Chapter II.

The two men watched it for several minutes; all the time it
seemed to be growing larger and brighter till, after a while,
they saw that the light came from something shaped like a ship,
sharp at both ends, and covered with oval glass. As it slowly
rose to the surface they saw that it contained five or six men,
sitting in easy chairs and reclining on luxurious divans. One of
them sat at a sort of pilot-wheel and was directing the course
of the strange craft, which was moving as gracefully as a great
fish.

Then the young men saw the man at the pilot-wheel raise his hand,
and from the water came the musical notes of a great bell. The
vessel stopped, and one of the men sprang up and raised an
instrument that looked like a telescope to his eyes. With this he
seemed to be closely searching the lake shores, for he did not
move for several minutes. Then he lowered the instrument, and
when the bell had rung again, the vessel rose slowly and
perpendicularly to the surface and glided to the shore within
twenty yards of where the adventurers stood.

"Could they have seen us?" whispered Thorndyke, drawing Johnston
nearer the side of the cliff.

"I think so; at all events, they are between us and the outlet;
we may as well make the best of it."