"Let me out at the top floor, please!"
Having set the compressed air at work on the forward tanks, Jack Benson quickly shifted the wrench, and without a word, getting at work on the midship's compartments. Then the stern tanks were emptied.
"May I come up, sir?" called Dan, his voice trembling with joy, at the foot of the stairs.
"Very good," Eph sang back. "Room for only one, though,"
So Dan Dalzell hastily mounted the iron stairs until he found himself side by side with Eph Somers.
For a few seconds all was inky darkness on the other side of the thick plate glass of the conning tower. Then, all in a flash, Dalzell caught sight of the twinkling stars as the dripping conning tower rose above the top of the water.
"I have the honor to report that all's well again, and that we're on earth once more," Dan announced, as he came down the steps into the little cabin.
"Attention, gentlemen," called Lieutenant Jack Benson, as soon as the "Dodger" was once more under way, her sea-going gasoline engines now performing the work lately entrusted to the electric motors.
At the word "attention" the six midshipmen became rigidly erect, their hands dropping at their sides.
"Gentlemen," continued Benson, "I realize that the late strain has been a severe one on us all. We of the 'Dodger' have been through the same sort of thing before. You midshipmen have not. If you feel, therefore, that you would prefer to have me head about and return to the Naval Academy I give you my word that I shall not think you weak-kneed for making the request."