out half an hour
the sun would rise, but the sea and the sky still floated together in
the colorless drab of early dawn and permitted one only to imagine, not
see, that partition wall, the horizon.

Unceasingly our binoculars pierced the gray dusk of daybreak. Suddenly a
shiver went through my body when--only a second immovable and in intense
suspense--a dark shadow within range of the spy-glass made me jump. The
shadow grew and became larger, like a giant on the horizon--one mast;
one, two, three, four funnels--a destroyer.

A quick command--I leap down into the tower. The water rushes into the
diving tanks. The conning tower covers slam tight behind me--and the
agony which follows tries our patience, while we count seconds with
watches in hand until the tanks are filled, and the boat slips below the
sea.

Never in my life did a second seem so long to me. The destroyer, which
is not more than two thousand meters distant from us, has, of course,
seen us, and is speeding for us as fast as her forty thousand horse
power can drive her. From the guns mounted on her bow flash one shot
after another aimed to destroy us.

Good God! If he only does not hit! Just one little hit, and we are lost!
Already the water splashes on the outside of the conning tower up to the
glass windows through which I see the dark ghost, streaking straight
for us. It is terrifying to hear the shells bursting all around us in
the water. It sounds like a triphammer against a steel plate, and closer
and closer come the metallic crashes. The rascal is getting our range.

There--the fifth shot--the entire boat trembles--then the deceitful
daylight disappears from the conning tower window. The boat obeys the
diving rudder and submerges into the sea.

A reddish-yellow light shines all around us; the indicator of the
manometer, which measures our depth, points to eight meters, nine
meters, ten meters, twelve meters. Saved!

What a happy, unexplainable sensation to know that you are hiding deep
in the infinite ocean! The heart, which had stopped beating during
these long seconds because it had no time to beat, again begins its
pounding.

Our boat sinks deeper and deeper. It obeys, as does a faithful horse the
slightest pressure of a rider's knees, which, in this case, are the
diving rudders placed in the bow and the stern. The manometer now shows
twenty-four meters, twenty-six meters. I had given orders we should go
down to thirty meters.

Above u