nse had been spared to make the cabin luxurious and well appointed.

The walls were richly papered and covered with valuable paintings. The
ceiling was frescoed, and works of art were everywhere to be seen. Rich
couches and chairs invited rest, and the foot sank in the soft pile of a
Turkey carpet.

Captain Vindex arose as our hero entered.

"Take a seat," he said, as the negro retired, closing the door after
him. "I have taken an interest in you, Folsom."

"Thank you," answered Mont coldly.

The captain smiled, approached the end of the room, and, drawing back a
curtain, revealed a splendid organ.

"Do you like music?" he asked.

"Very much," answered Mont. "Play us something. It will enliven me a
bit. I feel awfully low, and I'll give you a game at dominoes or
checkers afterwards, if you like."

Captain Vindex smiled, and, sitting down, played Sousa's "Liberty Bell
March" with great skill.

"Thank you," said Mont, when he had finished. "Very fine. Now will you
tell me how you manage for air?"

"I will not trouble you with chemical details," answered the captain,
"which you would not understand, but when I do not take in air at the
surface, I have some compressed in the reservoir, which, by means of an
apparatus, is wafted all over the ship."

"And about light and moving about?"

"That is the result of electricity, which I make myself. My motive power
is electricity, and I can attain a speed of thirty miles an hour. The
men of the world have not yet discovered half the value of electricity.
My machinery is of the finest kind. If I want to sink to the bottom of
the sea, I fill certain reservoirs I have with water; when I want to
rise, I lighten the ship by letting out the water. In short, I have
invented everything that is necessary for my safety and comfort."

"Wonderful!" ejaculated Mont.

"Your friend, the professor, would understand me, if I were to explain
to him how everything were managed, but to you it all seems as strange
as the first railway train did to the country people through whose
districts it passed. Engineering science is yet in its infancy. The
world has great discoveries to make. You are at present only on the
threshold of the great unknown."

"You work your ship with a screw, I suppose?"

"Exactly. The helmsman sits in a cabin with a glass front, and the
electric light illumines the sea for some distance, so that all is clear
to him."

"Where did you build this extraordinary ve