"Aground again, by ——!" exclaimed Captain Arms, instantly signaling all astern. "I told you not to go fooling round a volcano."
"This beats me!" cried Cosmo Versál. "I wonder if the island has begun to rise."
"More likely the sea has begun to fall," growled Captain Arms.
"Do you know where we are?" asked Cosmo.
"We can't be anywhere but on the top of Monte Lauro," replied the captain.
"But that's only three thousand feet high."
"It's exactly three thousand two hundred and thirty feet," said the captain. "I haven't navigated the old Mediterranean a hundred times for nothing."
"But even then we should have near seven hundred and fifty feet to spare, allowing for the draft of the Ark, and a slight subsidence of the water."
"Well, you haven't allowed enough, that's plain," said the captain.
"But it's impossible that the flood can have subsided more than seven hundred feet already."