Five tons of gold, worth about three million dollars, is not near so hard to move as five tons of coal, for instance, especially when it is put in seventy-five pound bars and there is plenty of tackle handy. It took Jackson, Joyce, and Willoughby only about two hours to dump the lead out of the submarine and replace it with the gold—surely the richest ballast the world ever saw.
Meanwhile Howard, after stationing Dorothy and Mother Joyce in elevated positions where they could watch for the possible approach of Forbes and his men, had set to work to get the submarine into order, oiling the machinery1, testing the engines and all the various pumps and motors, and finally starting the gas-engine, which discharged the double duty of driving the boat while on the surface,[218] and of charging the electric accumulators for use below. All this took time, and was not finished until after the last bar of gold had been stored away in place.
Then Howard called the others around him. “Before we start,” he said, “I have something to tell you. Until now I have kept it to myself, because I did not want to rouse any false hopes. Joyce, did you ever hear of wireless2 telegraphy?”
Joyce scratched his head. “And what’s that, sor?” he demanded.
“Telegraphy without the aid of wires. I didn’t suppose any of you here had ever heard of it, else Captain Forbes would certainly not have shut me in the operating-room of a steamer that had a full outfit3 in perfect working order. During the time I was confined there I was in constant communication with the naval4 station at Guantanamo. I told them of our plight5, and I will venture to say that[219] the papers of the country are ringing with the story of the Sargasso Sea colony and with our personal adventures. Toward the end—just before Joyce set me free—I got into communication with your father, Dorothy. He was wild with delight to know that you were alive and was about to start to rescue you. In fact, half a dozen vessels7 are probably now making an effort to break a way through the weed to aid us. If we can get back to the coast and wait, we are tolerably sure to be taken off sooner or later. Now, the question is whether we shall wait or not?”
Joyce and his wife had listened in dazed silence. “Do you mane, sor,” demanded the former, “that you can talk through the air with those quare instruments in that little room?”
“That’s it exactly, Joyce. I can, and I did. But let me get back to the point. I could give our friends only a very doubtful approximation of our latitude[220] and longitude8, so that it may take them a long time to find us, if they ever do. Not hearing further from us, they may conclude that the whole thing is a fake and give up the search. They will certainly have a long and tedious battle with the weed. Altogether, if they get anywhere near the right spot in less than a month it will be most surprising. Certainly they will not in less than two weeks. Now, what can we do during the interval9? If we decide to wait for them, we must run down the coast and establish a camp somewhere—as far from the village as we can get. Perhaps I can find another wireless outfit and get into communication with Guantanamo again. Certainly, we can find food and shelter, and all we will have to do will be to wait—supposing that Forbes doesn’t find us, which he will move heaven and earth to do when he finds we have his gold and his boat.
“That is one alternative open to us. The other, of course, is to dive under[221] the weed and start for home at once. If we meet one of the searching steamers, all right; if we don’t, we can get to port under our own power. There is a risk about such an attempt, of course, but I don’t think it’s a very great one. Now, this is the situation: what shall we do?”
Howard paused, and the others looked at each other doubtfully. Finally, Mr. Willoughby cleared his throat. “I confess,” he observed hesitatingly, “that I fear the depths of the sea. I should much prefer to remain on top of it and go home in a steamer. May we not run down this—er—river on the surface and talk it over as we go?”
“Surely. That’s good sense. We’ll do it. Joyce, suppose you run up on the galleon10 and take a last look for Captain Forbes. Meanwhile, everybody else get aboard. Hurry, Joyce!”
Joyce hurried. In five minutes he came racing11 back as fast as his legs would carry him. “The cap’n’s comin’,” he[222] cried. “Coming with his whole force. He isn’t three ships away.”
Howard smiled grimly. “Just too late,” he exclaimed. “On board with you, Joyce! Quick! Off we go!” With the word, he cast loose the last mooring12, and the Seashark moved slowly away.
As, with gathering13 headway she rounded the galleon’s high-decked poop, she came in view of a dozen or more armed men, who were rapidly clambering over the wrecks14, and who burst into excited babble16 as they spied the little vessel6. An instant later Forbes appeared.
“Curse you!” he shrieked17. “I’ll get you yet.” He threw his rifle to his shoulder and fired, his men following suit with a scattering18 volley.
But at the first sign of hostilities19, Howard, who was alone on deck, dropped nimbly down inside the body of the Seashark, and remained, steering20 by aid of the camera lucida put there for the purpose, until a curve in the channel sheltered[223] the little vessel from the bullets that had pattered harmlessly around her.
For an hour the Seashark dropped swiftly down the slowly widening channel between ever-changing banks of massed ships. In that hour she passed in review the shipping21 of more than two centuries. Squat-bellied, round-bowed Dutchmen, high-pooped Spaniards, clippers that had made the American flag famous, frigates22 shot-torn and shattered in the American Civil War, deep-water ships still bearing the indelible imprint23 of the Chinese trade, steamers old and new—one by one they passed in a progression constantly growing more and more modern. Howard, alone in the conning-tower, glanced at them with wonder; never before had they so impressed him. Until then, nearness had obscured the vastness of the ruin, and only now had the full meaning of it all been hammered into his mind.
But he resolutely24 threw off the spell, and concentrated his entire attention on[224] the navigation of his little vessel. It was very necessary. The channel, being newly formed, was reasonably clear of weed, but it was impossible to guess how soon its character might change. The smallest patch of vegetation might foul25 the screw of the Seashark, or might conceal26 a water-logged spar, floating just awash, that would rip a plate from her bow and send her to the bottom, ending at once the lives of the castaways and their dreams of fortune. In some ways it would be safer beneath the water; yet Howard knew that every turn of the gas-engines was aiding to store up power in the electric accumulators, on which alone they must depend when the time came to dive. He did not dare to go below an instant sooner than he must.
