“Nothing here,” said the scientist, after a careful search about. “Are you sure you saw something, Mark?”
“Positively,” replied the lad with a shudder. He described the vision of the darkness.
“I guess it was a big otter, or maybe an enormous turtle,” the professor said.
CHAPTER V
ATTACKED BY A WHALE
But Mark was certain it was nothing like that, though a careful search failed to reveal anything or any person near the ship. It was too dark to examine for footprints, and even Mark, after taking a look all about, felt he might have been deceived by shadows. Still he was a little nervous, and could hardly sleep for imagining what the thing he saw could have been.
The next day every one was so busy that no one, not even Mark, recalled the little excitement of the night before. Shortly after noon, final preparations having been made, they all got aboard the Mermaid and started off.
It was a bright sunshiny day, and the craft, speeding away from the island where it had been constructed, over the dancing blue waves, must have presented a strange sight had there been any spectators. For surely no such ship had ever before sailed those waters.
However, there was no other vessel in sight, and the island, as far as the professor and his friends knew, had never been inhabited.
“We will not try for any great speed,” Mr. Henderson remarked as he, with Mark and Jack, stood in the conning tower managing the Mermaid. “We don’t want to strain any joints at the start or heat any engine bearings. There will be time enough for speed later.”
“Yes, and we may need it more when we get into the centre of the earth than we do now,” observed Mark.