"Aw, that is what is claimed," was the reply.
"And you are to have charge of the expedition?" asked Ned, quietly, his eyes fixed keenly on the face of the visitor.
"Orders," was the slow reply.
"And the Diver has been chosen as the boat?"
"At my request, yes."
"But," Ned then said, by way of protest, "I have made all my trial trips in the Sea Lion."
"You will soon learn to help handle the Diver," was the lofty reply.
"The Diver is no more like the Sea Lion than she is like the Ark," was
Ned's reply. "It will take me another fortnight to learn to run her,
I'm afraid."
"You can take lessons from my son on the way over," was the unsatisfactory reply.
"Why, the submarine is not going to sail across the Pacific," said the boy. "As I understand it, we are to take passage in a mail steamer at San Francisco and find the submarine in some harbor of the island of Hainan, after she arrives on the other side in a man-of-war which will be detailed to carry her over."