“Or within twenty feet, either,” grinned Hal, looking down into the waters that were lead-colored under the dull autumn sky.
“What are we going to do, Captain?” inquired Jacob Farnum. “There are Grant Andrews [pg 024] and three of his machinists coming down to the water.”
“I reckon, sir, we'd better put them aboard the 'Pollard' first, sir,” Benson suggested.
Mr. Farnum nodding, the boat was rowed in to the shore and Andrews and his men were put aboard the “Pollard” at the platform deck. Captain Jack Benson unlocking the door to the conning tower, was himself the first to disappear down below. When he came back he carried a line to which was attached a heavy sounding-lead.
“It won't take us long to sound the deep spots in this little harbor,” said the young skipper, as he dropped down once more into the bow of the shore boat. “Row about, Hal, over the places where the submarine could go below out of sight.”
As Hal rowed, Skipper Jack industriously used the sounding-lead.
For twenty minutes nothing resulted from this exploration. Then, all of a sudden, Benson shouted:
“Back water, Hal! Easy; rest on your oars. Steady!”
Jack Benson raised the lead two or three feet, then let it down again, playing it up and down very much as a cod fisherman uses his line and hook.
[pg 025] “I'm hitting something, and it is hardly a rock, either,” declared young Benson. “Pull around about three points to starboard, Hal, then steal barely forward.”