"
"Why then, sir?"
"Because--It's no business of mine, of course: but the tide has turned
already; and if a breeze springs up old Triton will be back again in a
hurry, and in a rage also; and--I may possibly lose a good patient."
Elsley, who knew nothing about the tides, save that "the moon wooed
the ocean," or some such important fact, thanked him coolly enough,
and returned to a meditative attitude. Tom saw that he was in the
seventh heaven, and went on: but he had not gone three steps before he
pulled up short, slapping his hands together once, as a man does who
has found what he wants; and then plunged up to his knees in a rock
pool, and then began working very gently at something under water.
Elsley watched him for full five minutes with so much curiosity, that,
despite of himself, he asked him what he was doing.
Tom had his whole face under water, and did not hear, till Elsley had
repeated the question.
"Only a rare zoophyte," said he at last, lifting his dripping visage,
and gasping for breath; and then he dived again.
"Inexplicable pedantry of science!" thought Elsley to himself, while
Tom worked on steadfastly, and at last rose, and, taking out a phial
from his basket, was about to deposit in it something invisible.
"Stay a moment; you really have roused my curiosity by your
earnestness. May I see what it is for which you have taken so much
trouble?"
Tom held out on his finger a piece of slimy crust the size of a
halfpenny.
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