CHAPTER II 



DIVING FOR TURTLES 



WHETHER it was the ill-concealed smile 

 of incredulity on the face of my boatman, 

 or the rashness of over-confidence I know 

 not, but I had announced that I was going to take a 

 big green turtle, single handed, on the outer reef, 

 and the statement had aroused no little interest among 

 the fishermen, wreckers and Conchs, who made up the 

 little settlement on Long Key. 



It was April and intense heat the advance guard 

 of the long summer was beginning to be felt; yet 

 the days were perfect. The islands a dozen or 

 more seemed like emeralds in settings of silver, rest- 

 ing on an azure sea of glass. Not a ripple could be 

 seen save that made by the fin of some vagrant shark; 

 not a sound broke the stillness, except the occasional 

 " ha-ha " of the laughing gull, and the musical and 

 distant roar of the waves as they piled in upon the 

 outer reef. The air of early morning was cool and 

 delicious, and as the sun came up, suffusing the east- 

 ern sky with long vermilion streamers, Long John 

 would shove off his dinghy, and with myself as com- 

 panion, scull out into the great lagoon, which formed 



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