Under the Ocean to the South Pole | Page 4

to-morrow," announced the inventor after supper one night. "Everything is complete as far as I can make it, and the only thing remaining is to see if she will float, sink when I want her to, and, what is most important, rise to the surface again. For," he added with a twinkle in his eye, "anybody can make a ship that will sink, but it isn't every one who can make one that will come to the surface again."
"Golly! I hope dis chile ain't goin' to git in no subicecream ship what'll stay down under de water so de fishes gits him!" exclaimed Washington, opening his eyes wide. "Dat's worser dan freezin!"
"Can't you swim?" asked Mark with a wink at Jack.
"Co'se I can swim, boy. I can swim like a starfish, but I can't wif ten thousand tons of a subicecream ship on my back."
"A sub-ice-cream ship is a new one," commented the professor with a smile. "It's a submarine, Washington."
"I can't see no difference," persisted the colored man. "Subicecream am good enough for me."
That night Mark and Jack were thinking so much of the proposed test of the ship the next day that they each dreamed they were sailing beneath the waves, and Jack woke Mark up by grabbing him about the neck during a particularly vivid part of the vision.
"What's the matter?" inquired Mark, sleepily.
"I thought the ship turned over and spilled me out and I was drowning," explained Jack. "I grabbed the first thing I got hold of and it happened to be you."
"Well, as long as you're safe you can go to sleep again," said Mark. "I dreamed I was chasing a whale with the Porpoise."
The boys were up early the next morning, and found the professor and Washington before them. The inventor was inspecting the track which had been built from the shed down to the water's edge to enable the Porpoise to slide into the ocean.
With him were the two machinists, Henry Watson and James Penson. They had been busy since daylight making the ways secure.
"She goes in after breakfast," announced the professor, "and I'm going to let you christen her, Washington."
"Me? I neber christened a ship," objected the colored man.
"Nothing like learning," remarked Mr. Henderson.
"Has you got the bottle ob wine?" asked Washington.
"I guess soda water will do," said the inventor. "Now look sharp, boys. Get your breakfasts and we'll see if the ship will come up to our expectations."
No one lingered over the meal. When it was finished the professor gave Washington a few instructions about breaking the bottle over the nose of the Porpoise as she slid down to the water, for there was no bow to such a queerly shaped vessel as the submarine.
At last all was in readiness. The two machinists knocked away the last of the retaining blocks and eased the ship slightly down the well-greased timbers of the ways.
"There she goes!" cried the professor. "Break the bottle, Washington!"
"In de name ob de Stars an' Stripes, in de name of liberty, de home of the free an' de land ob de brave, I names yo' Mrs. Porpoise!" cried the colored man, but he was so long getting the words out, and so slow in swinging the bottle of soda, that the ship was quite beyond his reach when he had finished his oration. He was not to be outdone, however, and, with a quick movement he hurled the bottle at the moving ship. It struck the blunt nose squarely, and shivered to pieces.
"Three cheers for de south pole!" yelled Washington, and the others joined in.
The next instant the Porpoise was riding the waves of the little bay, dancing about as lightly as a cork, though, from the nature of her construction, she was quite low in the water, only about three feet of freeboard showing where the platform was located.
"Well, she floats, anyhow," remarked the professor. "Row out and fasten cables fore and aft," he went on, turning to the two machinists. In a few minutes the Porpoise was fastened to a small dock with strong ropes the two young men had carried out to her in rowboats.
"We will go aboard in a little while," the professor said. "I am anxious to see if she rides on an even keel and how the sinking tanks work."
Aided by the boys, he and Washington carried on board a number of tools and appliances. Then, with the two machinists, they all descended into the interior of the craft through the small manhole in the middle of the deck or platform.
Inside the Porpoise, the greater part of which was below the surface of the waves and consequently in darkness, the professor switched on the electric lights and then he proceeded to get up steam.
The propelling power of the craft has already been