"I 'spected I'd neber see dis again," said Washington. "Thought suah I
was a gone chicken!"

"We had a most fortunate escape," said the professor. "You did the trick
for us when you let the acid run from that tank into the sea. It mingled
with the water and burned or ate through the stems of the grass so they
no longer held the ship. I saw what had happened as soon as I looked out
of the bull's-eye, and that's why I had you turn out all the acid you
could. It was just as if liquid fire had touched the sea weed and burnt
it off."

"Golly!" exclaimed Washington. "Fust I know I'll be a perfessor myself!"

Supper was eaten with the ship on the surface of the ocean, for it was
impossible to go below until the leak in the air tanks had been
repaired. Work was begun on this the next day, and though it proved a
difficult job it was accomplished by Mr. Henderson and the boys.

There were several minor repairs to be made to the machinery, and it was
a week before all was in readiness for another descent beneath the
waves. In the meanwhile the craft had moved slowly southward on the
surface, where no very great speed was possible.

Toward evening, on the seventh day after their adventure with the
Sargasso Sea, the travelers closed the man hole, and with air tanks well
filled slowly sank beneath the waves. Supper was eaten at a depth of
sixty feet, and after the meal, while Washington was washing the dishes,
the others sat and looked out through the bull's-eyes at the big fishes
which floated past.

"I wouldn't like to catch one of them air things on my hook an' line,"
observed Bill, as a particularly large fish went past. "I reckon I'd
have trouble landin' him."

"More likely he'd pull you in," said Mark.

For several minutes they watched the strange procession of deep-sea
life. Presently Jack, who was sitting near the engine room door, sprang
up. At the same instant there was the sound of an explosion.

"What's the matter?" cried the professor.

"Come quick!" yelled Washington.

"It's a fire!" yelled Jack. "One of the electrical fuses has blown out,
and the ship is on fire!"

CHAPTER XIII

THE GHOST OF THE SUBMARINE

They all rushed toward the engine room. It was dark, because the lights
had gone out all over the ship, and they could see only by the glare of
the flames, which were increasing.

"Light one of the oil lanterns!" called the professor, and Bill did so.

"Unreel the hose," the inventor co