It was several minutes before he returned. But when he rejoined us, his face wore a look of undisguised amazement. Furtively and almost shamefacedly he peered at us, like one who fancies he is losing his wits. “Well, sir, how far below are we now?” I questioned. The Captain cleared his throat, and hesitated perceptibly before replying. “I---- I really don’t know. I can’t understand---- I can’t understand it at all. If the instruments aren’t out of order, we’re exactly forty-two feet below!” I gasped stupidly; then suggested, “No doubt, sir, the instruments are out of order.” “They are not!” denied the Captain. “I’ve tested them!” Again the Captain hesitated briefly; then abruptly he resumed, “Besides, as you know, there are two instruments. They both record forty-two feet. Surely, they can’t both be wrong in exactly the same way.” There ensued a moment of silence, during which we stared dully at one another, filled with mute questionings we would not dare to put into words. “But how do you explain----” I at length started to inquire. “I don’t explain at all!” interrupted the officer. “We’re simply running counter to all natural laws! According to all estimates, we should be nearly a mile deep by now!” And the Captain stood stroking his chin in grave perplexity. Then turning suddenly to us all, he remarked, “I can’t see how it can be true, boys; but if we’re only forty-two feet deep, then maybe the engines will have life enough in them to pull us out. At least, it’s a chance worth taking.” Half an hour later, after a few instructions and the assignment of the crew to duty, we had the pleasure of hearing once more the churning and throbbing of the engines. At first it promised to be a barren pleasure indeed, for the abused machinery gasped and sputtered as though determined upon a permanent strike; but finally after many vain efforts, we were greeted by the continuous buzzing of the motors. Then we found ourselves slowly moving, at first scarcely faster than the current, but with gradually increasing velocity; and by degrees we felt the deck taking on an upward slope as the nose of the vessel was pointed toward the surface of the waters. It was not an easy pull, for our three flooded compartments were powerfully inclined to hold us to the bottom; and in the beginning we made very little progress; several times we felt our hull scraping the ocean floor. Eventually, the engines, waxing to their full power, began to cleave the water at gratifying speed, and we found that we were moving definitely, though slowly upward.