way; but all the air homes
being already occupied by other tenants--the usual ingredients or
components of the air--they could find no place to butt in; and so they
went around and about till innocent people like ourselves made a home for
them by breathing them in out of the way. After which explanation--yelled
above all the other noises--these sulphuric hoboes caused less suspicion
and discomfort. It was good to hear that what we were swallowing was not
the chlorine of a hundred stories of fiction.

The sub had now to prove her diving qualities. So tanks were blown out
and up she went to the surface again; and there, while she was resting
like a bird on the water, ballast-tanks were suddenly filled and down she
went. Down, down, down she went--the long green finger on the broad-faced
gauge walking around at a fine clip. Dropping so--on an even keel, by the
way--she gave out no sense of action such as a man gets on an aeroplane.
Flying around in the air, you see what's doing every second. If anything
happens, you know you will see it coming, and--perhaps--going: your eyes,
ears, brains, and nerves prove things to you.

But action in a submarine lies largely in a man's imagination, unless he
be the periscope man; and even there, when she is completely submerged,
he sees no more than the others. However, a man did not need to have too
much imagination to think of a few things as he looked at the long green
finger walking around: 30 feet, 40 feet, 50 feet--This particular
observer had no idea she could drop so fast; and as she dropped, he
could not help wondering how deep the ocean was around there--this in
case anything happened. Sixty feet, 70 feet--she was gathering great
speed by then, but at 82 feet she stopped--a pleasant thing to see. And
then, maybe to show it was no accident, she did it all over again. Did
we feel any difficulty in breathing during all this? We did not, nor
during the three to four hours we were under that morning. And let a man
listen to these submarine enthusiasts telling how they can live three or
four weeks on their compressed air, if they have to, without coming to
the surface! Only give them food enough, of course. And coffee--they
have an electric range to make the coffee. As it happened, they made
coffee for us--not that day, but next morning going home. It was good
coffee. The 82-foot-drop stunts were done with each of the crew at his
station, ready at any instant to check her.

To mee