THE BOILING WATER
The hours passed and the strange voyage continued.
The Porpoise traveled along at good speed, and the professor devoted most of his time to looking after the different scientific instruments and gages, for they were nearing the south pole. The deflecting compass, which when it came directly over the place corresponding to the pole, would point straight up and down, was assuming more and more of a perpendicular position.
"We are getting there!" exclaimed the professor with delight. "A few hours more and we will have won the goal!"
There was considerable excitement on board when the professor's announcement was made. Though few of the adventurers cared as much for the scientific achievement as did Mr. Henderson, they were all glad he was about to succeed. To most of them the locating of the south pole was no different from visiting some new country, excepting that there were more adventures than on most voyages.
At dusk the Porpoise went to the surface and during the night traveled along atop of the billows. In the morning she dived below again. The engine was started at high speed and the deflecting needle dipped still more.
"We's gittin' dar!" exclaimed Washington as he oiled the various bearings of the machinery.
Breakfast was served and hurriedly eaten, for the excitement was telling on every one. After the meal had been cleared away they all sat in the darkened cabin looking out at the water as it slipped past the glass windows. Big and little fish swam up and peered into the bull's-eyes and then darted away.
"That's sort of queer," remarked Jack a little later.
"What is?" asked Mark, who was sitting near his chum.
"All the fish seem to have suddenly disappeared," replied Jack. "There were hundreds a little while ago, and now I haven't seen one looking in the windows for some time."
"Perhaps there's a big fish on their trail," observed Mark. "That's what makes 'em take to the deep sea weed."
A little later Professor Henderson entered the room. He went over, looked at the thermometer, and then called to Washington:
"Have you got the heat turned on?"
"No, sah! I ain't done truned on no superheated vapor into de radiators," replied the colored man. "I were jest thinkin' dat we'd hit de south pole by de feel of it."
"It is getting strangely warm," admitted Mr. Henderson.
"Ain't that what you expected at the south pole?" asked Andy. "I thought it was hot at the south pole and cold at the north."
"That's what lots of people imagine," said the professor, "but except for the open sea, which I have proved does exist, I guess it's just as cold at the south as at the north, especially in the winter. We have struck the summer season."
"And a mighty warm one at that," observed Jack. "Whew! I've got to take off my coat."
Indeed it was getting uncomfortably warm in the ship, and the adventurers who had dressed in thick clothing to guard against the rigors of the icy climate, soon had to lay aside many of their garments.
"No wonder!" exclaimed Mr. Henderson, as he looked at a thermometer. "It is eighty degrees in here!"
"Worse than workin' in a hay field," observed Bill, as he wiped the beads of perspiration from his forehead.
"Let us see what sort of water we are traveling through," suggested the professor, as he again turned off the lights in the cabin so that a view could be had from the bull's-eyes.
Wondering what would meet their gaze the adventurers peered out of the small circular windows. At first they could hardly believe their eyes.
There, right before them, the sea was bubbling as if it was an immense tea kettle. Steam formed on the glass, and big clouds of vapor could be seen. The atmosphere of the cabin became almost unbearable.
"We are in the midst of a boiling hot ocean!" cried the professor.
"Are we sailing through hot water?" asked Andy.
"I should say so, from the feel of it," answered Mr. Henderson. "Put your hand on the side of the cabin."
Andy laid his fingers against the steel plates. He drew back.
"I burned myself!" he exclaimed.
"What are we to do?" cried Jack.
"Get out of this by all means!" exclaimed the inventor. "If we stay in this hot ocean we will be boiled alive like fishes in a pot. Send the ship up, Washington!"
Indeed it was high time. The thermometer marked one hundred and ten degrees, and was rising. The interior of the Porpoise was like that of a steam laundry three times heated. Stripped to their undergarments the adventurers were obliged to lie down on the floor of the cabin where it was a little cooler.
It was all Washington could do, used as colored people are to the heat, to go into the engine room, and start the machinery that emptied the tanks, so as to allow the ship to mount to the surface.
The Porpoise began to rise slowly, and to the suffering men and boys it seemed that she never went up so reluctantly. The heat was becoming unbearable. They could hear the water bubbling even through the steel sides of the submarine.