"Well, we are by no means out of the woods yet," responded the ensign drily. He led the way to the forward torpedo room. This was right in the bow of the boat and most of the space was occupied by odd-looking machinery. Wheels, worm gears and strange-looking levers were everywhere. At the farthest end of the steel-walled chamber was a sort of derrick contrivance. This was the piece of machinery used to raise the torpedoes and swing them into the tubes. Like the other machinery on the _Peacemaker_, the derrick was operated by electricity. A pull of a lever and Mr. Barr had set its machinery in motion. The torpedoes were placed on racks so that it was a simple matter to secure them to the lifting chain of the derrick. First one and then another of the polished steel implements of deadly warfare were raised to the mouths of the torpedo tubes which projected into the chamber. Despite their immense weight, the torpedoes were placed within the tubes with no more difficulty than a sportsman experiences in shoving two cartridges into the breech of his gun. In ten minutes from the time the party entered the torpedo chamber, the steel implements of death had been "rammed home" and the breech of the tubes clamped and fastened. On the _Peacemaker_ type of submarine compressed air at an enormous pressure was used to give the torpedoes a start, although, of course, they contained the usual machinery within themselves to drive them through the water after they left the tubes. There followed a moment of suspense as the compressed air, with a hissing sound, rushed into the tubes. Mr. Barr, deadly pale but without a tremor in his voice, announced that all was ready. The ensign merely nodded and began to operate a worm gear which swung the tubes at an acuter angle to the body of the submarine vessel. "I think we are all right now," he said presently. "Very well," spoke the inventor, his hand on a lever, "when you say the word, I'll discharge the torpedoes." "You might as well do it right now," was the response. The inventor, with hands that shook, swung the lever back. There was a hissing sound and a slight tremor as the compressed air shot the torpedoes from the tubes. Less than a second later, simultaneously it seemed, the submarine was rocked and swayed by a terrific convulsion. The boys and their elders were thrown right and left with a force that almost knocked them senseless. It was but a few moments after the explosion of the two torpedoes that Ensign Hargreaves uttered a shout that thrilled them all. "We're rising!" he cried. "My plan succeeded after all!" "I think that we ought to give thanks to Providence," said Mr. Barr reverently. "As the ensign has said, the plan succeeded, but it was taking one chance in a thousand. Had that cliff not been shaken so as to release us, we might have perished miserably and left our fate a mystery."