stance from me.
Also, I have at last completed the submarine which has been my pet
project for almost as long as I can remember, and now all that I need is
the opportunity to try her: indeed, but for Oxley's strict injunctions
to me to cut business altogether, I should certainly spend my holiday in
putting the boat to a complete series of very much more thorough and
exhaustive tests than have thus far been possible. As it is, I really
am at an almost complete loss how to spend my six months' holiday."

"Do you mean to say that you have no plans whatever?" demanded Montijo,
as he and his friend rose from the table to leave the restaurant.

"None but those of the most vague and hazy description possible,"
answered Singleton. "Oxley's orders are `change of scene, no work, and
a life in the open air'; I am therefore endeavouring to weigh the
respective merits of a cruise in my old tub the _Lalage_, and big-game
shooting somewhere in Central Africa. But neither of them seems to
appeal to me very strongly; the cutter is old and slow, while as for the
shooting project, I really don't seem to have the necessary energy for
such an undertaking, in the present state of my health."

"Look here, Jack," observed Montijo eagerly, as he slid his hand within
his friend's arm and the pair wheeled westward toward Hyde Park, "I
believe I have the very scheme to suit you, and I will expound it to you
presently, when we get into the Park and can talk freely without the
risk of being overheard. Meanwhile, what was it that you were saying
just now about a submarine? I remember, of course, that you were always
thinking and talking about submarines while we were at Dulwich, and also
that you once made a model which you tested in the pond, and which dived
so effectually that, unless you subsequently recovered her, she must be
at the bottom of the pond still."

"Ay," answered Jack with a laugh; "I remember that ill-fated model. No,
I never recovered her, but she nevertheless served her purpose; for her
mishap gave me my first really useful idea in connection with the design
of a submarine boat. And at last I have completed a working model which
thus far has answered exceedingly well. She is only a small affair, you
know, five feet in diameter by twenty-five feet long, but she is big
enough to accommodate two men--or even three, at a pinch. I have been
as deep as ten fathoms in her, and have no doubt she could descend to
twice that dept