hrimp, and several little fish of various kinds, all of
which we may add, seemed to have various degrees of curiosity. One
particular little fish, named a goby, and celebrated for its wide-awake
nature and impudence, actually came to the front-glass of the helmet and
looked in. But the diver was too busy to pay attention to it. Nothing
abashed, the goby went to each of the side-windows, but, receiving no
encouragement, it made for a convenient ledge of the rock, where,
resting its fore-fins on a barnacle, it turned its head a little on one
side and looked on in silence. Finding this rather tedious, after a
time it went, with much of the spirit of a London street-boy, and,
passing close to the shrimp, tweaked the end of one of its feelers,
causing that volatile creature to vanish. It then made a demonstration
of attack on the crab, but that crustaceous worthy, sitting up on its
hind-legs and expanding both claws with a very "come-on-if-you-dare"
aspect, bid it defiance.

Meanwhile the charge was laid, and Maxwell rose to return to the world
above. Feeling a certain uncomfortable hotness in the air he breathed,
and observing that his legs were remarkably thin, and that his dress was
clasped somewhat too lovingly about his person, he became aware of the
fact that, having neglected to reclose the front-valve, his supply of
air was now insufficient. He therefore shut the valve and began to wend
his way back to the ladder. By the time he reached it the air in his
dress had swelled him out to aldermanic dimensions, so that he pulled
himself up the ladder-rope, hand over hand, with the utmost ease--having
previously given four pulls on his life-line to signal "coming up." A
few seconds more and his head was seen to emerge from the surface, like
some goggle-eyed monster of the briny deep.

A comrade at once advanced and unscrewed his front-glass, and then, but
not till then, did the men at the pumps cease their labours.

"All right," said Maxwell, stepping over the side and seating himself on
his plank.

"Stand by," said Baldwin.

The two satellites did not require that order, for they were already
standing by with a small electrical machine. The wire before mentioned
as being connected with the charge of powder, now safely lodged in the
hole at the bottom of the sea, was connected with the electrical
machine, and a few vigorous turns of its handle were given, while every
eye was turned expectantly on the surface