  When Likake disappeared beneath the surface, Biff glanced quickly at his watch. He tried to remember the record for a person’s holding his breath while under water. Was it three minutes? Four? He remembered reading of some Polynesian divers in Bali who had remained submerged for six minutes. How long could Li hold his breath? Biff looked at his watch again. Already the sweep hand had passed the two-minute mark. Biff began to worry. The seconds ticked by slowly, as if held back by a magnet. The three-minute mark was approaching. Surely Li couldn’t hold out much longer. Biff’s eyes kept shifting from the water to the sweep hand of his watch. Three minutes! Still no sign of Li. Biff made up his mind. He was going in after Li. He slipped off his watch and peeled off his shirt. Just as he was preparing to dive, Li’s head broke the surface. How long could Li hold his breath? For several moments, the Hawaiian boy lay in the water, head back, body floating. He needed time to recover. Biff could see his chest heaving up and down beneath the two inches of water covering it. Finally, Li turned his head. He looked up at Biff and smiled. He turned over, and with one powerful stroke, propelled himself to the side of the yawl. Biff’s eager hands helped heave Li overside. “You all right? You were sure down long enough!” Biff said. Li nodded his head, his chest still moved in and out as he took deep breaths, exhaling them slowly. Biff was dying to find out what, if anything, Li had learned on his dive, but he didn’t want to press his friend. Li let out a “H-a-a-a-a-a. Boy! Guess that’s the deepest I’ve ever dived.” Biff couldn’t stand the suspense any longer. “And what did you find? Was it a sloop? Was it the Sea Islander?” “Yes to both questions, Biff.” “Whoopee! Eeeowie! We’ve found it! We’ve found it!” Biff grabbed Li by the shoulders and whirled him around. “You sure, Li? You’re positive it’s the Sea Islander?” “I’m sure, Biff. There was a life preserver still attached to the side of the sloop’s cabin. I could make out the letters spelling the boat’s name. And those letters sure did spell out Sea Islander.” “What condition’s she in?” “Well, I couldn’t tell much. She’s heeled over on her starboard side, I think. Not all the way. Her mast is broken off, as far as I could tell. Some of her ropes are still attached. I brushed against them both going down and coming back up.” Li had stretched out on the deck of the Easy Action. Strength was flowing back into his body. Staying submerged as long as he had takes a lot out of a person physically. “Well, Li. I think we’d better get back to our original anchorage. Your dad and mine must be back there by now. If they’re not, well, we’ll have to forget about the Sea Islander and really look for them. We may have to go for help.” “Before we go, though, Biff, I’d like to go back down to the Sea Islander—” “Again? What in the world for?” “Not all the way. But don’t you think it would be a good idea if we could attach a marker to one of the loose lines? Then we’d be able to spot this location easily.” “Good idea, Li. How near the surface do those loose lines come?” “Oh, I’d guess twenty, maybe twenty-five feet. Won’t be much of a dive this time. Not after going down over forty feet.” “Okay, Li. You lie there and rest. I’ll rig a marking buoy.” Biff went below and took out another buoy from the yawl’s captain’s chest. This was an all-white one. He attached a short length of nylon rope to the buoy, and a metal clip to the other end of the rope. Returning to the deck, he showed it to Li. “How will this do? I figure you can tie a fast knot in one of those loose lines, then just snap this metal fastener below the knot. Then it won’t slip off.” “Swell, Biff. I’ve got my breath back now. This won’t take a minute.” Li took the buoy. A frown came over his face. “What’s the trouble?” Biff asked. “Well, with this buoy, it’s going to make it tougher to get down. The other time, remember, I had the help of a weight pulling me down—the dinghy’s emergency anchor. Now I’ve got this buoy, which will be working against me. I don’t know—” “I’ll fix that.” Biff went astern. He pulled in the dinghy which was tied to the stem of the yawl, hopped in, and cut its anchor. “Here you are, Li. That cleans us out of dinghy anchors. They go fast on a day like this.” “Marked down. Special sale.” Li grinned in reply. He stepped to the side of the yawl. Holding buoy and anchor in front of him, once more the Hawaiian boy jumped feet first into the blue water. Biff looked at his watch again, but he wasn’t worried this time. Li was only going down twenty feet. Feeling quite happy over finding the Sea Islander, Biff whistled a popular tune. He looked up at Mauna Loa, wondering where his father might be at the moment. He glanced down at his watch. