“Yes,” he replied; “she was built to stand greater pressure than this.”
“Thank heaven!” muttered the scientist. “You know what this means to me, Garth? Failure spells ruin!”
“We’re not going to fail,” Garth retorted, cheerfully; “we’ll pull through if I have to blow the barrier into fragments first.”
His hopeful words somewhat revived the drooping spirits of the professor, and he turned once more to the window with renewed hope.
But still no break appeared in the grim face of the ice-cliffs.
Caves there were in plenty, small openings worn in the ice by the action of the water, but not one was large enough for the Seal even to insert her nose; yet each of these Mervyn eyed anxiously as the vessel sank past them, hoping to discover in one of them a passage through the heart of the barrier.
Then, amidst the creaking and groaning of the vessel, came a slight shock, and she ceased to sink.
“I guess we’ve struck bottom,” the Yankee said, glancing keenly at Mervyn.
He grasped the tube. “Ease her up half a dozen yards,” he called, “and start your engines at four knots.”
Almost ere he had ceased to speak, the Seal rose for a few feet, until her keel no longer rested on the sand; her screw: commenced to revolve, and, under the millionaire’s able guidance, she crept slowly along the base of the ice-cliffs.