“Well, then what?” asked Frank.
Lord Hastings, who had not spoken up to this moment, now broke his silence and said:
“Never give up the ship, boys. While there’s life, there’s hope.”
“And have you a plan of some kind, sir?” asked Jack eagerly.
“Well, I have something that might be called a plan. If you look closely you will see that a hundred yards ahead there, there is what appears to be a lane—where the ice is broken. Do you see it?”
“Yes, sir,” replied both lads in a single voice. “But the ice between the D-17 and that spot is solid.”
“So it is. What we shall do is to dive, shape our course for that particular point and try to come to the surface there.”
“And what good will that do, sir?” demanded Frank. “The chances are that the ice beyond that point is just as thick as it is here.”
“We’ll find that out when we get there,” said Lord Hastings. “Let’s go below.”
They did so. The conning tower was immediately sealed, and the submarine submerged to a depth necessary to avoid any points of ice that might be likely to protrude beneath the water.