The
Advance remained stationary on the ocean bed. Mr. Swift
looked up from his notes.
"Didn't you hear me ask you to send her up, Tom?" he
inquired mildly.
"I did, dad, but something seems to be the matter," was
the reply.
"Matter? What do you mean?" and the aged inventor hastened
to where his son and Captain Weston were at the wheels,
valves and levers.
"Why, the tanks won't empty, and the pumps don't seem to
work."
"Let me try," suggested Mr. Swift, and he pulled the
various handles. There was no corresponding action of the
machinery.
"That's odd," he remarked in a curious voice "Perhaps
something has gone wrong with the connections. Go look in
the engine-room, and ask Mr. Sharp if everything is all
right there."
Tom made a quick trip, returning to report that the
dynamos, motors and gas engine were running perfectly.
"Try to work the tank levers and pumps from the conning
tower," suggested Captain Weston. "Sometimes I've known the
steam steering gear to play tricks like that."
Tom hurried up the circular stairway into the tower. He
pulled the levers and shifted the valves and wheels there.
But there was no emptying of the water tanks. The weight and
pressure of water in them still held the submarine on the
bottom of the sea, more than a mile from the surface.
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