nsible. Then my heart would break, I know, for I feel it
swelling at the horrible suggestion; and your heart would break, Robin,
I think, for you are a sympathetic donkey, and couldn't help yourself.
Then you see that stout man on the bridge--that's Captain Anderson--
well, _his_ heart would--no--perhaps it wouldn't, for he's a sailor, and
you know a sailor's heart is too tough to break, but it would get a
pretty stiff wrench. And you see that gentleman looking at the
paying-out gear so earnestly?"

"What--Cyrus Field?" said Robin.

"Yes; well, his heart and the Atlantic Cable are united, so as a matter
of course the two would snap together."

Now, while Smith and his young assistant were conversing thus
facetio-scientifically, the electricians on duty in the testing-room
were watching with silent intensity the indications on their
instruments. Suddenly, at 3:15 a.m., when exactly eighty-four miles of
cable had been laid out, he who observed the galvanometer saw the speck
of light glide to the end of the scale, and vanish!

If a speck of fire had been seen to glide through the key-hole of the
powder-magazine it could scarcely have created greater consternation
than did the disappearance of that light! The commotion in the
testing-room spread instantly to every part of the ship; the whole staff
of electricians was at once roused, and soon afterwards the engines of
the Great Eastern were slowed and stopped, while, with bated breath and
anxious looks, men whispered to each other that there was "a fault in
the cable."

A fault! If the cable had committed a mortal sin they could scarcely
have looked more horrified. Nevertheless there was ground for anxiety,
for this fault, as in moral faults, indicated something that _might_ end
in destruction.

After testing the cable for some time by signalling to the shore,
Monsieur de Sauty concluded that the fault was of a serious character,
and orders were at once given to prepare the picking-up apparatus at the
bow for the purpose of drawing the cable back into the ship until the
defective portion should be reached and cut out.

"O _what_ a pity!" sighed Robin, when he understood what was going to be
done, and the feeling, if not the words, was shared by every one on
board with more or less intelligence and intensity; but there were
veterans of submarine telegraphy who spoke encouragingly and treated the
incident as a comparatively small matter.

Two men-of-war, the Te