Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/428

 "No, I didn't, Sam, an' what 's more, I wouldn't believe it if I did."

"It is true, nevertheless," said Sam, breaking his fifth egg—sea breezes being appetising.

"How did it happen, Sam?" asked Madge.

"In a very curious manner, Madge. It will amuse Letta, for I know she takes a deep interest in cables."

"Indeed it will," said Letta, who was the soul of earnest simplicity; "I delight in electric cables."

Robin looked at Letta, and wished that he were an electric cable!

"It happened to the Persian Gulf cable, quite recently," continued Sam, addressing himself to Letta. "The cable between Kurrachee and Gwadur, a distance of 300 miles, suddenly failed one evening. Now, you must know that electrical science has advanced with such rapid strides of late, that we have the power to discover pretty nearly the exact position of a fault in a cable. Of course I cannot expect a young lady to understand the technical details of the mode in which this is done, but you will understand that by tests taken at either end the damage appeared to be about 118 miles from Kurrachee, and a telegraph steamer was sent with an electrical and engineering staff to repair it. The steamer reached the supposed locality early on the morning of the second day out, and proceeded