248 FOR THE FLAG

observations, made during the high equinoctial tide, we
should be in the axis of the tunnel.”

“ Allright!” replied the officer.

All right! It seemed to me that Providence had pro-
nounced those words by the mouth of my deliverer.
In truth, a better agent of the Divine Will could not have
been found. I looked at the lieutenant by the light of the
lantern. He was a man of thirty years—cold, phlegmatic,
with a resolute face. The English officer in all his native
impassibility, as unmoved as though he had been on board
the Standard, and acting with extraordinary coolness, I
might even say with the precision of a machine.

‘“‘ Coming through the tunnel I estimated its length at
forty yards,” he said to me.

“Yes; from one extremity to the other, Lieutenant,
about forty yards.”

In fact this figure must have been quite accurate, since
the passage tunnelled on a level with the shore measures
only about thirty yards.

The order was given to the mechanician to set the screw
in motion, and the Sword advanced very slowly for fear of
colliding with the bank.

Occasionally we went so near to the side that a black
mass darkened the end of the shaft of light cast by the
lantern. A turn of the wheel altered the steering. But
if the management of a submarine boat is difficult in the
open sea, how much more difficult is it under the lagoon!

After five minutes’ progress, the Szord, which had been
kept at four fathoms, had not yet reached the opening.