"Yep, in seventeen minutes—just at one-thirty sharp," answered Dick.
To which Jay nodded in approval and then turned to the telephone.
"Raise away, Larry; we're all set down here and anxious to get out of the way."
In the small chamber of the Nautilus both boys could hear the voice at the other end of the wire when the one holding the receiver kept it slightly removed from his ear.
"Will take you up in two minutes," came the reply from Larry on the deck of the Jules Verne.
The two minutes went by, but so far as the boys could tell the Nautilus was not in motion. The depth dial still showed a submergence of eighty feet, the distance to the deck of the coal barge.
"Must have forgotten us," mused Jay as he stepped again to the telephone.
"Your two minutes are up and we are still waiting, Larry; better hurry it up."
There was a pause, and then came the voice of Larry from the other end:
"Cap wants to know whether you have set your time bomb and when it is to go off."