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CHAPTER III

RUNNING DOWN A WARSHIP

"How do you like it?" asked the professor.

"Great!" exclaimed Jack.

"Fine!" cried Mark.

"It am simply coslostrousness!" exploded Washington. "'Nebber in all my born days did I eber expansionate on such a sight!"

"Wish I had a fishing pole and line," remarked Andy Sudds. "There's some pretty nice specimens out there."

"You'll see better ones than those before we finish our trip to the pole," remarked the professor. "Now we will try moving forward. I am going into the conning tower."

He turned on the lights once more, but the boys begged him to shut them off, as they could see out into the ocean when the interior of the ship was in darkness. So the professor obliged them.

In the tower he switched on the powerful searchlight that illuminated the path in front of him. Then he started the engine, slowly at first, and gradually increasing the speed. The Porpoise forged ahead, riding as evenly as an ordinary ship does on the surface.

The professor steered her about in a large circle, bringing her back to the starting point. She worked as smoothly as if she had been used to under-water service for years.

"Now," said the inventor, "we will see if we can go up to the surface again," and there came a little note of anxiety into his voice. He slowed down the engine and started the powerful pumps that were to empty the tanks. For a moment there was a feeling of terror in the hearts of all. Would the pumps work?

Then, slowly but surely, those aboard the Porpoise felt her beginning to rise. Up and up she went as the tanks were emptied and the ship lightened.

Then, with a bounce like a rubber ball, the submarine shot upward to the surface and lay undulating on the waves caused by her emergence from the depths.

"Hurrah!" shouted Jack. "We're all right!"

"We shore am!" exclaimed Washington.

"It's a success!" Professor Henderson almost whispered. "The pumps worked. The Porpoise has fulfilled my greatest expectations!"

Then he steered the ship back to the dock, where she was moored, and the adventurers disembarked.

"One or two little details to attend to, and we'll be ready for the great trip," remarked the professor. "I want to give her a little harder trial before I trust her, though she seems to be first-rate."

They all went back to the combined machine shop and cabin, where they had lived during the building of the submarine. Dinner was prepared and, after the meal the two machinists approached the professor.

"I don't suppose you need us any more," remarked Henry Watson. "The ship is finished as far as we can do anything, and we may as well leave now. We have an offer to go to work in an electrical shop."

"I haven't said much to you about my plans," the professor replied, "but if you would like to remain in my employ, I can promise you an interesting trip."

"Thank you, but I prefer to work above ground," said James Pensen. "You have been very kind to us, and we would do anything we could for, but we don't want to take any long under-ocean trips if we can help it."

"Very well," answered the professor, though he seemed disappointed. "I will pay you what I owe you and you can go."

For some time after the departure of the two young machinists the inventor seemed worried.

"Did you count on them staying with you?" asked Mark.

"I rather hoped they would," replied Mr. Henderson. "We need two more hands if we are to make the trip. They need not be machinists, but we will have to have someone, and I don't like to get strangers. They might talk too much about the ship."

At that instant there came a rap on the door. Washington answered it.

"Yas sir, Perfesser Henderson done lib here," he replied, in answer to a question from some one. "But he am bery busy jest at de present occasioness an' he'll be most extremely discommodated if yo' obtrude yo' presence on him at de conglomeration ob de statutory limitations, which am to say right now. Come again!"

"It's the same old Washington!" said someone outside, laughing heartily. "Just you tell the professor we want to see him most particular."

At the sound of the voice the professor started and Mark and Jack wondered where they had heard it before.

"Show the gentlemen in, Washington," called the inventor.

"Dere's two ob 'em," objected the colored man.

"Show them both in, then."

Washington opened the door of the cabin, and in came two men, who seemed much amused over something.

"What can I do for you?" asked the professor, in rather a sharp voice.

"He don't know us either, Tom," remarked the taller of the two.

"If it ain't Bill Jones and Tom Smith!" exclaimed Andy Sudds. "Wa'al I'll be horn swoggled. Where'd ye come from?"

"Right from the farm," replied Bill. "And we've had a hard job locating you. I guess Washington didn't know us since we raised beards," and Bill stroked his wealth of brown whiskers.

"And I guess we sort of fooled the professor," went on Bill, "eh, Tom?"

"Right!" said Tom. "You see," he went on, "the farming business is almost over, as its coming on fall now, so Bill and I thought it would be a good time to hunt up the professor. We heard he was down in this neighborhood so we come by easy stages. We didn't have any time to stop and make our toilets, hence our beards."

"You've come at the right time," remarked the inventor, as he came forward to welcome the two young men. "Do you remember the trip you made with me to the north pole?"

"I guess we'll not forget it in a hurry," replied Bill.

"That's what made us hunt you up," put in Tom. "We hoped you might have something similar on foot."

"I have," answered the inventor.

"What is it?"

"A trip under the ocean!"

For an instant the two young men hesitated. It was a new proposition to them. Yet they recalled that they had come safely back from the journey through the air.

"Do you want to go along as part of the crew?" asked the inventor, after some further conversation.

"You can count on me!" cried Bill.

"And if Bill goes I'll go too!" exclaimed Tom.

"Under the seas or over the seas, it'll be all one to us if Professor Henderson sails the ship!" went on Bill. "We'll go!"

"Good!" ejaculated the professor. "You certainly came at just the right time."

As Tom Smith and Bill Jones were hungry a hasty meal was prepared for them, during the eating of which they told of their experiences since landing from the airship. They had been on a farm until fired with a desire to go roving once more.

For the next few days the professor, the boys, and the other four were busy making some improvements to the Porpoise. Tom and Bill were much astonished at their first sight of the queer craft, but they soon became accustomed to her, and said they preferred her to the airship.

"To-morrow we are going on a little longer trip than our first trial," announced the inventor one evening. "We will be gone all day if nothing happens to make the stay more lengthy," he added grimly. "So, Washington, put plenty to eat aboard."

A little later, when supplies had been put on the Porpoise, and the machinery well overhauled, the professor explained that he intended making a trip, entirely under