They debated the subject for several minutes.
It would be a risky thing to do, although as yet they had encountered no strange fish or marine monsters at this great depth.
With care they adjusted their diving suits and then armed themselves with their knives and submarine guns.
Then the door of the bell was opened slowly.
The pressure of the water became enormous and their suits of steel creaked as if to crash in upon them, as a shell can squeeze in upon the inside of an egg.
But they had calculated upon all this, and the suits held as expected.
When they stepped out upon the moss they found it as soft and yielding as a thick velvet carpet.
They advanced with caution toward the edge of the slope before them, casting their eyes continually upon all sides for the first sign of danger.
They had thus gone a distance of two hundred feet when Dave pointed to a mound to their right.
He had seen something strange moving among the moss.