Another lurch, and down they shot under the water, where men's nerves may well be tried!
CHAPTER XI
THE TRY-OUT IN THE DEPTHS
Pollard clutched at the stairway railing with both hands, his face hard-set, his eyes staring.
He was not afraid. In that supreme moment he could not know physical fear. It was the inventor's dread of failure that possessed him.
Jacob Farnum stood as one fascinated as he felt the boat plunging into the depths.
"Aren't you going to put us on an even keel, sir?" Jack called.
The warning was needful. In the exhilaration of that plunge Farnum was in danger of forgetting.
In a twinkling, now, however, he threw open the sea-valves of other tanks, amidships and aft, until the gauge showed that they were running on an even keel and forty feet below the surface. Their speed was now about five miles an hour, but could be increased.
Gradually, the ghastly lines on David Pollard's cheeks began to soften.
His eyes gleamed.