e to the surface, remaining there for perhaps half a minute,
evidently for the purpose of getting a fresh supply of air, when it
again dived and was seen no more."

CHAPTER SIX.

IN SEARCH OF A SUBMERGED WRECK.

To return to the _Flying Fish_. It was exactly two o'clock p.m. when
Lieutenant Mildmay announced that, according to his "dead reckoning,"
they were now on or very near the spot indicated on the chart by the
professor, and that, if there was no objection, he should like to rise
to the surface in order to obtain the astronomical observations
necessary to verify the ship's position. The engines were accordingly
stopped, and the water being ejected from the water chambers, the
travellers once more found themselves above water, advantage being taken
of the opportunity to throw open the door of the pilot-house and step
out on deck.

The first discovery made by them was that a moderate breeze was blowing
from the westward, with a corresponding amount of sea and a very long
heavy swell, which, however, to their great gratification, affected the
_Flying Fish_ only to a very trifling extent. When end-on to the sea
she pitched a little, it is true, but when broadside-on she simply rose
and fell with the run of the sea, being as completely free from rolling
motion as though she had still been on the stocks.

Their next discovery was that a large steamer was in sight, some seven
miles distant; and, whilst they stood watching the way in which the
craft plunged along over the heavy swell, pitching "bows under"
occasionally, she suddenly altered her course and steered direct toward
them, her crew having apparently only that moment sighted the _Flying
Fish_, and being evidently in great perplexity as to what she could
possibly be.

"Be as quick as you can with your observations, Mildmay, and let us get
under water again," said the baronet. "We shall perhaps be expected to
explain who and what we are if that steamer gets within hail of us, and
I am not particularly anxious to do that."

The sights were taken, and, whilst the steamer was yet some five miles
distant, the _Flying Fish_ quietly sank once more beneath the waves;
doubtless to the intense astonishment of those who were making such
haste to get alongside her.

Rapidly, yet steadily, and with a perfectly level deck, the craft sank
lower and lower, the light diminishing momentarily, until it at length
vanished altogether, and the darkness became so inten