lay down and were left behind.

At last the procession entered a section of tunnel which was square,
instead of circular, and in which there was a wide shelf along one
side about three feet above the floor. The four divers then dropped
the chains, and one by one took a look at Abbot through his window.

And he at the same time took a most interested look at them.

They had unmistakable human faces!

* * * * *

He must be dreaming! For even if Osborne was right about his supposed
super-race at the bottom of the sea, this race could not be human, for
the pressures here would be entirely too great. No human being could
possibly stand two thousand pounds per square inch!

Having satisfied their curiosity, the four divers pulled themselves up
onto the shelf, and sat there in a row with their legs hanging over.

Abbot glanced upward at the ceiling lights, but these had become
strangely blurred. There seemed to be an opaque barrier above him, and
this barrier seemed to be slowly descending. The lights blurred out
completely, and were replaced by a diffused illumination over the
entire ripply barrier. And then it dawned on the young man that this
descending sheet of silver was the surface of the water. He was in a
lock, and the water was being pumped out.

The surface settled about the helmets of the divers, and their helmets
disappeared; then their shoulders and the rest of them. At last it
reached the level of Abbot's window. The divers could again be seen,
and among then on the shelf there stood a half dozen naked bearded
men, clad only in loin-cloths. They had evidently entered the lock
while the water was subsiding.

* * * * *

These men unbuckled the helmets of the divers and helped them out, and
then splashed down into the water and peered in through the windows of
the bathysphere. Presently some of them left through a door at the end
of the platform, but soon reappeared with staging, which they set up
around the sphere. Then, climbing on top, they got to work on the
man-hole cover.

As George Abbot realized their purpose, he became frantic. Although
these men appeared to be human, just like himself, yet his
scientifically-trained mind told him that they must be of some very
special anatomical structure, in order to be able to withstand the
immense pressures at the bottom of the Pacific. It was all right for
them to be out there, but it would be