“Can’t we cut through it?” asked Jack.
“No, I fear we are hopelessly tangled in it. When you backed the boat she refused to leave the cable.”
“How did we come to run into it?”
The question came from Tom.
“You may well ask that, my boy, in view of the fact that the searchlights show up the ocean for quite a distance.”
“It was an accident,” struck in Mr. Chadwick, “an unavoidable accident.”
“Yes,” continued Mr. Dancer, “you see, we were coming along at a fine clip when suddenly in front of me I saw an anchor flash downward.”
“Some big craft is at anchor above?” asked Jack.
“There must be. I had no time to avoid this entanglement before the anchor was hard and fast in the ocean bed.”
“We’ve got to get loose,” declared Tom.