"Then for goodness' sake hurry up!" replied the chief officer.
Hythe found Kenwyn staring out of the scuttle at nothing. It was so pitch dark that without the conning-tower everything seemed an impenetrable mass of darkness--sea and sky a chaos of invisibility. All the while the submarine was pitching and tossing like an empty barrel.
"That you, Mr. Hythe," exclaimed the second officer, unmistakably glad to have some one to speak to. "Isn't this a set-to? I don't know what can be happening."
Just then a brilliant flash of lightning played upon the turmoil of broken water without. In the pale-blue glare it seemed as if the surface of the angry sea was one expanse of tall, steep waves--an exaggerated tidal race.
"Ah, that's better," ejaculated Hythe, as the hiss of incoming water could be faintly distinguished above the hammering of the waves against the "Aphrodite's" sides and upon her deck. "We're diving once more."
At twelve fathoms the motion, though still erratic, became less marked, and the condition of things was vastly improved when the electric light was once more connected up.
Every available search-light was switched on, and as the powerful beams were directed through the scuttles Hythe and Kenwyn gave a simultaneous exclamation of surprise. Eddying through the water as far as the rays of light could penetrate were columns of smoke mingled with bubbles full of gaseous vapour. Now and again dark masses would shoot upwards with the velocity of a meteor.
"A submarine eruption, by Jove!" declared Hythe. "We're over the mouth of a submerged crater. That accounts for the earthquake shocks in Malta and elsewhere. Those black objects we see whizzing by must be lumps of lava."
Kenwyn placed his hand upon the side of the conning-tower. The metal felt quite warm to his touch. The thermometer registered eighty-five degrees.
"We'll be boiled alive if this lasts," he exclaimed. "The sea must be quite hot. Ah! that's better," he added, as the propellers began to revolve. "We ought to get out of this natural saucepan as soon as possible."