Tick by tick the clock was measuring off the few seconds that remained until the time bomb in the coal bunker underneath was scheduled to go off. Like two men sentenced to die before an enemy firing squad the Brighton lads stood facing each other in the diving compartment. Just the trace of a smile showed over their faces. They clenched hands in a firm grasp.
"In half a minute more——"
The jingling of the telephone bell jarred the stiff silence and stirred the boys from their stupor. As though hypnotized, they had stood awaiting the finish, not thinking of any further movement calculated to free them from their predicament. They had figured everything that could be done for their rescue having been thought of, or tried out.
But now the jangle of the telephone receiver, Jay moved to take it off the hook and as he did so his right foot struck the pin that held the aquascope in position. When the pin was removed the trapdoor, or aquascope as they called it, opened upward of its own accord on an air-cushion that worked on the principle of a door cushion.
And that was what happened at this particular moment in the Nautilus. The aquascope opened upward, leaving the limpid waters of the Sound purling at the very feet of the two boys. Just for a second the boys recoiled in horror, thinking now they were in greater danger. With the door open there was more chance of the force of the explosion below being felt within the Nautilus.
Dick sprang to close the aquascope in the few seconds that remained until the explosion. But imagine his surprise when Jay intercepted and hurled him away from the trap.
"Quick, chum, follow me," cried Jay in wild acclaim.
The opening of the aquascope had given the youth an inspiration. Yes, he would do it. It was a last desperate chance, but there was no reason why it would not work if carried out in time.
Even as Dick started back in consternation when thrust from the aquascope Jay literally leaped feet first into the aquascope as though he were jumping into a miniature swimming pool. Down he went until his feet struck at last on the deck of the coal barge. In this position he stood in water up to his chest, with his head and shoulders still in the Nautilus.