I tried to kick deeper under the water. To do that I had to slide most of the way off the Lielo. This made the Lielo tip up at the front end.

“How am I supposed to be able to see the fish?” Jennifer said. “You’ve gone and made the Lielo bend right back, out of the water. I can’t keep my head under now, you great gormless twit!”

I climbed back up on the Lielo so Jennifer could hang over the end again. Now my chin was resting on her thigh. When I kicked I guess my chin sort of pushed up and down. Jennifer took off her mask and looked at me.

“What do you think you’re doing, you nasty child?” she said.

“What do you mean, ‘what am I doing’?”

“Don’t tell me you are unaware of the fact that you’re rubbing your face on my thigh!”

“Where am I supposed to be? How can I paddle if I don’t hang on like this?”

“You needn’t get stroppy. And get off my leg. You’re as bad as Winston!”

I knew what she meant and it made me mad. Her mom had a cocker spaniel named Winston that would stand up, hold on to your leg with its front paws, and then rub itself on you as if it were mating with your foot. If you were alone with it that was O.K.; you just pushed it away. But if it did it to you when someone else was watching, especially Mr. or Mrs. Bazlinton, then you didn’t know whether to push it away or pretend you didn’t notice what it was doing because it was really embarrassing. So I knew what she meant and I hadn’t been doing anything like that. But I couldn’t think what to say back so I just tipped over the air mattress and held Jennifer under the water for a few seconds. When I let her up she shouted, “Look what you’ve done, you twit! My mask’s gone to the bottom!”

I said, “I’ll dive for it.”

“I jolly well hope so!”

I put on my mask and dove but I couldn’t reach her mask before I ran out of air. We were too far out in the bay and the water was really deep.

When I came back up, Jennifer said, “You’re so bloody feeble! Anyone could get that.”

I said, “Oh yeah. Why don’t you try?” Jennifer put on my mask and dove down. She didn’t have flippers on so I knew she couldn’t do it.