"Nor I either," said "Montey" Brown as he, with others who had come out on the trip of the Jules Verne and Nautilus, crowded around.
But Jay was thinking of something else. Dick! Where was his chum, Dick Monaghan? What had happened to him?
"We've got to find him somehow; I am sure that he followed me out of the Nautilus. He said he would follow suit as I prepared to lower away through the aquascope."
Under orders of Captain Austin a small dory was being lowered aft, manned by a trio of sailors who had orders to patrol the waters just forward of the Jules Verne over the spot where the Nautilus had been submerged.
"Let me go along; I've got to find my chum," wailed Jay as he saw the boat going over the side. But friendly hands restrained him. He was in no condition for further effort after his hazardous exploit.
Just then there came a cry from the bridge of the Jules Verne, where a number of visitors had taken their station earlier in the day to watch the demonstration of the new diving craft.
"Look! What's that object floating in the water off the port bow? Not more than three or four points off and about fifty feet ahead."
A gentleman in panama hat and palm beach suit, a representative of a maritime magazine, who had come aboard as a guest of Superintendent Brown, was pointing out over the water.
Immediately all attention was directed that way. Jay had come up out of the depths on the starboard bow of the Jules Verne; so, of one accord, passengers and crew of the vessel surged to the port rail and scanned the waters of the Sound. Jay was one of the first across the deck.
"Where is it? What is it?" he called out excitedly.