"Ah, yes, I remember; we left Portsmouth Harbor the 12th of August,
1357. It seemed a gruelling hard thing to us to sail just on the
opening of the shooting season, but the wuzzies were troubling a bit.

"One day, as Sir Harry and I were sitting on deck before the mast,
having a cigarette--"

"At the bottom of the sea--on deck!" gasped Uncle Jim Brothers.

"Pray don't interrupt me, or I'll never get on," chided the King of
Gee-Whiz, politely. "We were smoking, as I said, awfter dinner. I was
remarking to Sir Harry that we were having a very good voyage over,
when, as he turned to reply, an orderly rode up to us and saluted."

"Rode--rode--rode up!" murmured Curly. "How could he?"

"Let him alone," said Uncle Jim. "Didn't he say he couldn't remember
whether he was in the Army or the Navy? The horse goes."

"The orderly saluted," resumed the King of Gee-Whiz, "and said he, 'I
beg pardon, but the officer of the day presents his compliments, and
begs to report that the ship's a-fire, and upon the point of exploding.'

"Sir Harry looked at his watch. 'Thanks,' said he. 'Present my
compliments to the officer of the day, and ask how long it will be
before the explosion occurs.'

"'I beg pardon,' replied the orderly, 'but the officer of the day
presents his compliments, and begs to say that the explosion will occur
in about three minutes.'

"'Very well,' said Sir Harry, 'you may go.'--'That will give us time to
finish our cigarettes,' said he to me. The orderly saluted and rode
away. We never saw him again.

"The officer of the day was a very accurate man, very accurate indeed.
In three minutes to the dot the explosion did occur. We never knew
what caused it. No doubt the Admiralty Board determined that, but we
were not present at the session.

"The explosion was most violent, and no doubt the submarine was quite
destroyed by it. Sir Harry and I were blown to an extraordinary
distance from the spot. I remember saying to him, as we reached the
surface and started upward, that it seemed quite too bad that we'd not
had time to get together our personal kit for the journey.

"It's no use my mentioning how long we travelled thus, for I'm not in
the least clear about it myself. All I can say is that in course of
time we descended, and that we found ourselves on solid ground, on the
island of Gee-Whiz. That, you will understand, was an uncharted and
hitherto undiscovered land, lying near the 400th parall