Roy Rockwood

“ He tried to caper about but the motion of the ship made him dizzy and he had to sit down. "I'm all right! I just happened to think of something!"
"What is it?" asked the captain eagerly.
"Send the ship ahead!" exclaimed Andy. "Speed her as fast as she will go. Try her strength against the force of the whirlpool! We may win!"
"Good!" exclaimed Mr. Henderson. "I was too much depressed to think of that! The ship has powerful engines. Queer you should remember that instead of me. Come, Washington, start the screw going! We will try to beat the whirlpool!" ”

“ They all gathered in the cabin. The professor explained the nature of the creatures, as far as he knew them from what he had read or heard. He pointed out, through the glass windows, over which the suckers were still clinging, how they maintained their grip, by exhausting, through their big mouths, the air between their saucer-like surfaces and the ship to which they were clinging.
"Can't we go out and fight 'em?" asked Andy, who was always ready to use a gun. ”

“ Once more the submarine was stopped. Then it moved forward at a more rapid pace than at any time since the suckers had seized it. An instant later it brought up against some solid object with such a jar that those inside were thrown off their feet.
"Something has hit us!" cried Jack.
"More likely we've struck something," said the professor.
Again the ship forged to the rear, and once again it was sent swiftly ahead. Then came the second shock, harder than the first, which sent some of the party headlong.
"They are banging us against a rock!" cried Mr. Henderson. ”

“ The Porpoise had run into the monster, who feeling what it must have thought an enemy, had grasped the submarine with its long sinuous arms.
The professor hesitated a moment. Then he slowly raised his electrical gun, and took aim at the hideous mass. The boys followed his example. At Mr. Henderson's signal they all fired together.
From the muzzles of the guns darted small barbs that carried with them a strong shock of electricity, from storage batteries in the shoulder pieces of the weapons. Three of them were enough to produce death in an animal as large as a whale. ”

“ Andy laid his fingers against the steel plates. He drew back.
"I burned myself!" he exclaimed.
"What are we to do?" cried Jack.
"Get out of this by all means!" exclaimed the inventor. "If we stay in this hot ocean we will [239] be boiled alive like fishes in a pot. Send the ship up, Washington!"
Indeed it was high time. The thermometer marked one hundred and ten degrees, and was rising. The interior of the Porpoise was like that of a steam laundry three times heated. Stripped to their undergarments the adventurers were obliged to lie down on the floor of the cabin where it was a little cooler. ”

“ Their hearts still beating loudly from the closeness of death, the adventurers continued their way. On every side were fish, big and little, and, though some of the larger ones thrust themselves to the men and boys, as if wondering what strange creatures they were, none of them offered to attack.
Led by the professor they made a complete circuit of the ship that was held fast in the ice. As the inventor had surmised, the Porpoise was nipped only above and below. If she could be freed at either of those points she could rise to the surface, or sink down under the ice. ”

“ A few minutes later the Porpoise was alongside. The woman and child came to the rail of the schooner, which was barely five feet above the waves.
"Can you jump down, or shall I come aboard and get you?" asked Mr. Henderson seeing the woman hesitate.
"I can jump down, if you will catch the child," said the woman. "Oh I am so glad you came," she added. "We are almost dead from hunger and thirst, and the wreck is ready to sink and cannot last many hours longer."
"Pass the little girl down to me," spoke Andy. "Then you jump. We'll save you all right." ”

“ It was going lower and lower down, as the gage showed.
Soon a throb that was felt through the length of the craft told that the engine had started. The vibration increased until it seemed that the ship would be torn apart. Never had the big screw revolved at greater speed.
For a while the struggle between the force of man represented by the engine, and the power of nature, embodied in the whirlpool, seemed equal. Neither could gain the mastery. The ship continued to slide around in ever narrowing circles while the big cable of water, forced through the tunnel by the screw, was like a cataract. ”

“ At the top of their speed they approached the stranded ship. The natives saw them coming and the next instant hundreds of paddles broke the waves into a mass of sparkling water as the wily savages urged their canoes swiftly toward the submarine.
"If we can only reach it first we can hold them off until the tide floats us, and then we can escape," said the professor.
He increased his pace though the run was beginning to tell on his aged frame. The adventurers were now within an eighth of a mile of the ship, but the savages were closer, and had the advantage of being able to make greater speed. ”

“ With a blinding flash and a report like that of a gun a fuse blew out, and that crippled the car completely so far as the electric current was concerned.
"Everybody jump!" cried the conductor. "There's a curve at the foot of the hill, and we'll all be killed if we stay on!"
One by one the passengers leaped from the car. Several were badly hurt by the falls they got. Meanwhile the trolley was tearing down the hill at a terrific rate of speed.
"Shall we jump?" asked Mark of Jack.
"We'll be killed if we do," was Jack's answer. ”

“ Do you boys want to come along?"
"Is it safe?" asked Mark, who was inclined to be cautious.
"As safe as any part of this under-sea voyage," replied the professor. "These diving suits are something I have not told you about," he went on. "They are my own invention. Besides the regular rubber suits there is an interlining of steel,—something like the ancient suits of chain mail—to withstand the great pressure of water. Then, instead of being dependent on a supply of air, pumped into the helmet from an apparatus in a boat on the surface, each person carries his own air supply with him." ”

