Such a length of time had elapsed since the expedition left Newfoundland that the staff at Foilhommerum, under the superintendence of Mr. James Graves, felt they were almost hoping against hope. Suddenly, on a Sunday morning at a quarter to six, while the tiny ray of light from the reflecting instrument was being watched, the operator observed it moving to and fro upon the scale. A few minutes later the unsteady flickering was changed to coherency. The long-speechless cable began to talk, and the welcome assurance arrived, "Ship to shore; I have much pleasure in speaking to you through the 1865 cable. Just going to make splice." Glad tidings were also sent from the ship via Valentia to London, and, by means of the 1866 cable, to Newfoundland and New York. Thus it happened that those being tossed about in a stormy sea held conversation with Europe and America at one and the same time.[67] "_Putting Through._"--The recovered end was spliced on without delay to the cable on board, and the same morning at seven o'clock the Great Eastern started paying out about 680 nautical miles of cable toward Newfoundland. On September 8th, when only thirteen miles from the Bay of Heart's Content, just after receiving a summary of the news in The Times of that morning, the tests showed a fault in the cable. The mischief was soon found to be on board the ship, and caused by the end of a broken wire, which, bending at right angles under the weight of the men employed in the tanks, had been forced into the core. This occurrence explained the probable cause of the faults (of same character) which had shown themselves during paying out the year before, tending to remove all suspicion of malicious intent. The faulty portion having been cut out, and the splice made without delay, paying out again proceeded, finishing the same day at eleven o'clock in the forenoon. The Medway immediately set to work laying the shore end, and that evening a second line of communication across the Atlantic was completed. The total length of this cable, commenced in 1865, was 1,896 miles; average depth, 1,900 fathoms. [Illustration: FIG. 42.--S.S. Great Eastern with 1865 Cable at Bows; Depth, 2 Miles.]