"It might be a cloud for all I can tell," he said, as he handed
the binoculars back to Tom.
"Well, it's a steamer all right, and she's under forced draft,
too, if I'm any judge. We'll go below before she sights us."
"Perhaps she has already," suggested Ned, as the crew began
clearing the submarine's deck.
"No, we lie too low in the water for that. Well, now we can
start our underwater observations of current trends."
It did not take long, once she started, for the M. N. 1 to go
down. Just as the sun sank below the horizon, and while the
smudge of smoke was becoming more distinct, the waves closed
over the steel deck of the submarine. Half an hour later she was
nearly a quarter of a mile below the surface, resting on the
bottom of the sea again.
On this trip Tom did not go to any such depths as he did on his
former voyage in the Advance. Not that the reconstructed
submarine was not capable of it, for she was even stronger than
when first built. But the wreck they were seeking did not lie in
so great a depth of water, and there was no need of running
useless risks.
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