Sutherland gave an order about the trim tanks which March did not catch, then heard the Skipper say, “Steady at forty feet.”
As the order was repeated, March found the dial which indicated the ship’s depth and saw the hand approach the forty mark. There the ship leveled out again. The sound of rushing water and bubbling air had ceased and the only sound was the steady hum of the motors.
“We’re down!” Stan muttered, almost to himself. March had almost forgotten his companion’s existence, but now he turned to him.
“That’s right!” he said. “I was so intent on what was happening I almost forgot about that. There’s nothing special about it, is there? I mean—being here in this room where you can’t see outside—it doesn’t make much difference whether you’re on top of the water or underneath it.”
“Only when I heard the water rushing into the ballasts,” Stan answered. “Then I had a little sensation of going under water. It was fast, wasn’t it?”
“So fast I couldn’t keep track of everything,” March replied. “I wonder how long it took from the time the Captain ordered the dive until we leveled off at forty feet.”
Sutherland overheard him. “Just sixty-eight seconds!” he said.
CHAPTER SIX
A REAL SUBMARINER