DuChane suddenly doubled up with mirth.
"Look!" he chortled. "Oh, this is good!"
Marlin followed the direction of his pointing finger. Involuntarily, he smiled.
"By rights," he commented grimly, "our bones ought to be crushed to powder. Well, that settles that."
Thornboldt stared blankly at the rheostat lever. His body, flung against it by the upheaval of the sphere, had pushed it to the extreme limit which he had warned would produce dire results.
"It means nothing!" he protested hollowly. "One faulty connection could make the whole thing a failure. Besides, how can you expect a lifting power that was intended for a hollow sphere to lift hundreds of tons of mud? Leave me alone. How can I work with such imbecile interruptions?"
They withdrew, leaving him staring with frowning contemplation at the ineffective starting lever.
"The old coot had me wondering at that," Marlin confided, as he and DuChane set about their task of installing the periscope. "I'm glad to have it settled."
They worked steadily into the night, pausing only to take part in a meal concocted from the ship's stores.