Roy Norton

“ We'd put in a submarine searchlight and a salvage mechanism I have invented, and could salvage ships if they were full fifty fathoms deep; something that never has been done by any man before. We could recover the Esperanza herself and get back your gold; for Tom here says she lays but twenty fathoms down!" roared Jimmy. ”

“ My inquiries on the following day, discreetly made through a marine reporter I had known in former years, evinced the fact that the firm referred to was the Bellairs Submarine Company, an offshoot corporation of the Merrimac Steel Shipbuilding Company, up on the Connecticut coast, and also that I might find it difficult to induce the management to display their secretly built marvel-boat.
"They will not talk to any one unless he can prove that he has ready hard cash," cynically remarked the marine reporter. "Besides, what on earth do you want a submarine for? ”

“ The time has come for the utmost free speech between friends. Being a very lonely and disappointed old man, Captain Hale, I intrusted you with what to me was a great enterprise, which I affirm you carried to success. ”

“ The normal depth to which a submarine goes is one hundred feet, although the United States Navy, which has been the most exorbitant in its demands, required that a submarine, before being accepted by the Government, should undergo a submergence test of two hundred feet. ”

“ I think that the general manager, Seymour, must have been somewhat doubtful and felt a wavering confidence in his craft, from the fact that it is customary in the Laurenti tests to put two technical experts into the submarine which is to undergo this enormous pressure, they being connected by telephone with those outside the cylindrical steel shell, and to report at frequent intervals their observations as to what is taking place; for on the first test of our new boat there were no men inside. ”

“ It was an anxious time when, after taking all precautions possible, we closed the ventilators and conning tower, and let the water into her larger ballast tanks, then into her fore and aft tanks, and waited to learn whether the latest improvements embodied in her would permit her to submerge on an even keel to a great depth ”

“ Martin's invention, but also for a profit that should enable both of you to step confidently into future operations."
"And you are not asking me any share in my invention?" inquired Jimmy, with bulging eyes. He leaned forward and stared at Monsieur Périgord as if the latter were some new type of fairy godmother.
"No, certainly not. I have other things to think of. I don't wish to be bothered by additional burdens of mind. I make what I consider a liberal business proposition, nothing more. ”

“ To all of this I acceded, and we drew up a memorandum of agreement, by which in case her tests proved up to a certain stipulation, she was to become mine upon payment of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in cash. As her prospective owner I was given a pass to the shipyards, with the privilege of bringing with me, at any time, two men for whom I personally vouched, and that night I returned to New York considerably elated over my success. ”