At length, out of breath and exhausted, Ned sank back upon a locker. He looked at his companions with a curious expression.
“What’s the matter, Ned?” inquired Jack anxiously. “Are you ill?”
“I feel badly, boys,” replied Ned. “Unless we can devise some means to free that line from the shaft, we are in a pretty tight fix!”
“How near the surface can you bring the boat, Harry?” asked Frank.
“The gauges show that we’re about two and a half fathoms down at present,” replied Harry. “I have pumped a lot more water out than would ordinarily be required to bring us to the surface.”
“Then we must be held by that line!” declared Ned.
“Let’s try some other maneuver with the ship before we give up!” put in Jack. “We’re not half though our experiments yet!”
“All right, what’ll you try?” asked Ned in a despairing tone.
“I don’t know,” was the answer. “But we’re going to do something to help get us out of this fix. How would it do to fill the tanks to sink us as far as we can go? Then we could empty them in a hurry, which would make the boat rise swiftly. The jounce would perhaps break the line and let us up so we could get some fresh air.”
“If we don’t get some fresh air pretty soon, we’ll have to do something desperate. The reserve tank is nearly exhausted!”