After an hour the channel opened more rapidly, and the weed began to thicken, showing that the edge of the wreck15-pack was near. Soon the accumulation grew so thick that it was no longer safe to push[225] through it. Howard glanced at the indicators27 that measured the power accumulated. “Enough to run us three and a half hours,” he murmured, “or perhaps four. At eight knots, that means about twenty-five miles of distance. Twenty-five miles! Humph! I guess it’s safe.”
No one answered, and in the stillness he heard up-channel the far-off chug-chug of a boat rapidly driven. “Humph!” he exclaimed, bending down again. “Forbes seems to have been well supplied with boats. He’s after us in a steam-launch. That settles the question definitely. We’ve got to dive. If any one wants to take a last look at this marvellous place, now is the time.”
No one spoke.
Howard laughed. “What!” he exclaimed. “Nobody? Joyce, don’t you[226] want to see the last of your old home?”
Joyce shook his head. “Faith,” he answered, “I’ve seen enough of it to do me for the rest of my life.”
“Jackson?”
“New York’s good enough for me.”
“Mr. Willoughby?”
The missionary31 looked up. “Man! Man!” he cried. “How can you think of such things when we are about to plunge32 into uttermost peril33 of our lives? Rather, let us pray.”
“Pray by all means, Mr. Willoughby. More things are wrought34 by prayer than this world dreams of, you know. Dorothy, don’t you want to look?”
But Dorothy, too, shook her head. “No, Frank,” she answered. “I never want to see the horrible place again.”
“Then down we go. Here comes Forbes, by the way.”
Around a curve, up-channel, appeared a steam-launch, still far off, but rapidly approaching. Howard stood up and[227] waved his hand sarcastically35; then, with rapid motions, snapped on the manhole cover, cut off the gas-engine, and threw on the electric starting-lever. Then, as the little vessel started forward, he turned the diving-rudder downward.
Instantly the Seashark slid gracefully36 down beneath the ripples37. From her little turret38 sprang out a sword of white light that pierced the water before her, while within a score of tiny bulbs illumined the darkness. Down she went; down, down, till the gage39 at Howard’s hand showed that a depth of fifty feet had been attained40; then slowly he shifted the diving rudders until the boat held steadily41 to her depth, the rudders just balancing her tendency to rise to the surface. “All set,” he called down cheerily, but without moving his gaze from the front. “Nothing to do now but go ahead. Make yourselves comfortable. We won’t come to the surface for three hours, and perhaps longer.”
[228]No one answered. The experience, utterly42 new to them all, was sufficiently43 terrifying to destroy the desire for conversation. Shut up in this tiny shell which might any moment prove their tomb, fifty feet below the surface of the ocean, driving forward blindly into the unknown, it would have taken one braver—or more callous—than any there to make merry. Howard, used as he was to submarine work, might have cheered them up, had he not been compelled to give all his attention to driving the vessel.
For the dangers, though not what the rest vaguely44 conceived, were by no means imaginary. Let the Seashark rise a few feet above the level at which she ran, and she might easily smash herself against a more than ordinarily deeply sunken wreck. Let her plunge too deeply, and the increased pressure of the water might force its way in at some weak spot, and crush her like an egg-shell.[229] Let her power give out too soon, at a spot where she could not come to the surface to run her gas-engine, and so replenish45 her accumulators, and they would all perish miserably46. On Howard rested all the responsibility, and he had no time to give to anything else.
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1
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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wireless
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| adj.无线的；n.无线电 | |
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outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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6
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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7
vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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longitude
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| n.经线，经度 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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10
galleon
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| n.大帆船 | |
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racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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12
mooring
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| n.停泊处；系泊用具，系船具；下锚v.停泊，系泊（船只）(moor的现在分词) | |
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13
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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14
wrecks
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| n.沉船( wreck的名词复数 )；（事故中）遭严重毁坏的汽车（或飞机等）；（身体或精神上）受到严重损伤的人；状况非常糟糕的车辆（或建筑物等）v.毁坏[毁灭]某物( wreck的第三人称单数 )；使（船舶）失事，使遇难，使下沉 | |
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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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babble
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| v.含糊不清地说，胡言乱语地说，儿语 | |
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shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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scattering
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| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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hostilities
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| n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事 | |
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steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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shipping
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| n.船运（发货，运输，乘船） | |
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frigates
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| n.快速军舰( frigate的名词复数 ) | |
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imprint
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| n.印痕，痕迹；深刻的印象；vt.压印，牢记 | |
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resolutely
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| adj.坚决地，果断地 | |
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foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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indicators
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| （仪器上显示温度、压力、耗油量等的）指针( indicator的名词复数 )； 指示物； （车辆上的）转弯指示灯； 指示信号 | |
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28
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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29
queried
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| v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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missionary
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| adj.教会的，传教(士)的；n.传教士 | |
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32
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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sarcastically
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| adv.挖苦地，讽刺地 | |
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36
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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37
ripples
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| 逐渐扩散的感觉( ripple的名词复数 ) | |
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38
turret
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| n.塔楼，角塔 | |
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39
gage
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| n.标准尺寸，规格；量规，量表 [=gauge] | |
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40
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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41
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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42
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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43
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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44
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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45
replenish
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| vt.补充；(把…)装满；(再)填满 | |
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46
miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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