o use that, as it would operate on us just as the
depth bombs operated on the German submarines. However, I fancy we have
nothing more to fear."

And Tom was right. When the surface was reached and the main hatch
opened, the sea was calm and there was no sight of the whales. They
evidently had had enough of their encounter with a steel fish, larger
even than themselves.

"But they surely were monsters," said Ned, as he told of how he and
Koku had sighted the animals; for a whale is an animal, and not a fish,
though often mistakenly called one.

"Koku was for attacking them with his axe," went on Ned, "but I
motioned to him to beat it. We wouldn't have stood a show against such
creatures. They were on us before we noticed their coming, but I
presume the big submarine attracted them away from us."

"It might have been the lights you carried that drew them," suggested
Tom. "I am glad you came out of it so well."

Mr. Hardley seemed to recover some of his former manners, once the
peril was passed, but his conduct had been a revelation to Mr. Damon.

"Tom," said the eccentric man in private to the young inventor, "I'm
disgusted with that fellow. I don't see how I was ever bamboozled into
taking up his offer."

"I don't, either," replied Tom frankly. "But we're in for it now. We've
agreed to do certain things, and I'll carry out my end of the bargain.
However, I won't put up with any of his nonsense. He's got to obey
orders on this ship! I know more than he thinks I do!"

The next two days the M. N. 1 progressed along on the surface, and
nothing of moment occurred. Then, as they neared southern waters, and
Tom desired to make some observations of the character of the bottom,
it was decided to submerge. Accordingly, one day the order was given.

Not until the gauge showed a hundred fathoms, or six hundred feet, did
the craft cease descending, and then she came to rest on the bottom of
the sea--a greater depth than she had yet attained on this voyage.

"How beautiful!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, when Tom turned on the lights and
they looked out of the forward cabin windows. "How wonderful and
beautiful!"

Well might he say that, for they were resting on pure white sand, and
about them, growing on the bottom of this warm, tropical sea were great
corals, purple and white, of wondrous shapes, waving plants like ferns
and palms, and, amid it all, swam fish of queer shapes and beautiful
colors.

"This is worth waiting for!