nd time!

The fishing-line was now getting short. It behoved them to act with
more caution. New bolts were put in each shackle and swivel, and the
capstan was increased in diameter, being belted with thick plates of
iron. To effect these alterations the forges had to be erected on deck,
and at night these cast a lurid glare on the busy workers, bringing out
every near object in vivid relief against the ebony background of space
behind, while they made preparations for a third cast of the
fishing-line. The cast was made successfully, it was thought, but one
of the grapnels had caught the line with one of its flukes, so that it
could not catch anything else, and the result was--nothing.

A fourth attempt was then made. It was to be the last. The
fishing-line seemed too weak, and its frequent breakings had reduced it
so much that other chains had to be attached to it. With this thing of
shreds and patches the cable was once more hooked and brought up nearly
eight hundred fathoms, when the line gave way once more, and the cable
went down for the last time.

Nothing more could be done. The Great Eastern turned her large bows to
the east and steered grandly though sadly, away for old England.

But don't imagine, good reader, that these cable-layers were beaten.
They were baffled, indeed, for that year (1865), but not conquered.
Cyrus Field had resolved that the thing should be done--and done it was
the following year; for the laying of the cable had been so nearly a
success, that great capitalists, such as Brassey, Gooch, Barclay,
Campbell, Pender, and others, at once came forward. Among these were
the contractors, Glass and Elliot, who agreed not only to make and lay a
new cable, but to pick up and complete the old one. Cyrus Field
himself, besides energising like Hercules to push the matter on, was one
of ten subscribers who each contributed 10,000 pounds. Thus 230,500
pounds were privately subscribed before a prospectus was issued.

Our little hero was at the laying of that (1866) cable, when the same
great ship, with the same captain and most of the engineers and
electricians who had gone out on the previous voyage, landed the end of
the 1820-mile rope on the shores of Newfoundland, on Friday, 27th July.
He cheered with the rest in wild enthusiasm when the Great Eastern
dropped anchor in "Heart's Content." He accompanied Captain Anderson
and the officers of the fleet when they went in a body to the little