e, making a total of 3600 nautical miles, which is equal, as
you know, to 4050 statute miles. This is to suffice for the
communication between Bombay and Aden, and for the connecting of the
Malta and Alexandria lines. They are now laying a cable between
England, Gibraltar, and Malta, so that when all is completed there will
be one line of direct submarine telegraph unbroken, except at Suez."

"Magnificent!" exclaimed Robin, "why, it won't be long before we shall
be able to send a message to India and get a reply in the same day."

"In the same day!" cried Sam, slapping his thigh; "mark my words, as
uncle Rik used to say, you'll be able to do that, my boy, within the
same hour before long."

"Come, Sam, don't indulge in prophecy. It does not become you," said
Robin. "By the way, Frank, what about uncle Rik? You have scarcely
mentioned him."

"Oh! he's the same hearty old self-opinionated fellow as ever. Poor
fellow, he was terribly cut up about your supposed death. I really
believe that he finds it hard even to smile now, much less to laugh. As
for Madge, she won't believe that you are lost--at least she won't admit
it, though it is easy to see that anxiety has told upon her."

"I wonder how my poor old mother has took it," said Slagg, pathetically.
"But she's tough, an' can't be got to believe things easy. She'll hold
out till I turn up, I dessay, and when I present myself she'll say, `I
know'd it!'"

"But to return to the cable," said Sam, with an apologetic smile. "Is
there any great difference between it and the old ones?"

"Not very much. We have found, however, that a little marine wretch
called the teredo attacks hemp so greedily that we've had to invent a
new compound wherewith to coat it, namely, ground flint or silica,
pitch, and tar, which gives the teredo the toothache, I suppose, for it
turns him off effectually. We have also got an intermediate piece of
cable to affix between the heavy shore-end and the light deep-sea
portion. There are, of course, several improvements in the details of
construction, but essentially it is the same as the cables you have
already seen, with its seven copper wires covered with gutta-percha, and
other insulating and protecting substances."

"It's what I calls a tremendious undertakin'," said Slagg.

"It is indeed," assented Frank, heartily, for like all the rest of the
crew, from the captain downwards, he was quite enthusiastic about the
ship and her work