“ He went into the conning tower to make an observation. He came on the deck the next minute, very much excited.
"What's the matter? Are we sinking?" asked Andy.
"We are directly over the south pole!" exclaimed the professor. "We have reached the goal! We have come to the spot hundreds of men have tried to reach! It has been left for us to succeed. Look at the deflecting needle!"
They crowded into the conning tower to note it. The slender hand of steel stood straight up and down, indicating that the ship was over the south pole, one of the two chief centres of magnetism of the earth. ”

“ Suddenly the ship careened to one side and the sea rushed over the deck. It was evident that one of the big whales, which were deeper down in the water, had struck the vessel.
Nellie screamed and tried to grab the hand rail that was about the platform. She missed her grip. The next instant she was floundering in the ocean, in the midst of the school of whales.
"Man overboard!" yelled Jack, remembering vaguely that he had read this was the proper call to make in case of accident.
His cry brought Washington and the professor up the companionway on the jump.
"Launch the boat!" ”

“ The next impact of the ship against the rocks was the hardest yet, and it seemed that more of the suckers must have gripped the craft.
"She's leakin' a little!" exclaimed Washington coming back from an inspection forward. "De water am tricklin' in!"
"We must fight them!" exclaimed Andy. He ran to get a gun and his diving suit.
"Don't try to go out!" warned the professor. "You will surely be killed."
"I'd rather be killed out there than die shut up in the ship!" cried the old hunter. "I'm going out!"
"Wait!" exclaimed Jack suddenly. "I have a plan that may save us!" ”

“ Then while Washington washed the dishes and cleaned up the galley, Jack and Mark looked from the side windows at the strange life under water.
They were getting farther south now and the water was warmer as the equator was approached. This produced a great variety of animal life, and the ocean fairly swarmed with fishes, big and little, strange and curious that could be seen from the glass bull's-eyes.
Great sharks swam up alongside of the Porpoise, keeping pace with her in spite of her speed. Their cruel tigerish eyes and ugly mouths made [76] the boys shudder as they looked at the creatures. ”

“ If it is a sailing ship the weed clings to the rudder, making steerage impossible, and even in a strong wind the ship cannot get free of the mass. The grass winds about the propellers of steamships, and holds them as tight as in a vise. ”

“ The professor motioned for Bill and Tom to [112] move behind him, and signalled for Jack, Mark and Andy to stand close with their weapons ready.
The sharks floated lazily downward as if they knew they had the diggers at their mercy. To run and escape was impossible, for no one could run hampered by the weight of water and his diving suit.
One of the terrible fish opened its mouth wider and, with a flirt of its tail aimed straight for the professor. Mr. Henderson raised his gun, and took careful aim at the middle of the fish, half turned over. Unerringly the electric bullet sped on its way. ”

“ Henderson.
"The Sargasso Sea?" repeated Mark, in a questioning tone. "What is that?"
"It is a great sea of grass," replied the captain. "An immense ocean of sea weed, that sometimes floats on the surface and sometimes a little below. The stalks or blades of the grass are very long and closely matted together."
"Is there any danger?" asked Andy in some alarm.
"Very much," answered the professor quietly. "A ship, once fairly entangled in the grass or sea weed, seldom gets out. ”

“ They sat about on the beach, after the breakfast and discussed what they had better do. It was evident that an attempt to regain possession of the ship, with their small force and only one weapon, was out of the question.
"We've got to use strategy," said Andy. "If we could play some trick on the savages we might scare them away. Otherwise I don't see what we are to do."
"It's a bad state of affairs," replied professor Henderson. "Even if we got the ship we might find it so badly damaged that it would be impossible to run it. It is a terrible thing," and he heaved a deep sigh. ”

“ Henderson came up the companionway into the tower. He caught one glimpse of the monster.
"It is the great sucker of the polar seas!" he exclaimed. "Quick! Speed up the engine! If that one, and the mates of it, fasten on to us we will have trouble!"
He pressed the signal that connected with the engine room, and told Washington to start the engine at its greatest power. The next instant the ship throbbed and trembled under the vibrations of the big screw.
"We may escape!" cried the professor. ”

“ To move through the water, with the weight of all that clinging flesh was impossible.
"What sort of creatures are they?" asked Jack, speaking in a whisper, so great was the terror inspired by the presence of the gigantic sea suckers.
"I never saw any of them before," replied the professor, "but I have read about them. They live only in the polar regions and are a species of octupus, only more terrible. Their powers of suction are enormous, and once they fasten on a fish or animal they never let go until they have [208] absorbed it completely. ”

“ CHAPTER XXVIII OUT OF THE ICE
Worn out with their encounter with the octupus, Andy and the boys were glad to take to their bunks. The others, too, who were weary from traveling under water, felt the need of rest, and so it was decided to let the ship remain stationary down on the bottom of the ocean for several hours before going on further.
"When we get rested up we'll have a good meal, and then try to gain the surface of the ocean," said the professor.
There was quiet on board the Porpoise for a long time. Washington was the first to awake and he at once set about getting a meal. ”