26 THE ARCTURUS ADVENTURE 



cards. In those days in the Sargasso Sea, that tried 

 men's souls, as well as more material portions of 

 their anatomy, we endeavored to accommodate our- 

 selves to the whims of the ocean by voyaging as 

 much as possible into a head-sea. Thus we only 

 pitched, not nearly so distressing and violent a mo- 

 tion as rolling. If the ship fell off a bit, or it was 

 necessary to change the course and an unexpected 

 roll disturbed the laboratory toilers, there was never 

 lacking some one to dart out and cast a black look 

 toward the bridge, as one who would say "How 

 dare you let this ship roll!" I suppose that this as- 

 sumption of perfect control on the part of the Cap- 

 tain was really very flattering, if we could have 

 made him see it in that way. 



The engine room telegraph clanged around to 

 "Stop!", the bulky iron weight and hollow sound- 

 ing tube were fixed on the slender piano-wire and 

 the humming descent to the depths commenced. 

 So did the rolling. The boom-walk was already 

 occupied by one man watching to see that the wire 

 did not kink and another carefully taking the angle 

 at which the wire entered the water. 



Th^ indicator-arm of the sounding machine at 

 last jerked sharply downward as a signal that the 

 weight had touched bottom and detached itself; a 

 brief pause and the little motor began to whirr 

 again, reeling in a mile and a half of wire, which, 

 as it came, was wiped and greased before it reached 

 the drum on which it was recoiled. Every time 

 a sounding was taken a weight was abandoned on 

 the bottom, and considering the number of sound- 



