"Bow diving-planes all right?" asked Huxtable.
"I think so, sir."
"Very good. Hello! There's the fun about to commence."
The remark was caused by the muffled sounds of bursting shell. The Turks, alarmed by the explosion, had opened a frantic fire upon the spot where the column of water, hurled high in the air by the detonation, had subsided.
"Let them waste their precious ammunition!" remarked the Lieutenant-Commander grimly. "We're as safe as houses here."
"Except that we haven't a back door," thought Dick, whose views upon the subject of mine-dodging had undergone a sudden and complete change.
Meanwhile one of the engine-room artificers had been busily engaged in fitting new lamps. Fortunately, none of the electric wiring had been damaged, and in a short space of time the interior of the submarine was once more flooded with light.
Already the leak had been stopped, while examination showed that no serious damage had been done to the plating or framework.
"Can't understand how a mine was submerged to that depth," remarked Devereux, the Acting Sub-lieutenant of the submarine, to Dick, "unless it had become partially water-logged. We must have hit it fair and square. The skipper's patent gadget saved us."
"It won't do so again—at least, on the port side," said Dick. "I guess it's blown to blazes."