What had happened?
Barney and Clifford were holding vigil at the opening to the hatchway. They were waiting eagerly for word from Frank Reade, Jr.
All of a sudden there was a blinding flash of brightest light, an awful roar and a shock.
Both men were lifted as if by a catapult and whirled away in surging masses of water.
They had instinctive sense enough to cling to each other through all.
It seemed an interminable length of time that they were tossed and hurled and carried through the water.
Then they sank and once more felt the bed of the ocean beneath them.
They lay upon the sands for some little while.
Then the water grew calm about them and they recovered themselves. They sat up and looked about.
The locality did not greatly differ from the one they had left.