{"product_id":"2940013615793","title":"Dutch the Diver","description":"STORY ONE--DUTCH THE DIVER.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAT THE DIVER'S OFFICE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I say, Rasp.  Confound the man!  Rasp, will you leave that fire alone?\u003cbr\u003eDo you want to roast me?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What's the good o' you saying will I leave the fire alone, Mr Pug?\"\u003cbr\u003esaid the man addressed, stoking savagely at the grate; \"you know as well\u003cbr\u003eas I do that if I leave it half hour you never touches it, but lets it\u003cbr\u003ego out.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHalf a scuttle of coals poured on.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"No, no.  No more coals, Rasp.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"They're on now, Mr Pug,\" said Rasp, with a grim grin.  \"You know how\u003cbr\u003ethe governor grumbles if the fire's out, and it's me as ketches it.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The office is insufferably hot now.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Good job, too; for it's cold enough outside, I can tell you; and\u003cbr\u003ethere's a draught where I sits just as if you'd got yer ear up again the\u003cbr\u003eescape-valve of the air-pump.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Get a screen, then,\" said the first speaker, impatiently, as he\u003cbr\u003escratched his thick, curly, crisp brown hair with the point of a pair of\u003cbr\u003ecompasses, and gazed intently at a piece of drawing-paper pinned out\u003cbr\u003eupon the desk before him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Screen?  Bah!  What do I want wi' screens?  I can stand wind and cold,\u003cbr\u003eand a bit o' fire, too, for the matter o' that.  I ain't like some\u003cbr\u003epeople.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Hang it all, Rasp, I wish you'd go,\" said the first speaker.  \"You see\u003cbr\u003ehow busy I am.  What's the matter with you this morning?  Really, you're\u003cbr\u003eabout the most disagreeable old man I ever knew.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Disagreeable?  Old?\" cried Rasp, seizing the poker, and inserting it in\u003cbr\u003ethe bars for another good stoke at the office fire, when the compasses\u003cbr\u003ewere banged down on the desk, their owner leaped off the stool, twisted\u003cbr\u003ethe poker out of the stoker's hand, and laughingly threw it down on the\u003cbr\u003efender.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I'll get Mr Parkley to find you a post somewhere as fireman at a\u003cbr\u003efurnace,\" said the first speaker, laughing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I don't want no fireman's places,\" growled Rasp.  \"How'd the work go on\u003cbr\u003ehere wi'out me?  Old, eh?  Disagreeable, eh!  Sixty ain't so old,\u003cbr\u003enayther; and just you wear diving soots for forty year, and get your\u003cbr\u003ehead blown full o' wind till you're 'most ready to choke, and be always\u003cbr\u003egoing down, and risking your blessed life, and see if you wouldn't soon\u003cbr\u003ebe disagreeable.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Well, Rasp, I've been down pretty frequently, and in as risky places as\u003cbr\u003emost men of my age, and it hasn't made me such an old crab.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What, you?  Bah!  Nothing puts you out--nothing makes you cross 'cept\u003cbr\u003etoo much fire, and you do get waxey over that.  But you try it for forty\u003cbr\u003eyear--forty year, you know, and just see what you're like then, Mr\u003cbr\u003ePug.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Confound it all, Rasp,\" cried the younger man, \"that's the third time\u003cbr\u003ein the last ten minutes that you've called me Pug.  My name is Pugh--\u003cbr\u003ePUGH--Pugh.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"'Taint,\" said the old fellow, roughly, \"I ain't lived sixty year in the\u003cbr\u003eworld, and don't know how to spell.  PEW spells _pew_, and PUGH spells\u003cbr\u003e_pug_, with the H at the end and wi'out it, so you needn't tell me.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You obstinate old crab,\" said the other, good-humouredly, as he stopped\u003cbr\u003ehim from making another dash at the poker.  \"There, be off, I'm very\u003cbr\u003ebusy.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You allus are busy,\" growled the old fellow; \"you'll get your brains\u003cbr\u003eall in a muddle wi' your figuring and drawing them new dodges and plans.\u003cbr\u003eNo one thinks the better o' you, no matter how hard you works.  It's my\u003cbr\u003eopinion, Mr Dutch--there, will that suit yer, as you don't like to be\u003cbr\u003ecalled Mr Pug?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"There, call me what you like, Rasp, you're a good, old fellow, and I\u003cbr\u003eshall never forget what you have done for me.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Bah!  Don't talk stuff,\" cried the old fellow, snappishly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Stuff, eh?\" said the other, laughing, as he took up his compasses, and\u003cbr\u003eresumed his seat.  \"Leave--that--fire--alone!\" he cried, seizing a heavy\u003cbr\u003eruler, and shaking it menacingly as the old man made once more for the\u003cbr\u003epoker.  \"And now, hark here--Mrs Pugh says you are to come out to the\u003cbr\u003ecottage on Sunday week to dinner, and spend the day.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Did she say that?  Did she say that, Mr Dutch?\" cried the old man,\u003cbr\u003ewith exultation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Yes, she wants to have a long chat with the man who saved her husband's\u003cbr\u003elife.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Now, what's the good o' talking such stuff as that, Mr Pug?\" cried the\u003cbr\u003eold man, angrily.  \"Save life, indeed!  Why, I only come down and put a\u003cbr\u003erope round you.  Any fool could ha' done it.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"But no other fool would risk his life as you did yours to save mine,\u003cbr\u003eRasp,\" said the younger man, quietly.  \"But, there, we won't talk about\u003cbr\u003eit.  It gives me the horrors.  Now, mind, you're to come down on Sunday\u003cbr\u003eweek.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I ain't comin' out there to be buttered,\" growled the old fellow,\u003cbr\u003esourly.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Buttered, man?\"","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47082990469360,"sku":"2940013615793","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013615793_p0.jpg?v=1763583018","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013615793","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}