CHAPTER XXVII.
THE ENDURANCE RUN.
The ensuing days, following the return to the island, were filled tooverflowing with activity. Exhaustive tests only made the _Peacemaker_appear to be more and more the ideal type of boat for her particularwork. By means of the island wireless Ensign Hargreaves, using "code" ofcourse, sent glowing accounts to Washington of the progress of thetests. In these despatches, too, the Boy Scouts were favorably mentionedfor their pluck and heroism in the pursuit of Berghoff and his rascallycompanions.
One day, about two weeks after the return to the island, it wasdetermined by the ensign and Mr. Barr to make quite a run out to sea totest to the full the endurance capacity of the _Peacemaker_. Rob andMerritt were chosen to accompany them. The rest of the boys were left toguard the island, which, among other valuable property, now housed theprecious ivory hoard recovered in such a strange manner.
The day dawned with a red, angry sky proclaiming nasty weather. Butthis, instead of dampening the ardor of the inventor and his aides, onlyincreased it. It meant that the submarine was in for a real test in abad sea.
By the time they were ready to start, the wind had freshened into half agale and a high sea was running, heaping up big gray combers with whitetops which broke angrily.
Into this storm the _Peacemaker_ was headed without hesitation. On boardwere the ensign, the inventor, Rob and Merritt. The two latter were toserve watch and watch in the engine room, while the inventor and theensign placed themselves under a similar arrangement in the conningtower.
Both Rob and Merritt were by this time fully conversant with the runningof the _Peacemaker's_ intricate machinery and were trusted to the fullby their superior officers.
"Gee! This feels like being afloat in an empty bottle!" exclaimedMerritt as the _Peacemaker_ headed into the tumbling seas.
"It sure does," responded Rob, hanging on to a handhold while he oiled abearing. "I suppose they want to see how much she'll stand on thesurface."
"Wonder they wouldn't dive and give us a chance to get a little quiet,"observed Merritt as the rolling, bucking _Peacemaker_ leaped, as itseemed, skyward and then plunged dizzily down again.
"There must be a hummer of a sea outside. Guess, as I'm off duty, I'llgo up and see what's doing," said Rob presently.
He made his way with much difficulty toward the steel ladder leadinginto the conning tower. The passage could only be made by fits andstarts, and the boy for the first time realized the necessity of thehandholds placed at frequent intervals on the cabin walls, to whichreference has already been made.
Reaching the ladder he scrambled up into the conning tower, and, onceinside, braced himself against the wild and erratic motions of the_Peacemaker_. To see through the lenses was impossible. The seas thatswept over the little craft blurred the glass with green water andobscured everything outside. But on the _Peacemaker_ this condition didnot matter. The contingency had been provided for.
The long arm of the periscope with its "eye" on top had been raised, andit reached far above the biggest combers. In front of the helmsman, whohappened to be Mr. Barr, was a big plate of ground glass on which everyobject outside was plainly shown, although of course in miniature.Those of my readers who have ever seen a "camera obscura" will recognizewhat I mean.
Upon the ground glass, as within a picture frame, was reproduced themotion of the furious seas, the scurrying clouds and the angry stormwrack. It was an inspiring marine painting, with the motion and sweepthat an actual painting could never possess. It thrilled Rob as he gazedat it and realized that it was through this pandemonium of the stormthat the _Peacemaker_ was bravely fighting her way.
"Better slow down a bit, hadn't I?" asked Mr. Barr as the _Peacemaker_,urged by her powerful engines, ploughed right through a mountainous sea.
As she bored her way through the mighty wall of green water, a roar likethat of a railroad train resounded and the craft pitched as if she weregoing to plunge to the bottom of the sea. This latter, in fact, Robrather wished she would do. He knew that in the depths all would bequiet and undisturbed.
In reply to Mr. Barr's question, the ensign nodded.
"The strain is already pretty strong," he said; "we don't want to forceher too hard."
Accordingly the inventor, utilizing the auto control device, cut downthe speed till, instead of ploughing through the waves, the _Peacemaker_skimmed over them. Unlike most submarines, which cannot do otherwisethan plunge into heavy seas, the _Peacemaker's_ hull was so constructedthat she rode the waves like a duck.
After a while the sensation of heaving and falling began to get upon Mr.Barr's nerves.
"I'm feeling a bit squeamish," he declared; "let's dive and get out ofthis."
The ensign nodded and laughed.
"Our friend Rob here is getting a bit pale, too," he said; "and as wedon't want a sea-sick crew, maybe we had better seek the seclusion ofDavy Jones' locker."
An instant later the _Peacemaker_ was plunging downward. At a depth oftwenty feet the angry motion of the waves was unfelt. In those dimdepths all was as quiet and undisturbed as if the elements were atperfect peace above.
Down, down dropped the submarine till her depth indicator showed thatshe was submerged five hundred fathoms.
"The chart gives seven hundred hereabouts," commented Ensign Hargreaves,glancing at it; "so I guess we are safe for forty miles more before thefloor of the ocean slopes upward. We must go up a bit higher then."
The inventor nodded.
"I understand," he said, and then, "we are now running at what speed?"
The ensign turned to the speed indicator.
"A trifle under twenty miles an hour," he said.
Mr. Barr glanced at the clock before him, which was illuminated by atiny shaded electric bulb.
"I'll keep on this course at this speed for about two hours then," hedetermined.
"That will be all right, I imagine," was the rejoinder, "but don't keepon too long. The bed of the sea, according to the chart, rises up veryrapidly further on. It must be almost cliff-like in its suddenelevation."
"I'll be on the lookout," the inventor assured him.
Rob descended the ladder once more and reentered the engine room to findout how Merritt was getting along. He found the young engineer seated onthe leather lounge alongside the engines watching them lovingly.
"Work smoothly, don't they?" he said.
"They sure do," was the other's response; "smoothly as a Geneva watch."
The boys sat chatting on various matters, and the time flew alongrapidly till Rob suddenly looked at his watch.
"Almost two hours. It's time we were rising," he said.
"What do we want to rise for? It's deep enough here, isn't it?"
"That's just it. The ensign says that the chart shows that a sort ofsubmarine cliff looms up right ahead of us somewhere hereabouts."
"Great ginger snaps! I thought the bottom of the sea was as level as afloor."
"Not a bit of it. It's as full of mountainous regions and flat,depressed plains and valleys as the Rockies themselves."
"Gee whiz! I'd hate to hit one of them. I----"
Merritt stopped short. A terrific crash shook the submarine from stem tostern. Rob saved himself from falling into the machinery by seizing arail.
For an instant the vibration lasted, and then the diving craft came to adead stop.
The boys gazed at each other with blanched faces.
Did the crash mean that they had actually struck one of the submergedranges that make deep sea traveling full of dangers? Had Mr. Barrdelayed too long in rising?
On the answer to these questions both boys felt that their livesdepended.
They were still regarding each other with consternation when the ensignburst into the cabin.
"Shut off the engines instantly!" he ordered.
"What have we struck? That submerged cliff that you feared?" Rob managedto gasp out, while Merritt hastened to obey the officer's command.
"I--I don't know," was the reply, "but I fear that we are in seriousdanger!"
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