“And I think you’ll find she is as capable under the water as she is on the surface,” put in Mr. Lockyer, his first apprehensive nervousness now gone. His boat was behaving magnificently. He felt that he could ask no more of any bit of machinery.
“Shall we prepare for a dive, sir?” inquired Lieutenant Parry.
“Not now, Parry,” rejoined the Navy captain, glancing at his watch. “I want to keep this up for at least an hour. It is a severe test——”
“But she’ll stand it. You’ll see,” interrupted Mr. Lockyer eagerly.
On and on rushed the Lockyer, her decks gleaming wetly as her bow threw back clouds of spray. The boys on deck were wet through, but in the exhilaration of the moment they did not feel it. This sensation of hissing through the water, fairly in the midst of the rolling waves, was a blood-stirring one.
Suddenly, Ned seized Herc’s arm, and pointed out ahead.
“Look—look there, Herc!” he exclaimed.
The other, following the direction of his comrade’s arm, instantly perceived, not more than half a mile off, the lights of a boat of some kind.
“They’re coming straight for us,” cried Herc; “what do they want to do? Run us down?”