Roy Norton

“ Any man sitting at a submarine telephone aboard von Vennemann's boat could have picked up the sound of our approach; but, secure in his egotism and thereby rendered confident that he was far removed from danger, I am certain that nothing more than a careless watch was maintained by this ex-naval officer of the German Navy. It is very probable, too, that we were assisted in our attack by the earliness of the hour; for his ship, being lavishly lighted, was undoubtedly turning her dynamos with a hum that might have drowned any other noise in her engine-rooms. ”

“ I saw the central arm, which held the end of the cable with its automatic lock, force the end behind the rudder chain, withdraw, catch it from the other side, carry it forward to a rudder post, thence onward to another rudder post, withdraw it, catch it in its steel fingers, pull it farther around another chain and then back to the cable itself, where for a time it fumbled clumsily before reaching its appointed place and clasping down, after which the huge, tempered, and waiting jaws of the lock came to direct contact and snapped viciously shut as if clutching hold forever. ”

“ I called to the engine-room for power, and instantly the polished steel shaft in front of me responded and the drill began to bite. It took but a few minutes, driven by the slow pressure of our screws behind, to rip through the toughened bronze above, and yet in that time it seemed to me incredible that an untoward sound should not penetrate through to the ears of some watchful engineer aboard von Vennemann's boat. ”

“ I hoped very fervently that it was Count von Vennemann himself, whom I was about to surprise by the unexpected. Very careless they must have been; for otherwise I didn't well see how, being trained men, they could have escaped discovering the menacing shape that lay astern of them, prepared for most unusual hostilities.
"Hadn't you better go below, Jimmy?" I asked. "If they have a gun aboard we shall find it out within a few minutes, and if they make a fluke hit the first shot might catch us before we could submerge." ”

“ Immediately above this battery of arms and fingers was a single shaft of finest steel, equipped at the end with a drill, and capable of being driven with the full force of our motors at very high revolutions. In our private tests we had actually drilled through a six-inch plate of semi-hardened steel in as short a time, as the operation could have been performed by a power drill in a machine-shop. ”

“ A battery of five hollow tubes, each operating independently and capable of being withdrawn or extended, with a play of four feet, were equipped on the ends with ingenious clutches, manipulated by latticed extensors in the centers of the tubes, and acting at their termini like pinchers which could be opened or shut at will. ”

“ The levers and switches manipulating all these devices were in a tiny compartment immediately behind the bow. Directly above the battery of arms, and the drill shaft over them, was fixed Jimmy's submarine searchlight. This he had so improved that he was able to control its powers and at will obtain a beam of light that was dispersed at a distance varying from a few yards up to five hundred. The light did not penetrate through steel unless placed immediately against it. Hence an object even a few feet away became opaque. ”