Max Pemberton

“ It seemed an age before the seas closed over the cupola beneath which we sat; our eyes were down to the water-line, there was no longer anything to be seen but a waste of the swell and the frost of the spindrift upon the glasses—and now these vanished, and the waves surged round about until a man might have believed that they would run cold upon his face presently and draw him down to the embrace of death. ”

“ Motioning me to go down, the Captain entered the tower, and the steel plates closed behind us and shut us in beyond any hope if the ship were struck or sinking. But I thought little of that, for the spell of the descent and the place was upon me. We were going below the sea again; we were sinking down to the deep of the ocean to look upon a scene the eyes of man had never looked upon before. ”

“ I heard the clanging of steel doors, and then the loud voices of men. The engines of the submarine had ceased to revolve, and we lay in the trough, rolling to a gentle swell and hardly lifting to the wash of it. ”

“ Another word of provocation and that would have been the end of it. But something, I may suppose, in my manner of speaking held him back. His hand fell impotently to his side; he looked me full in the face and answered me.
"So," he said, "you have known me, yet your lesson is not learned."
"It has been learned bitterly enough," I rejoined. "God knows I have paid the price. Has it given me no right to save you from yourself?" ”

“ This puny submarine to destroy a warship on the broad of the ocean—I could have laughed aloud.
We were going full speed ahead for some while when next Black gave an order; and instantly upon his speaking the engines ceased to revolve and the ship did but glide through the water. I heard the clang of steel doors, then the hurrying footsteps of men upon the platform—but when I looked back there was no one there but Black and myself, and the doors of the conning-tower stood wide open. ”