Had the dive come too late to carry the White Shark safely under the keel of the battleship driving down upon them?
Suddenly there came a grating, grinding shock that seemed to shake the White Shark to the last rivet of her fabric.
“Great heaven! They’ve struck us!” cried Silas in a terrible voice.
“We’re going to the bottom!” shouted Tom beside himself with terror.
The submarine hesitated for an instant, and then turned slowly on one side.
“It’s the end!” cried Mr. Chadwick.
CHAPTER XXII.
A NARROW ESCAPE.
For one sickening instant the diving craft shuddered and shivered like a stricken live thing. All the while the dull whirr of the engines, the thrill of the cylinder of metal in which six human lives were at stake, continued.
To the huddled mass piled together in inextricable confusion at one end of the main cabin, the brief space of time that ensued between the crash of the battleship’s impact and the slow, shuddering recovery of the submarine, appeared to be hours. In reality it was but minutes.