All the youthful divers prepared to spring into the water as soon as the bit of money left her hand. The lithe young leader poised himself upon the very edge of his boat.
“Ready!” called out the girl in Portuguese. “It is a hundred _reis_ piece, so do your best.”
She gleefully waved her hand back and forth, then, just as she was about to release the coin, something bright and glittering slipped from her wrist and fell into the water.
A little scream came from the girl, there was a commotion among the group of plebes, then one was seen to vault lightly over the rail and strike the water in a neat dive.
In an instant there was great excitement on board the practice ship. The loud splash was heard fore and aft, and a rush was made for that side.
Some one raised a cry of “Man overboard!”
The officer of the deck sprang upon the gangway with a life-preserver, and the crew detailed to the lifeboat ran to their stations at the boatfalls.
And in the meantime the cause of all this commotion was experiencing a rather peculiar adventure.
Clif possessed to a remarkable degree the power of quick decision and action in cases of emergency. He seldom required more than a few seconds to make up his mind.
In the present case he was upon the rail and preparing to dive almost before the bracelet had touched the water. With all his promptness, he was not alone, however.
The young Portuguese boy--the chief spirit among the youthful divers--had also seen the flash of metal.
To him it meant a coveted reward, and his brown heels twinkled in the air just a second after Clif’s body left the top of the forecastle rail.
Clif’s eyes opened after he vanished below the surface. He saw, glittering below him, the bespangled bracelet. And he also saw the dark shadow cast by his antagonist.
Of the two the native lad was probably more at home in the water, but Faraday had a store of determination and grit which made up for it.
As soon as he espied the youngster he realized the true state of affairs, and he sent his feet up with a spurt that shot him toward the glittering bauble.
It was a race beneath the surface of the old Tagus.
The Portuguese boy had as an incentive two things. One was the hope of a pecuniary reward, and the other an overwhelming desire to defeat this insolent visitor from a foreign country who dared to try his skill against a native diver of Lisbon.