Field were shaken in that supreme hour, and in his heart he may for a moment have sheltered, though he did not nurture, the thought that the dream of his life was indeed but a chimæra. Who could bear up against a life of picking-up? And our paying-out seemed to have such an undue share of the reverse process attached to it! But there was a change in the fortunes of the ship and of its freight. The index light suddenly reappeared on its path in the Testing-Room, and the wearied watchers were gladdened by the lighting of the beacon of hope once more. Again there was one of those mutations to which the flesh of submarine telegraph layers is born heir, and after a few moments of breathless solicitude, it was announced that the signals between the ship and the shore had been restored, and that every instant developed their strength. Mr. de Sauty came out of the Testing-Room to inform Professor Thomson of the fact, and Mr. Canning’s operations at the bows of the ship for picking up were most gratefully suspended by the intelligence that the machinery would not be required. At 4·15 p.m. the ship steamed on ahead again, and the Terrible and Sphinx were signalled to come on, 37 hours and 10 minutes having been lost by the fault, and consequent detentions. Our position, at noon was found to be, Lat. 51° 58´, Long. 12° 11´; total distance from Valentia, 66½ miles; total Cable payed-out 74 miles (per centage of slack being 14 miles), distance from Heart’s Content, 1,596 miles. The communication with shore continued to improve, and was, in the language of telegraphers, O. K. The alternations of hope and fear to which we had been exposed were now pleasantly terminated for the evening, and the saloon became the scene of joyous and animated conversation, and of a good deal of scientific discussion, till the approach of midnight. The cause of the detention was argued fully, but it was not easy to determine how it came to pass the signalling had been interrupted; it was generally accounted for by the supposition that the order of the tests had become deranged whilst the splices were being made on board, and some of the electricians were inclined to think that the system was defective, because the intervals were so long that the fault might be overboard some time before it could be detected. As the sea and wind rose a little, the speed of the ship was diminished from 6½ knots to 5 knots, at which rate the Cable ran out beautifully throughout the night.