impossible, however, and soon returned to the company of the officers.
The electric motors driving the ship were humming at top speed, and the
registering apparatus indicated a rate of fifteen knots an hour. This
was good speed for a submarine, but Bert figured that, as the yacht on
which he had been carried out was unusually swift, it must have traveled
at least one hundred and fifty miles from the Colon harbor. At the rate
of fifteen knots an hour, then, it would take them a little over ten
hours to get back into the harbor, and he did not know how much longer to
get up the canal to the mined gate of the lock. There was always the
chance of accidents or delay, and he must reach the city before the
morrow dawned.

CHAPTER XV

CUTTING THE WIRES

It seemed as though the time would never pass, and he tried to divert his
mind by looking out of the glass windows or portholes, set in near the
bow of the submarine. The boat was equipped with a powerful searchlight,
which threw its brilliant rays far ahead, and lit up the ocean for a
considerable distance all around. Even in his agitated state of mind,
he found time to wonder at the dense and active life of the sea. Fishes,
large and small and of every conceivable shape and coloring, swam close
up to the porthole and seemed to be trying to look in. Some, attracted
by the beams of light, followed the course of the submarine, never
seeming to tire or fall back.

Every once in a while, some larger fish, engaged on a foraging
expedition, would cross the path of light, and there would be a general
scattering of the smaller fry, as they darted hither and thither in a
frenzied search for safety. Some, indeed, the majority, were beautifully
striped and spotted, and most of them Bert had never seen before. As he
watched this teeming life, he grew more and more interested, and almost
forgot his present surroundings. He was recalled to them by a light tap
on the shoulder, and, turning around, he saw the officer, Lieutenant
Warren, who had thrown him the life preserver.

"Quite an interesting study, isn't it, Mr. Wilson?" he asked, with a
pleasant smile.

"I should say it was," exclaimed Bert, enthusiastically. "I never
dreamed of being able to see a sight like this. It's almost worth having
lived a lifetime just to have had this experience."

The other smiled at his earnestness.

"Yes," he said, "we all felt the same way you do, when we took our first
few