nyone does, Captain Petersen
should have that honor."

But this honor the captain declined.

"If you don't mind, sir, I'd prefer to stay with the ship," he said,
quietly. "I haven't forgotten that radio warning."

"But surely you don't think anyone can molest us down here?" scoffed
the professor.

"No, but I'd prefer to stay with the ship just the same, sir, if you
don't mind."

"Very well"--with a touch of pique. "Then you may come along if you
care to, Mr. Hunter."

If he cared to!

"Thanks, Professor!" he said with a grateful look toward Diane. "I'd
be keen to!"

* * * * *

So he accompanied them below, where they donned their
pressure-suits--rubber affairs rather less cumbersome than ordinary
deep-sea diving gear, reinforced with steel wire and provided with
thick glass goggles and powerful searchlights, in addition to their
vibratory communication apparatus and other devices that were
explained to Larry.

When he had mastered their operation, which was rendered simple by
reason of the fact that they were so nearly automatic, the trio
stepped into a lock on the floor of the ship and Professor Stevens
ordered them to couple their suits to air-valve connections on the
wall, at the same time admitting water by opening another valve.

Swiftly the lock flooded, while their suits inflated.

"All right?" came his vibratory query.

"Right!" they both answered.

"Then stand by for the heavy pressure."

Wider now he opened the water-valve, letting the ocean in, while at
the same time their suits continued inflating through their air-valve
connections.

To his surprise, Larry found himself no more inconvenienced by the
pressure than he had been from the moment the submarine dove to its
present depth. Indeed, most of the air that was coming into his suit
was filling the reinforced space between its inner and outer layers,
much as the _Nereid_ held air under pressure between her two thick
shells.

"All right now?" called out the professor's vibrator.

"Right!" they called back again.

"Then uncouple your air-valve connections and make ready."

They did so; and he likewise.

Then, advancing to a massive door like that of a vault, he flung back
its powerful clamps, dragged it open--and there beyond, its pressure
equaled by that within the lock, loomed the black tide of the ocean
bottom.

* * * * *

Awed by this solemn sight, tingling wi