ASHORE IN THE DARK
"Stop the engine," the captain commanded after he had peered through the lens in the conning tower for some time. "We must see what is the matter."
He glanced at the depth gage and noted that they were now four hundred feet below the surface. Then he consulted some charts.
"There is a depth of one thousand feet about here," he remarked. "Lower the ship, Washington. Let us see if by getting on the ocean bed we can get away from this obstruction."
The colored man opened wider the sea cocks by which the tanks were filled. The increased ballast sunk the Porpoise still lower, and, in a few minutes a slight jar told the navigators that they were on the bottom of the ocean.
"Now we will see if we have cleared the obstruction," said the professor.
He started the big screw to revolving, but the ship did not move. It shivered and trembled throughout its length but remained stationary.
"Maybe dar's a debil fish what hab circumulated dis ship in de exteror portion ob his anatomy," suggested Washington, rolling his eyes until only the whites were visible.
"I presume you mean that a giant squid or cuttle fish has attacked us," spoke the professor.
"Yas, sir," replied Washington.
"That's nonsense," went on the inventor. "However, we must make an investigation."
"How are you going to do it?" asked Mark. "You can't see the end of the tube from inside the ship, and, even if we went to the surface it would still be under water."
"We are going to look at it while here, under the ocean," said the inventor.
"Well, maybe you're a good swimmer," put in Jack, "but I don't believe you can stay under, in this depth of water, long enough to see what the trouble is."
"I think I can," answered Mr. Henderson.
"How?"
"I'll show you. Washington, bring out the diving suits."
The colored man, his eyes growing bigger every minute, went to a locker and brought out what seemed quite a complicated bit of apparatus.
"With the aid of these," said the professor, "I will be able to go out, walk along the ocean bed, and investigate the mystery. Do you boys want to come along?"
"Is it safe?" asked Mark, who was inclined to be cautious.
"As safe as any part of this under-sea voyage," replied the professor. "These diving suits are something I have not told you about," he went on. "They are my own invention. Besides the regular rubber suits there is an interlining of steel,—something like the ancient suits of chain mail—to withstand the great pressure of water. Then, instead of being dependent on a supply of air, pumped into the helmet from an apparatus in a boat on the surface, each person carries his own air supply with him."
"How is that?" asked Jack, and Mark also asked the question.
"Simply by attaching a little tank of the compressed gas to the shoulder piece of the suit," said the inventor. "There is enough air in the tank to last for nearly a day. It is admitted to the helmet as needed by means of automatic valves. In other respects the diving suit is the same as the ordinary kind, except that there is a small searchlight, fed by a storage battery, on top of the helmet."
In spite of their fears at venturing out under the great ocean, the two boys were anxious to try the suits. So, after some hesitation, they donned them.
"Here, take these with you," said the professor, before their helmets were screwed on. He held out what looked like long sticks.
"What are they?" asked Jack.
"Electric guns," replied the professor. "But come on now, we have no time to lose."
Further conversation was impossible, for the boys had their heavy copper helmets on, and they were as tightly enclosed as if inside a box. They grasped their weapons and waited for the next move.
The professor led the way to the stern of the ship. The boys found it hard to walk, as they were weighted down by the heavy suits, and also the boots, the soles of which were of lead.
They followed the inventor into what seemed a small room. Inside they found themselves in darkness. There was a clanking sound as Washington fastened and clamped the door shut. Then came a hissing.
The boys felt water rising about them. They could experience its coldness, even through the diving suits. They were much afraid, but the professor put a reassuring hand on their shoulders.
They seemed to feel a great weight. It gradually lessened, however, and, in a few minutes, they saw something move in front of them. The professor pushed them gently forward.
In another instant they were walking on the bed of the ocean, having stepped from the Porpoise. They had gone into a locked compartment, the inner door of which had been tightly closed, after which water from outside had been gradually admitted until the pressure was equal, and then the boys and the professor had merely to emerge out into the bottom of the sea when the outer portal was swung aside by Washington, who worked the lever from inside.
The boys were in intense darkness, but, suddenly a light glowed about them, and they saw that the professor had switched on his miniature search lamp. They remembered how he had told them to work the apparatus, and soon tiny gleams shot out from their helmets.
The professor pointed ahead, for not a sound could be heard, and the boys followed him.
It was a new sensation, this walking along the bed of the ocean. At first the great pressure of water, even though the steel lined diving suits kept most of it off, was unpleasant. Gradually, however, the boys became used to it. They had to move slowly, for the water was denser than the air and impeded their progress.
In a few minutes they reached the forward end of the Porpoise. Now they were to solve the mystery of what had stopped the submarine. For a few moments they could distinguish nothing.
Suddenly the boys felt the professor grasping their arms. They looked in the direction he pointed. There in the diffused glare from the search light and the illumination of their helmet lamps they saw, wrapped about the forward shaft opening a gigantic squid or devil fish. Its soft, jelly-like body completely covered the opening of the shaft preventing any water from entering, and thus stopping any forward motion to the ship.
This was what had caused all the trouble. The Porpoise had run into the monster, who feeling what it must have thought an enemy, had grasped the submarine with its long sinuous arms.
The professor hesitated a moment. Then he slowly raised his electrical gun, and took aim at the hideous mass. The boys followed his example. At Mr. Henderson's signal they all fired together.
From the muzzles of the guns darted small barbs that carried with them a strong shock of electricity, from storage batteries in the shoulder pieces of the weapons. Three of them were enough to produce death in an animal as large as a whale.
The devil fish quivered. Then the water about it suddenly grew black, and the boys and the professor were in dense darkness, for the squid had dyed the ocean with a dark liquid from the sack it carried for the purpose.
The explorers groped their way to the left, having fortunately grasped hands after firing their guns, to prevent being separated in case the terrible fish began a death struggle.
Luckily Professor Henderson went in the right direction and managed to locate the Porpoise. Then, feeling along her steel sides, he led the boys through the inky blackness to the water chamber by which entrance could be had to the interior.
In a few minutes all three were safely inside and had removed their diving suits. The others crowded about, anxious to learn what had happened. The inventor related it briefly.
Once more the engines were started. This time there was no hanging back on the part of the Porpoise. The big screw revolved, the water came in the shaft and was thrust out of the rear end, making a current that sent the craft ahead swiftly. The gigantic fish had been killed, and its body no longer obstructed progress.
"Now we'll rise to the surface and see how it feels to sail along that way for a while," said the professor as he started the pumps that emptied the tanks. In a little while the ship was floating on the waves.
It was now night, and the clouds overhead made it so dark that it was hard to see ten feet in advance. The professor did not want to use the searchlight for he did not care to have his presence discovered by curious persons. So he ran the ship at half speed.
"Where are we now?" asked Mark, who had entered the conning tower, where the professor was steering.
"Somewhere's off the coast of South Carolina," replied the inventor.
The next instant there was a sudden shock and jar. The ship quivered from stem to stern, and came to an abrupt stop.
"We've hit something!" exclaimed the professor, shutting down the engines with a jerk of the lever.