His face paled as he spoke and he clenched and unclenched his hands nervously. A few short hours would prove now if he had squandered his fortune and his time or actually produced the most efficient type of submarine known.
As for the boys, they were half crazy with excitement. As they looked at the odd craft before them, it was hard for them to realize that in it they were, within a short time, to make a test that might be of the most dangerous order.
For not one of the party had any assurance, except their faith in their handiwork, that, once submerged, the White Shark would rise again. It was not a cheerful thought to dwell upon—this suspicion that danger of the gravest sort, a death at the bottom of the sea, might lie before them.
But in the last hours of work on the machinery all such thoughts were forgotten. Every bit of machinery was gone over, lubricated, and adjusted. The screws were worked from a geared shaft, which ran across the ship and was connected with the motors by powerful gearing. Levers at the right and left of the engine room controlled the pitch of the screws. In general appearance the engine room was but little changed, except in small details, from its condition when we last saw it.
Then came the moment when everything was declared ready down to the last detail.
“The White Shark is now as perfect as human hands can make her,” declared Mr. Dancer with—for him—a rare touch of oratory.
At five-thirty in the evening, an hour when the sun was declining to the horizon, for the time was in early fall, the last of the party that was to make the adventurous trip was on board. The group gathered on the curved upper deck consisted of the inventor himself, Mr. Chadwick, Silas Hardtack, the two boys, and Jupe.
For an instant before the time came for the final plunge, they stood in silence. Then each went to the place assigned to him previously. Jack and Tom went to the engine room and Mr. Dancer to the steersman’s place, while Mr. Chadwick, Silas, and Jupe remained on deck to attend to the last details of the momentous start.
The great doors which barred the opening of the construction shed had been opened, the “ways” were greased to facilitate the White Shark’s slide to the water, and the last ropes that held the craft in place were wound round the stern “bitts” on the after deck.
“Ready?” hailed Mr. Chadwick through the open panel.