Perched upon a flat rock so insecurely that it seemed as if the faint "wash" from the "Aphrodite" would topple it over, was a regularly-shaped mass literally covered with barnacles and plentifully festooned with trailing seaweed. But even these disguises Hythe could penetrate: there was no mistaking the tapering stern, the horizontal and vertical rudders, and the twin screws of a standard type of submarine.
"'La Flamme,'" announced Captain Restronguet, at the same time raising his right hand to the salute in honour of the brave dead, an example that Hythe promptly followed.
A little farther and the twin search-lights played upon a solid barrier of rock, extending from side to side of the submerged gulley.
Placing the engine-room indicator to half-speed astern Captain Restronguet waited till the "Aphrodite's" way was checked; then turning to Mr. Devoran he nodded his head significantly.
Immediately the chief officer opened the valves of the subsidiary ballast tanks and the "Aphrodite" sank vertically to a depth of sixty-five feet beneath the surface, and rested firmly upon the sand on the bed of Machichaco Bay.
The sub glanced at his watch. Notwithstanding the fact that he had been wearing it when he dived overboard to the rescue of the man Gwennap it had sustained no damage whatsoever from its immersion. He was surprised to find that it was nine o'clock. Nearly an hour had elapsed since the submarine had first entered the tortuous defile.
"We cannot do more until daylight," announced Captain Restronguet, as soon as the patent anchors had obtained a firm hold in the sand. During the navigation of the "Aphrodite" through the dangerous channel he had been constrained; his whole attention had to be concentrated on his work, but now his usual willingness to impart information returned.
The search-lights, now no longer necessary, were switched off, so that no belated fishing-boat might have occasion to report the presence of a mysterious phosphorescence in the depths of the bay; and having received reassuring reports from various parts of the vessel the captain intimated that the somewhat long-delayed dinner would prove acceptable.
"I discovered this channel quite by accident," said the captain, during the progress of the meal. "We put in here on our way north, since the nautical directories state that here the currents run with great velocity. This step was necessary since our accumulators were rather run down and I particularly wished to have a good reserve of power for our run across the bay and up the English Channel. Of course, in a 'blind alley' such as we are in now, there are no eddies or currents to trouble us. I was looking for a good sheltered berth, for as far as we could see through the observation plate in the bottom of the vessel there was nothing but jagged rocks. We were moving very slowly, at twenty feet below the surface, when Mylor shouted that we were passing over a submarine. I at once thought that we were about to be attacked by the 'Vorwartz,' but Mylor promptly supplemented his first assertion by saying that the craft was a wreck."
"You say it is 'La Flamme,' sir"? asked Hythe. "How, then, is the fact to be accounted for that she was run down off Cape Finisterre?"