“Heaven alone knows,” the scientist returned gravely; “yet, as we have been delivered in so marvellous a manner from the grip of the magnetic mountain, we will hope for the best.”
“I guess we’ve just got to sit tight and see it through,” cried the Yankee. “Without her screws the old boat’s as helpless as a log, though I doubt if they’d ha’ been any use against this darned current. I calculate that feed you was preparin’ would be acceptable at the present period, Garth.”
Taking the hint conveyed in the last sentence, the inventor withdrew, and soon from below came the rattle of crockery and the clatter of knives and forks. The walls of the tunnel still flashed by in an eternal monotony, and long, pendant mosses, trailing their slimy lengths from the rocky roof, seemed to writhe and twist like dark green snakes as the vessel swept past beneath them.
And with every yard of her advance—and this was the thought that haunted her crew—the Seal plunged deeper into the unknown depths of the earth!
Her pace became terrific as the time went by, and the eyes of the watchers in her turret were strained ahead, expecting—yet dreading—each moment that some fearful abyss would yawn before them, in the black depths of which their faithful vessel would be swallowed up.
Steering was utterly out of the question, even had the vessel not been damaged; for so great was the speed, that no sooner had they sighted a dangerous curve in the tunnel, of an out-jutting rock, than the Seal was upon it. The swiftness of the current alone prevented the submarine from shattering herself to fragments against the numerous obstacles.
Glad were the party when Garth’s voice summoned them below, and, leaving the vessel to take care of herself, they retired, to forget for a while the danger of their novel position in the pleasures of the table.
Then, when their hunger was satisfied, they resumed their places in the turret, wondering what would be the end of their marvellous and terrible journey. Now the roof of the passage would sink, until a few inches only separated the rock from the top of the turret; anon it would rise and become lost to sight as the Seal swept into some vast subterranean chamber, whose midnight darkness the light of the great arc-light seemed but to render more intense, as it trembled through it for a brief moment, then vanished as the vessel swept on.
Where would it end?
The fateful question hammered at the watchers’ brains as they stood through the long hours, silently awaiting the end.