The anchors are suspended in their usual places, the cables
have not been cleared, and no motion has been made to lower a single
boat.
At this moment Count d'Artigas, Engineer Serko and Captain Spade go
forward and perform some manoeuvre that is inexplicable to me.
I walk along the port side of the deck until I am near the foremast,
and then I can see a small buoy that the sailors are hoisting in.
Almost immediately the water, at the same spot becomes dark and I
observe a black mass rising to the surface. Is it a big whale rising
for air, and is the _Ebba_ in danger of being shattered by a blow from
the monster's tail?
Now I understand! At last the mystery is solved. I know what was the
motor that caused the schooner to go at such an extraordinary speed
without sails and without a screw. Her indefatigable motor is emerging
from the sea, after having towed her from the coast of America to
the archipelago of the Bermudas. There it is, floating alongside--a
submersible boat, a submarine tug, worked by a screw set in motion by
the current from a battery of accumulators or powerful electric piles.
On the upper part of the long cigar-shaped iron tug is a platform in
the middle of which is the "lid" by which an entrance is effected. In
the fore part of the platform projects a periscope, or lookout, formed
by port-holes or lenses through which an electric searchlight can
throw its gleam for some distance under water in front of and on each
side of the tug.
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