“An’ now, gents, am you comin’ to dat dinner, or am yo’ gwine ter spite yo’ stomachs till supper time?”
It was not till then that they recalled that they had eaten nothing, all thoughts of food having been swept aside by the excitement of the scenes they had just gone through.
CHAPTER XXIV.
A MYSTERY ADRIFT.
That night the watches at the steering appliance were divided into four. Mr. Dancer who, with the exception of a few brief snatches of sleep, had been at the controls of the White Shark almost continuously since the voyage had started, went to his cabin right after supper.
Then came Tom’s watch, lasting from eight till midnight. Jack’s followed, from midnight till 4 A. M., and Silas Hardtack’s from that hour till 8 A. M., when Mr. Dancer insisted that he would be able to resume control.
This arrangement put at least one person who understood the engines in the engine room constantly. Mr. Chadwick watched while Jack steered, sleeping from time to time; for it will be recalled that the engines were controllable from the steering compartment, so that actually all the engineer was compelled to do was to “stand by” for signals and see that the motors were properly lubricated and kept in order.
At eight o’clock, when the signal sounded for every one to turn out, Mr. Dancer emerged from his cabin, looking, as Tom put it, “as fresh as a daisy.” Each in turn took a salt water shower in the bathroom, while the appetizing aroma of Jupe’s bacon and coffee and hot biscuits filled the main cabin.
Through the night the submarine had been run at a distance of fifty feet below the surface of the water, so as to avoid all risk of striking floating objects or passing vessels. At such a depth the craft was safe from the risk of contact with the keels of even the largest ships.
It had seemed odd to the boys as they stood their “tricks” at the wheel to think, as they alternately eyed the compass and the observation tube, that above them vessels might be passing “on their lawful occasions,” wholly unconscious of the “man-fish” cruising below them in the quiet depths.