CHAPTER III

LIFE ON A SPONGER


The yacht sailed on and Dick, walking up to Captain Wilson, who
stood at the wheel, said, as he lifted his cap:

"I beg to report for duty, sir." The captain grinned, as he replied:

"I hope you'll always be as polite. You'll sure be a curiosity on
this coast. I'll put you in with Pedro. He doesn't know much
English, but you can talk enough for both. There he is, that
black-mustached fellow, with little rings in his ears. He will let
you know what your duties are."

A string of four dingies trailed behind the sponger and as many
poles, each thirty feet long, with a sponge-hook at one end, lay
upon the deck. Pedro was examining one of these poles when Billy
went to him and said:

"Pedro, I am to go in your boat. What do I have to do?"

"You scull where I tell you--slow--I look in glass--see sponge--take
up pole--you stop still--then you scull where pole go--you work
good or I keek you."

"Pedro, if you ever keek me, you'll go overboard queek and don't you
forget it."