There was a sudden click, at which they all started, and the light went out. At the same time there was a queer lunging to the vessel. She seemed to be trying to stand on her bow’s end. Then on either side of the cabin appeared a glow of light, and the boys could see steel shutters sliding back from heavy plate glass windows.
Then, as the light near these windows increased, the motor boys found themselves gazing out into the sea, illuminated in some strange manner by hidden electric lamps on the side of the submarine. They could see fishes swimming about.
“Look!” cried Grace, clutching Bob by the arm, “we are under water now! The Sonderbaar is going to the bottom of the sea!”
[CHAPTER XIX]
A MARVELOUS BOAT
So many new and strange sensations had crowded on the motor boys in the last few days that it hardly needed the additional one of traveling in a submarine to thrill them. Nevertheless the three lads did feel strange as they stood there in the half-darkened cabin, and looked at the greenish water slipping past the thick plate-glass side windows—windows illuminated in such a way that the very life of the sea was visible.
“Look—look!” exclaimed Bob, in a low voice. “See that shark!”
And indeed, at that moment, a great sand shark that was keeping pace with the marvelous boat looked in through the glass window, as if to ask what manner of sea companion he had fallen in with.
“Oh—oh!” cried Grace, as she clutched her father’s arm. “Suppose that window should break!”