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 a paper 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.
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