he chance."

The trip was resumed after the diving chamber had been closed, and on
the third day Captain Weston announced, after a look at his chart, that
they were nearing the Bahama Islands.

"We'll have to be careful not to run into any of the small keys," he
said, that being the name for the many little points of land, hardly
large enough to be dignified by the name of island. "We must keep a
constant lookout."

Fortune favored them, though once, when Tom was steering, he narrowly
avoided ramming a coral reef with the submarine. The searchlight
showed it to him just in time, and he sheered off with a thumping in
his heart.

The course was changed from south to east, so as to get ready to swing
out of the way of the big shoulder of South America where Brazil takes
up so much room, and as they went farther and farther toward the
equator, they noticed that the waters teemed more and more with fish,
some beautiful, some ugly and fear-inspiring, and some such monsters
that it made one shudder to look at them, even through the thick glass
of the bulls-eye windows.

Chapter Fifteen

At the Tropical Island

It was on the evening of the fourth day later that Captain Weston, who
was steering the craft, suddenly called out:

"Land ho!"

"Where away?" inquired Tom quickly, for he had read that this was the
proper response to make.

"Dead ahead," answered the sailor with a smile. "Shall we make for it,
if I may be allowed the question?"

"What land is it likely to be?" Mr. Swift wanted to know.

"Oh, some small tropical island," replied the seafaring man. "It isn't
down on the charts. Probably it's too small to note. I should say it
was a coral island, but we may be able to find a Spring of fresh water
there, and some fruit."

"Then we'll land there," decided the inventor. "We can use some fresh
water, though our distilling and ice apparatus does very well."

They made the island just at dusk, and anchored in a little lagoon,
where there was a good depth of water.

"Now for shore!" cried Tom, as the submarine swung around on the chain.
"It looks like a fine place. I hope there are cocoanuts and oranges
here. Shall I get out the electric launch, dad?"

"Yes, you may, and we'll all go ashore. It will do us good to stretch
our legs a bit."

Carried in a sort of pocket on the deck of the submarine was a small
electric boat, capable of holding six. It could be slid from the
pocket, or depression, into