Old Fismes, wagging his tail and laying his silken ears back by way of recognition, stalked sheepishly across the room and licked the outstretched hand of the youth on the cot. "I owe my life to you, and I'll guard your life as long as life is spared to me," said Dick as he pulled the nose of the dog over on the counterpane and stroked the still wet head. "Back to Brighton he goes with us; and he'll be the best mascot the academy ever had," added Jay emphatically. Dick nodded approval with a smile and sank back on his pillow to rest again, weak from the exertion. In another hour the repairs had been completed and the _Jules Verne_ was able to move again under her own power. The _Nautilus_ had been raised, but so far there had been no opportunity to determine whether the diving chamber had been damaged. "But that is small concern, indeed, when we consider the fact that these two brave young divers are safe and sound again after a terrible experience," exclaimed Superintendent Brown as he directed Captain Austin to start back again to Bridgeford. CHAPTER XVIII HONORS FOR HEROES It was the sixteenth day of August. Only a month remained until Brighton Academy was scheduled to begin another school year. And what a year it promised to be! Many lads who had dropped out of school at the beginning of the World War were expected to return again to the familiar dormitories to renew old friendships and to continue the interrupted courses of study that would fit them either for college entrance or for active careers of usefulness in the world of work. None looked forward more eagerly to the commencement of this new school year than Jay Thacker and Richard Monaghan, the two lads who had been spending the summer vacation, following their discharge from service in the spring, with the Bridgeford Salvage Company in the reclamation of lost treasure and in testing out new apparatus lately devised by shipyard officials, together with noted scientists. Ten days' rest had served to restore the boys completely to good health again after their harrowing experience in the _Nautilus_ when they had been trapped at the bottom of Long Island Sound. Jay had come through entirely unaffected by his experience. As for Dick, he had felt the effects of his experience more severely. The bump that he had received when hurled against the side of the _Nautilus_ by the explosion of the time bomb in the sunken coal barge had bruised him up somewhat, although no bones were broken. The nervous strain, together with the prolonged stay under heavy pressure, had left their marks. For a few days he had remained dazed; but in the end his iron constitution had triumphed. Expert medical attention, combined with complete rest, had brought him around in fine shape again. One morning just a week after the affair in the Sound the boys were summoned to the office of Superintendent Brown. "Bring Fismes along with you," was the additional summons.