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Unless he had misread the time of Li’s submersion, three minutes had already passed. Biff swiftly went into action. Li shouldn’t have taken more than two minutes—not that long—for this dive. Biff’s body split the water. He pulled himself downward. The water pressure at the depth of fifteen feet was already exerting abnormal pressure on his chest. Still he pulled himself downward. He had to. I’ve got to find Li, he told himself. At twenty feet beneath the surface, with his lungs screaming for air, Biff’s hands touched Li’s head. The Hawaiian boy was fighting frantically to free one leg from a rope entwined around it. Biff used Li’s body to pull himself the four feet farther downward to reach the rope. He tore at it, felt it give, and Li’s leg was free. Biff placed his hands on Li’s body and gave it a powerful thrust upward. Then, barely able to hold his breath any longer, he spread his hands, palms downward, pushed with all his might and shot toward the surface. When Biff broke the surface, gasping for breath, he looked for his friend. There was Li, only a few feet away. But from the position of his head, lolling to one side in the water, Biff knew the boy was unconscious. Tired as he was, his own lungs aching from the recent strain put upon them, Biff swam to Li’s side. At first, all he did was support Li’s head, keeping his nose and mouth from going under water. After a few moments, Biff kicked his way to the side of the yawl. He felt the need of support, too. With one hand holding on to the Easy Action amidship, he held onto Li with the other. Biff had no way of knowing as yet whether Li had swallowed so much water that his lungs were filled. He kept the word “drowned” out of his mind. When he had regained his strength, Biff let go of the yawl. Treading water, he took Li’s head in both hands and drew it right up to his own face. He placed his cheek against Li’s nose. Thank heavens! He could feel Li’s breath on his face. Biff pulled himself and Li back to the side of the Easy Action. He placed Li directly against the side of the yawl. He released him and at the same instant, pulled himself quickly onto the deck. Then, belly down, he leaned over and was just able to grasp Li under the arms. With a powerful tug, he pulled the still unconscious boy onto the deck. His first action was to turn him over and administer first aid. He raised and lowered Li’s body to expel any water that might still be in his lungs. Then he placed Li on his side, his face turned toward the deck. He watched Li’s troubled breathing become easier. Biff sank back with a sigh of relief. His friend was going to be all right. A tremendous weariness swept over Biff. He hadn’t known how near to the point of exhaustion he had brought himself. For the next half hour, both boys lay on the deck regaining their strength. The slanting rays of the setting sun were casting long shadows on the slope of the Mauna Loa. Biff sat up. He didn’t know at first what had caught his attention. He stared at the side of the volcano. He saw it again. A quick flash, a bright reflection. It disappeared. Biff kept his eyes trained on the spot. There it was again. He turned. The sun was low on the horizon, but still bright. He realized that the Easy Action was directly between the setting sun and the flash of reflected light he had spotted. What could it be? Was it his imagination? Biff felt Li stir beside him. The Hawaiian boy opened his eyes. A feeble smile touched his lips. He tried to speak. “Take it easy, Li. Rest a little longer.” Li closed his eyes. Biff looked again at the spot on the Mauna Loa where he had seen the flash. It came again, then disappeared. Biff heard Li’s faltering voice behind him. “You saved my life, Biff.” Li was sitting up now. Biff felt embarrassed. What was there to say? He turned to his friend, and the smiles they exchanged expressed more than any words could possibly do. “What happened, anyway, Li?” “It was my own fault, Biff. I guess I panicked. I got down easily. Found a loose rope. But I had trouble staying submerged while I tried to tie a knot. So I made a quick slip knot and hooked it over my leg to hold me steady while I tied the knot to fasten the clasp to.” Biff frowned. “You mean you sort of anchored yourself to the Sea Islander?” “Guess you could call it that. Anyway, it took longer than I figured. Once I had hooked the buoy on the rope, I tried to free my leg from the slip knot. My body pulling on the knot had tightened it. The wet rope made the knot even harder to undo. That’s when I panicked, I guess. The more I worked on the knot, the tighter it seemed to get. Then I sort of blacked out. I don’t even remember you’re coming down to rescue me.” “Thank goodness I got there in time!” Li put his hands over his face. His shoulders shook. Biff realized the boy was crying. He said nothing. Better to let Li get the shock out of his system. He continued to watch his friend carefully. Li had come close to death. Li, after a few moments, removed his hands and grinned. “Sorry, Biff, I guess I’m acting like a baby.” “Nonsense. After what you just went through, well—Say, I want you to see if you can see what I just saw—if you can follow all that ‘see’ and ‘saw.’” Biff wanted to change the subject, stop Li from thinking about his narrow escape. He also wanted to check the flash he had just seen. “Look over there, Li. About two thousand feet up the slope of Mauna Loa.” He pointed with his arm. “I’d swear I’ve just been seeing light reflected. Seems like a mirror pointed into the sun—you know, the way kids sometimes signal to one another.” Li raised his eyes. Both boys saw the reflection come at the same time. “I see it, Biff. There it is. Now it’s gone.” “What do you think it could be, Li?” “Like you said, maybe a mirror or—or glasses.” “That’s it! Glasses. Someone’s got binoculars trained on us. And we’re right in the path of the setting sun. Someone’s watching us through binoculars.” “I’ll bet you’re right. It’s probably my dad and yours.” “Hey, I sure hope so.” But even as Biff spoke the words, another idea came into his head. “Or, Li, it could be Perez Soto.” |
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