"No; and I guess we'll soon have her in the water, Tom, now that you and Mr.Sharp are here to help us," replied Garret Jackson.
"We ought to have Mr.Damon here to bless the submarine and his liver and collar buttons a few times," put in Mr.Sharp, who brought in another bundle.He referred to an eccentric individual Who had recently made an airship voyage with himself and Tom, Mr.Damon's peculiarity being to use continually such expressions as: "Bless my soul! Bless my liver!""Well, I'll be glad when we can make a trial trip," went on Tom."I've traveled pretty fast on land with my motor- cycle, and we certainly have hummed through the air.Now I want to see how it feels to scoot along under water.""Well, if everything goes well we'll be in position to make a trial trip inside of a month," remarked the aged inventor."look here, Mr.Sharp, I made a change in the steering gear, which I'd like you and Tom to consider."The three walked around to the rear of the odd-looking structure, if an object shaped like a cigar can be said to have a front and rear, and the inventor, his son, and the aeronaut were soon deep in a discussion of the technicalities connected with under-water navigation.
A little later they went into the house, in response to a summons from the supper bell, vigorously rung by Mrs.Baggert.She was not fond of waiting with meals, and even the most serious problem of mechanics was, in her estimation, as nothing compared with having the soup get cold, or the possibility of not having the meat done to a turn.
The meal was interspersed with remarks about the recent airship flight of Tom and Mr.Sharp, and discussions about the new submarine.This talk went on even after the table was cleared off and the three had adjourned to the sitting- room.There Mr.Swift brought out pencil and paper, and soon he and Mr.Sharp were engrossed in calculating the pressure per square inch of sea water at a depth of three miles.
"Do you intend to go as deep as that?" asked Tom, looking up from apaper he was reading.
"Possibly," replied his father; and his son resumed his perusal of the sheet.
"Now," went on the inventor to the aeronaut, "I have another plan.In addition to the positive and negative plates which will form our motive power, I am going to install forward and aft propellers, to use in case of accident.""I say, dad! Did you see this?" suddenly exclaimed Tom, getting up from his chair, and holding his finger on a certain place in the page of the paper.
"Did I see what?" asked Mr.Swift.
