“Well, I’m it!” declared Jimmie, joining in the laugh that followed Jack’s facetious remark. “The joke’s on me, all right! If I hadn’t painted that figure ‘three’ in the name, we would have been on our way to England by this time! Oh, well,” the boy added, “we’ll get to England before long, anyhow, so I should worry!”
“It all shows, boys,” spoke up Ned, “that we’ve got to be mighty careful about our appearance and the company we keep. We have gotten into this scrape largely because we were found in possession of goods we had no business to have. This last incident came about because we pretended to be something we were not!”
“I think that ought to be a good lesson to us,” stated Jimmie. “It will be for me, I know! I’m sure I’ll take it to heart!”
“I’m mighty glad we’re away from that inquisitive gunboat!” put in Frank. “Now, what’s the next thing for us to do?”
“I move that we keep below the surface for a while. If we hold on a general southeasterly course, as has been suggested, we can’t fail to bring up somewhere on the English coast.”
“That sounds like the most reasonable plan,” agreed Frank. “I propose that we put on speed and hurry along. Let’s get somewhere!”
“Here we go!” cried Harry, increasing the speed with a touch on the levers. “Let’s keep a sharp lookout, though!”
About half past three o’clock the boys decided to rise to the surface for the necessary airing of the vessel and storing of another supply of fresh air in the tanks provided for that purpose.
In furtherance of this plan, the rudders were shifted while Harry slowed the engines. Directly the craft ascended. The gauges indicated a depth of about eight fathoms when Jimmie, who was at the helm, requested that the rudders be again deflected.
“What’s the matter?” questioned Ned, stepping forward.