"Be as quick as you can with your observations, Mildmay, and let us get under water again," said the baronet. "We shall perhaps be expected to explain who and what we are if that steamer gets within hail of us, and I am not particularly anxious to do that." The sights were taken, and, whilst the steamer was yet some five miles distant, the _Flying Fish_ quietly sank once more beneath the waves; doubtless to the intense astonishment of those who were making such haste to get alongside her. Rapidly, yet steadily, and with a perfectly level deck, the craft sank lower and lower, the light diminishing momentarily, until it at length vanished altogether, and the darkness became so intense that it was impossible for the occupants of the pilot-house to discern each other; whilst the silence which prevailed around them was first oppressive and then awe-inspiring in its intensity. Suddenly a light shuffling sound arose within the pilot-house, and in another moment the inky depths through which they were descending became brilliantly illuminated with a clear white penetrating light, in which every detail of the ship's hull fore and aft stood out distinctly visible, whilst here and there, above, below, and on either side of them, a momentary gleam revealed the presence of some startled and hastily retreating denizen of the deep. The professor had lighted up the electric lanterns, the especial purpose of which was to illuminate the sea around the ship, leaving the interior of the pilot-house still in darkness, in order that its occupants might enjoy, to the fullest extent, the novelty of the scene thus suddenly revealed to them, and also that, on reaching the bottom, they might the better be able to distinguish external objects. Lower and lower sank the _Flying Fish_, and at length, after what seemed to the travellers an almost interminable descent, she reached the bottom. "Now, gentlemen," exclaimed the professor, with some slight evidences of excitement in the tones of his voice, "look around you, and see if you can discover anything unusual in our neighbourhood." The persons addressed did as they were requested, the professor himself also peering eagerly out of each of the pilot-house windows in turn, but without result; the electric lamps, though they brilliantly illuminated the scene on all sides for fully fifty yards, and rendered objects distinguishable for at least three times that distance, revealed nothing but a plain completely covered with rocks and boulders, some of which were of enormous size, and all thickly overgrown with sea-weed. "What is it you expected to find down here, professor?" asked the colonel, when it had become perfectly evident that nothing but rocks lay within their range of vision. "The hull of a ship," answered the professor. "She foundered on or near the spot indicated by me, and cannot be far off; unless, indeed, we are out in our reckoning. Have you worked out your calculations, Mildmay?"