Gerald looked, then thrusting the vessel's rudder over slightly, he allowed the submarine to glide past the obstruction.
"It's one of the grapnel lines."
"Impossible!"
"Yes, you've forgotten the magnifying power of the water. It shows we are not far out of our course."
"All right down there, Halliday?"
"Aye, aye, sir."
"Inform me the moment there's any sign of the plates yielding."
"Very good, sir."
The seaman was perfectly cool. Implicitly he trusted the two officers in the conning-tower, though he knew that now at any moment the massive steel structure might be crushed like an egg-shell by the tremendous weight of water without.
Suddenly, at sixty-five fathoms, Palmer seized the reversing lever and brought the forward motors of the craft to a standstill. Both he and Gerald saw a sight that filled them with nameless awe.