"As far as you dare to let me," replied Jack, with spirit. "Watch the gauge, and tell me when to stop."
"Jove, but you have a cool nerve, lad, if you back that up," laughed lieutenant McCrea.
"Perhaps our young skipper is relying upon the caution of his employer," suggested Commander Ennerling, smiling.
It is always a question of great importance just how far below the surface a submarine torpedo boat may go with safety. The greater the depth the more enormous the pressure of the water. At sufficient depth the water pressure is terrific enough to crush in the hull of the stoutest submarine. At even less depth the pressure may easily start the plates so that the inrush of water will destroy all on board.
Yet Jack Benson's proposition was to send the "Pollard" further and further below the surface, until owner or inventor should order him to stop.
All three of the Navy officers shot a look of admiration at the doughty young skipper. Then, almost immediately, their faces resumed their usual expressions. To the Navy officers this experience carried with it no dread. The "Pollard" might prove, under severe test, wholly unfit to stand the pressure below surface. Their death might be but a minute or two away, but with these Naval officers it was all in the line of duty.
It was not, with the members of the board, so much a matter of actual grit as of constant association with all forms of danger.
"We're going pretty low," muttered Mr. Farnum to himself, as he read the gauge.
"Can we stand much more depth?" wondered David Pollard, inwardly uneasy, though outwardly calm. A moment later he told himself:
"Jack Benson has never been as low as this before!"