“I guess we’ve occupied a good deal of valuable space to the exclusion of real news,” laughed Ned, coloring a little.
“Not to mention pictures,” grinned Herc. “They took one of me riding the ship’s goat. My freckles came out fine—like spots on the sun.”
“You’ll pardon my saying that you look very young to have distinguished yourselves so noticeably,” said the inventor.
“That’s what I say, sir,” struck in old Tom, in his deep, hoarse voice. “Why, I’ve bin in the navy fer forty years, in wood and steel, and nothin’ never happened to me the way it’s happened to them lads.”
“I guess it was just our luck,” laughed Ned good-naturedly; “you seem to have a splendid plant here, Mr. Lockyer,” he went on, by way of changing the subject. Ned was not one of those lads who likes to “blow his own trumpet.” Such swaggerers are usually found wanting when the time comes to try their metal.
“Yes; we’ve gone into the thing pretty extensively,” rejoined the inventor. “And now, perhaps, as your officers have not arrived, you would like to look over the plant. Have you ever seen a submarine before?”
“Yes, indeed,” replied Ned; “though I understand that your craft is far ahead of the ones we are at present using. On our return from Costaveza we were attached for a while to a ‘parent boat,’ and cruised around with the diving craft.”
“My type of submarine will do away with the parent boat,” declared Mr. Lockyer enthusiastically. “She has a cruising range of two thousand miles or more, if necessary. But there, you will think all that mere inventor’s enthusiasm. Within a week, however, I hope you will be able to see for yourselves what she is capable of.”
“Jer-uso-hosophat! If you’d told me ten years ago that we would be snoopin’ around the bottom of the ocean in such craft, I’d not have believed it,” declared old Tom, as they set out. “I’d have believed you could go to the bottom, all right; but I’d have likewise held that you’d stay there. But sence we’ve bin detailed to submarine dooty, I kin feel fins growing out o’ my shoulder blades, I relish being under so much.”
“Something fishy about that!” chuckled Herc.