e engine-room."

"All right," replied the captain, and he moved forward with the lad to
a small compartment, shut off from the living-room, that served as a
pilot house when the conning tower was not used. The same levers,
wheels and valves were there as up above, and the submarine could be
managed as well from there as from the other place.

"Is everything all right?" asked Mr Swift as he went into the
engine-room, where Garret Jackson and Mr. Sharp were busy with oil cans.

"Everything," replied the balloonist. "Are you going to start now?"

"Yes, we're deep enough for a speed trial. We'll go out to sea,
however, and try for a lower depth record, as soon as there's enough
water. Start the engine."

A moment later the powerful electric currents were flowing into the
forward and aft plates, and the Advance began to gather way, forging
through the water.

"Straight ahead, out to sea, Tom," called his father to him.

"Aye, aye, sir," responded the youth.

"Ha! Quite seaman-like, if you don't mind a reference to it," commented
Captain Weston with a smile. "Mind your helm, boy, for you don't want
to poke her nose into a mud bank, or run up on a shoal."

"Suppose you steer?" suggested the lad. "I'd rather take lessons for a
while."

"All right. Perhaps it will be safer. I know these waters from the top,
though I can't say as much for the bottom. However, I know where the
shoals are."

The powerful searchlight was turned, so as to send its beams along the
path which the submarine was to follow, and then, as she gathered
speed, she shot ahead, gliding through the waters like a fish.

Mr. Damon divided his time between the forward pilot-room, the
living-apartment, and the place where Mr. Swift, Garret Jackson and Mr.
Sharp were working over the engines. Every few minutes he would bless
some part of himself, his clothing, or the ship. Finally the old man
settled down to look through the plate-glass windows in the main
apartment.

On and on went the submarine. She behaved perfectly, and was under
excellent control. Some times Tom, at the request of his father, would
send her toward the surface by means of the deflecting rudder. Then she
would dive to the bottom again. Once, as a test, she was sent obliquely
to the surface, her tower just emerging, and then she darted downward
again, like a porpoise that had come up to roll over, and suddenly
concluded to seek the depths. In fact, had any one seen the maneuver
th