Again they took flight and, reaching Manhattan, they continued north and east to the shore of Long Island Sound.
Long before the old East River had been filled in and the space which it had occupied reclaimed for building purposes. All indications of its former bed had been obliterated by mammoth terraced structures.
When they reached their destination on the shore of the Sound a small submarine, which Dirk had ordered by radio, was awaiting them.
“Submerge and proceed up the Sound,” Dirk ordered the officer, “and take us directly under the craft of the Lodorians.”
In a few minutes they were skimming over the surface of the water and, when a sufficient depth had been gained, the tiny boat disappeared beneath the rain-rippled sea.
Dirk sat at a port and watched the aquatic life as it was illuminated by the powerful aquamarine searchlights.
Progress under the water was comparatively slow, as mankind had made but little progress in underwater navigation. Air liners long before had almost superseded travel by land and sea 412 and the abolition of warfare had swept all of the old navies from the ocean.
It was more than an hour before the officer in charge of the boat announced that the mammoth hull of the monster that was lying on the Sound was visible directly above them.
Both Dirk and Steinholt donned diving apparatus, and the former carefully adjusted the mechanism that was contained in a metallic box about two feet square.