able flew through the
jockey-wheels.

Signals were at once made to the fleet that the enemy had been
discovered. Congratulatory signals were returned. The fault was cut
out and a new splice made. The Hawk was sent home again. The big
ship's bow was turned once more to the west, and the rattling of the
machinery, as the restored and revived cable passed over the stern, went
merrily as a marriage bell.

The detention had been only about twelve hours; the great work was going
on again as favourably as before the mishap occurred, and about half a
mile had been payed out, when--blackness of despair--the electric
current suddenly ceased, and communication with the shore was ended
altogether.

CHAPTER NINE.

IN WHICH JOYS, HOPES, ALARMS, GHOSTS, AND LEVIATHANS TAKE PART.

That man who can appreciate the feelings of one who has become suddenly
bankrupt may understand the mental condition of those on board the Great
Eastern when they were thus tossed from the pinnacle of joyous hope to
the depths of dark despair. It was not, however, absolute despair. The
cable was utterly useless indeed--insensate--but it was not broken.
There was still the blessed possibility of picking it up and bringing it
to life again.

That, however, was scarcely an appreciable comfort at the moment, and
little could be seen or heard on board the Great Eastern save elongated
faces and gloomy forebodings.

Ebenezer Smith and his _confreres_ worked in the testing-room like
Trojans. They connected and disconnected; they put in stops and took
them out; they intensified currents to the extent of their anxieties
they reduced them to the measure of their despair--nothing would do.
The cable was apparently dead. In these circumstances picking-up was
the only resource, and the apparatus for that purpose was again rigged
up in the bows.

In the meantime the splice which had been made to connect the tanks was
cut and examined, and the portions coiled in the fore and main tanks
were found to be perfect--alive and well--but the part between ship and
shore was speechless.

So was poor Robin Wright! After Mr Field--whose life-hope seemed to be
doomed to disappointment--the blow was probably felt most severely by
Robin. But Fortune seemed to be playfully testing the endurance of
these cable-layers at that time, for, when the despair was at its worst,
the tell-tale light reappeared on the index of the galvanometer, without
rhyme or reason, calli