man, in the prime of life--a man of cool common sense, a
practical man, who is also an inventor. And he talks frankly and
convincingly, and yet modestly, of his accomplishment.

Having finished our lunch, Mr. Lake prepared to show us something
about the practical operations of the _Argonaut_. It has been a
good deal of a mystery to us how workmen penned up in a submarine
boat could expect to recover gold from wrecks in the water
outside, or to place torpedoes, or to pick up cables. "We simply
open the door, and the diver steps out on the bottom of the sea,"
Mr. Lake said, quite as if he was conveying the most ordinary
information.

At first it seemed incredible, but Mr. Lake showed us the heavy,
riveted door in the bottom of the diver's compartment. Then he
invited us inside with Wilson, who, besides being an engineer, is
also an expert diver. The massive steel doors of the little room
were closed and barred, and then Mr. Lake turned a cock and the
air rushed in under high pressure. At once our ears began to
throb, and it seemed as if the drums would burst inward.

"Keep swallowing," said Wilson, the diver.

As soon as we applied this remedy, the pain was relieved, but the
general sensation of increased air pressure, while exhilarating,
was still most uncomfortable. The finger on the pressure dial
kept creeping up and up, until it showed that the air pressure
inside of the compartment was nearly equal to the water pressure
without. Then Wilson opened a cock in the door. Instantly the
water gushed in, and for a single instant we expected to be
drowned there like rats in a trap. "This is really very simple,"
Mr. Lake was saying calmly. "When the pressure within is the same
as that without, no water can enter."

With that, Wilson dropped the iron door, and there was the water
and the muddy bottom of the sea within touch of a man's hand. It
was all easy enough to understand, and yet it seemed impossible,
even as we saw it with our own eyes. Mr. Lake stooped down, and
picked up a wooden rod having a sharp hook at the end. This he
pulled along the bottom....

We were now rising again to the surface, after being submerged
for more than three hours. I climbed into the conning-tower and
watched for the first glimpse of the sunlight. There w