The superintendent's enthusiasm was contagious. It spread to Larry Seymour like wildfire.
"Three cheers for the Nautilus and the Jules Verne!" he cried in his excitement.
Deep down under the water, all unseen by the world, these five submarine navigators rejoiced over the success of their venture. This, the first trip of the twin diving craft, had so far proved eminently satisfactory.
"Boys, we have here the positive proof tangibly before our eyes," said Superintendent Brown. "But suppose, in order to convince our many friends upstairs on the deck of the Jules Verne" (he pointed laughingly up "The Subway" out of the Nautilus), "we take something of the E-70 along with us as a souvenir? What say?"
Everybody nodded assent.
"What will it be?" asked Captain Austin.
"Oh, say a smokestack or one of her boilers," snickered the superintendent, who had a rare good sense of humor for all occasions.
"Suppose we take the whole blooming sub-chaser with us," shot back Austin, not to be outdone in the pleasantries.
They resolved to go fishing for a souvenir of the E-70, and accordingly signaled the Jules Verne to be lifted in the water. So soon as the Nautilus had been raised level with the sloping deck of the submarine chaser he flashed again for a stop and then buzzed for a slow movement ahead. Unerringly the tiny diving chamber was pushed forward directly over the forward deck of the E-70. Through the aquascope at their feet the five men in the Nautilus could see the outlines of the lost craft silhouetted against the background of the sea bottom.