The moment she entered the water, he swung out on the thirty-foot
platform and waited. From this height he could make out her body
beneath the surface swimming a full stroke straight for the far end of
the tank. Not till then did he dive. He was confident that he could
outspeed her, and his dive, far and flat, entered him in the water
twenty feet beyond her entrance.

But at the instant he was in, Dick dipped two flat rocks into the
water and struck them together. This was the signal for Paula to
change her course. Graham heard the concussion and wondered. He broke
surface in the full swing of the crawl and went down the tank to the
far end at a killing pace. He pulled himself out and watched the
surface of the tank. A burst of handclapping from the girls drew his
eyes to the Little Lady drawing herself out of the tank at the other
end.

Again he ran down the side of the tank, and again she climbed the
scaffold. But this time his wind and endurance enabled him to cut down
her lead, so that she was driven to the twenty-foot platform. She took
no time for posturing or swanning, but tilted immediately off in a
stiff dive, angling toward the west side of the tank. Almost they were
in the air at the same time. In the water and under it, he could feel
against his face and arms the agitation left by her progress; but she
led into the deep shadow thrown by the low afternoon sun, where the
water was so dark he could see nothing.

When he touched the side of the tank he came up. She was not in sight.
He drew himself out, panting, and stood ready to dive in at the first
sign of her. But there were no signs.