TRAPPED!
SWIFT as an arrow the submarine swept forward towards the volcano, the foam leaping from her steel nose in two mighty, diverging lines.
Without a doubt she was the first vessel to furrow the waters of the lake; yet the explorers would gladly have dispensed with the empty honour of being the discoverers of this barren and desolate region, if, in exchange, they might have retraced their course.
But the magnetic power held them too tightly!
With a shock which flung the occupants of her turret to the floor, the Seal struck the beach immediately below the crater, burying her prow deep in the yielding sand.
As her quivering hull came to a standstill, another booming explosion burst from the volcano, and once more a lurid flash of flame leapt from its glowing mouth, far into the sulphur-laden air above.
“Great Heaven!” cried Seymour, “we’re done now for sure!”
As the words left his lips Garth entered the turret.
“The engines are absolutely useless,” he said gloomily. “Heaven alone knows what’s come to them——”
Glancing outside, he paused in the middle of his sentence, stricken dumb by the perilous position of the Seal.