Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 7.djvu/63

Rh made, which resulted in the following statement: Lat. 48° 47', and 36° 48′ W. L.; dist., 250 miles only. The slowest of the Transatlantic steamers would have had the right to offer to take us in tow. This state of things very much annoyed Captain Anderson. The engineers attributed the failure of pressure to the insufficient ventilation of the new furnaces; but for my part, I thought that the diminution of speed was owing to the diameter of the wheels having been imprudently made smaller.

However, to-day, about two o'clock, there was an improvement in the ship's speed; it was the attitude of the two young lovers which revealed this change to me. Leaning against the bulwarks, they murmured joyful words, clapped their hands, and looked smilingly at the escape-pipes, which were placed near the chimneys, the apertures of which were crowned with a white wreath of vapor. The pressure had risen in the screw boilers; as yet it was only a feeble breath of air, a wavering blast; but our young friends drank it in eagerly with their eyes. No, not even Denis Papin could have been more delighted, when he saw the steam half raise the lid of his celebrated saucepan.

"They smoke! they smoke!" cried the young lady, whilst a light breath also escaped from her parted lips.

"Let us go and look at the engine," said the young man, placing her arm in his. Dean Pitferge had joined me, and we followed the loving couple onto the upper-deck.

"How beautiful is youth!" remarked the Doctor.

"Yes," said I, "youth affianced."

Soon we also were leaning over the railing of the engine-rooms. There, in the deep abyss, at a distance of sixty feet below us, we saw the four long horizontal pistons swaying one towards the other, and with each movement moistened by drops of lubricating oil.

In the meanwhile the young man had taken out his watch, and the girl, leaning over his shoulder, followed the movement of the minute-hand, whilst her lover counted the revolutions of the screw. "One minute," said she.

"Thirty-seven turns," exclaimed the young man.

"Thirty-seven and a half," observed the Doctor.

"And a half," cried the young lady. "You hear, Edward! Thank you, sir," said she, favoring the worthy Pitferge with one of her most pleasing smiles.