To the Navy officers this experience carried with it
no dread. The "Pollard" might prove, under severe test, wholly unfit to
stand the pressure below surface. Their death might be but a minute or
two away, but with these Naval officers it was all in the line of duty.
It was not, with the members of the board, so much a matter of actual
grit as of constant association with all forms of danger.
"We're going pretty low," muttered Mr. Farnum to himself, as he read the
gauge.
"Can we stand much more depth?" wondered David Pollard, inwardly uneasy,
though outwardly calm. A moment later he told himself:
"Jack Benson has never been as low as this before!"
"It won't take much more of this to make further trial trips of no
interest to us," almost shivered Jacob Farnum.
Yet Jack, true to his word, allowed the "Pollard" to sink lower and
lower. He was waiting for the word--or the bottom!
CHAPTER XIV
FOOLING THE NAVY, BUT ONLY ONCE
Commander Ennerling bent forward to read the submergence gauge.
"Jove, but you've really your nerve with you, Captain Benson," he
declared, simply.
"Confidence in the boat, sir," Jack answered coolly.
Up in the conning tower, where he could observe the duplicate gauge, Eph
Somers, though not easily frightened, was beginning to feel more than
curious.
"If we go much deeper, I'll sure let out a yell," Eph gritted, between
his teeth.
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