began to go forward with the
hand of my estranged companion, a world of tumbled stones {174} was
visible, pillared with the weedy uprights of the staging: overhead, a
flat roof of green: a little in front, the sea-wall, like an unfinished
rampart. And presently in our upward progress, Bob motioned me to leap
upon a stone; I looked to see if he were possibly in earnest, and he only
signed to me the more imperiously. Now the block stood six feet high; it
would have been quite a leap to me unencumbered; with the breast and back
weights, and the twenty pounds upon each foot, and the staggering load of
the helmet, the thing was out of reason. I laughed aloud in my tomb; and
to prove to Bob how far he was astray, I gave a little impulse from my
toes. Up I soared like a bird, my companion soaring at my side. As high
as the stone, and then higher, I pursued my impotent and empty flight.
Even when the strong arm of Bob had checked my shoulders, my heels
continued their ascent; so that I blew out sideways like an autumn leaf,
and must be hauled in, hand over hand, as sailors haul in the slack of a
sail, and propped upon my feet again like an intoxicated sparrow. Yet a
little higher on the foundation, and we began to be affected by the
bottom of the swell, running there like a strong breeze of wind. Or so I
must suppose; for, safe in my cushion of air, I was conscious of no
impact; only swayed idly like a weed, and was now borne helplessly
abroad, and now swiftly--and yet with dreamlike gentleness--impelled
against my guide. So does a child's balloon divagate upon the currents
of the air, and touch and slide