Under the Ocean to the South Pole | Page 2

flow of language.
"Yo' mind what I tole yo'," Washington muttered as he hurried into the
work room.
Soon the reports of rifles indicated that the boys were trying to discover
who was the best shot, a contest that waged with friendly interest for
some time.
The big shed, where the submarine ship was being built, was located at
a lonely spot on the coast of Maine. The nearest town was Easton,
about ten miles away, and Professor Henderson had fixed on this
location as one best suited to give him a chance to work secretly and
unobserved on his wonderful invention.
The professor was a man about sixty-five years old, and, while of
simple and kindly nature in many ways, yet, on the subjects of airships
and submarines, he possessed a fund of knowledge. He was somewhat
queer, as many persons may be who devote all their thoughts to one
object, yet he was a man of fine character.
Some time before this story opens he had invented an electric airship in
which he, with Mark Sampson, Jack Darrow and the colored man,
Washington White, had made a trip to the frozen north.
Their adventures on that journey are told of in the first volume of this
series, entitled, "Through the Air to the North Pole, or, The Wonderful
Cruise of the Electric Monarch."
The two boys, Mark then being fifteen and Jack a year older, had met
the professor under peculiar circumstances. They were orphans, and,
after knocking about the world a bit, had chanced to meet each other.
They agreed to seek together such fortune as might chance to come to
them.
While in the town of Freeport, N. Y., they were driven away by a
constable, who said tramps were not allowed in the village. The boys

jumped on a freight train, which broke in two and ran away down the
mountain, and the lads were knocked senseless in the wreck that
followed.
As it chanced Professor Henderson had erected nearby a big shop,
where he was building his airship. He and Washington were on hand
when the wreck occurred and they took the senseless boys to the airship
shed.
The boys, after their recovery, accepted the invitation of the professor
to go on a search for the north pole. As the airship was about to start
Andy Sudds, an old hunter, and two men, Tom Smith and Bill Jones,
who had been called in to assist at the flight, held on too long and were
carried aloft.
Somewhat against their will the three latter made the trip, for the
professor did not want to return to earth with them.
The party had many adventures on the voyage, having to fight savage
animals and more savage Esquimaux. They reached the north pole, but
in the midst of such a violent storm that the ship was overturned, and
the discovery of the long-sought goal availed little. After many
hardships, and a fierce fight to recover the possession of the ship,
which had been seized by natives, the adventurers reached home.
Since then a little over a year had passed. The professor, having found
he could successfully navigate the air, turned his attention to the water,
and began to plan a craft that would sail beneath the ocean.
To this end he had moved his machine shop to this lonely spot on the
Maine coast. The two boys, who had grown no less fond of the old man
than he of them, went with him, as did Washington White, the negro,
who was a genius in his way, though somewhat inclined to use big
words, of the meaning of which he knew little and cared less.
Andy Sudds, the old hunter, had also been induced to accompany the
professor.

"I hunted game up north and in the air," said Andy, "and if there's a
chance to shoot something under the water I'm the one to do it."
Needing more assistance than either the boys, Andy or Washington
could give, the professor had engaged two young machinists, who,
under a strict promise never to divulge any of the secrets of the
submarine, had labored in its building.
Now the queer craft was almost finished. As it rested on the ways in the
shed, it looked exactly like a big cigar, excepting that the top part was
level, forming a platform.
The ship, which had been named the Porpoise, was eighty feet long,
and twenty feet in diameter at the largest part. From that it tapered
gradually, until the ends were reached. These consisted of flattened
plates about three feet in diameter, with a hole in the center one foot in
size.
Weary months of labor had been spent on the Porpoise, until now it
was almost ready for a trial. The