Page:St. Nicholas (serial) (IA stnicholasserial402dodg).pdf/601

1913.] “Oh, we have lots of compressed air, but we use it for other things. We don't have any other air to breathe, except what is shut up in here with us, There is enough air in this hold to last us comfortably for twelve hours, and, on a pinch, we could get along for twenty-four hours.”

“Never!” we both exclaimed,

“Does n't it ever make you sick?” asked Will.

“Oh, no, this idea of having to have fresh air is all rubbish. It is n't the lack of oxygen that bothers us down here in the submarine, but the fumes of gasolene and oil, and particularly the gases from the battery.”

‘There was a sharp command from our captain, in response to which the man in charge of the diving rudders turned a hand-wheel. The boat dipped and lurched forward. We watched the indicator hand travel slowly over the dial of the depth-gage. Five feet, ten feet, fifteen, eighteen, twenty—there we halted. We procceded for a time at that depth below the surface, I climbed up into the conning-tower, but could see nothing but the dense green which completely covered us. However, the ends of the periscopes were well above the surface, and navigation was a simple matter, I was allowed to look through one of the submarine’s eyes, and, while I was looking, the captain gave the command to dive. Presently, the water surged up over the top of the periscope, and instinctively I rose on tiptoes and drew in my breath, as if I were actually being submerged in the water. As we continued to sink, it was fascinating to watch the gage telling off the depth. At sixty-five feet below the surface, we came to an even keel.

“No danger of running into any boats now,” said the chief gunner’s mate as he looked at the gage. “I should n't be surprised if we were near the enemy. Very likely we are going to run under them, and fire our torpedoes from the other side.

We hurried forward to witness the operation of launching the torpedoes. They were unusually interesting-looking objects, shaped like cigars, with blunt forward ends, aud fins at the rear crossing each other at right angles. They weighed sixteen hundred pounds each. The explosive was packed in the “war-head,” or “cap,” at the forward end. We were relieved to find that dummy war-heads were used for target practice, and that there were no explosives aboard. The main body