Looking forward, he could see steel cylinders
trimmed in shining brass, and a maze of levers, gauges, dials, valves.
The central compartment in which the two stood was dominated by a little
spiral stairway leading up into a steel dome. On a shelf set in the
bulkhead was a chart, a telephone receiver, speaking tubes, dials with
red and black hands, an array of electrometers, pressure gauges.
Glancing up the stairway into the little dome, Madden saw a pilot wheel,
more levers and speaking tubes and telephone receivers, and a square of
ground glass, that was lined off with delicate cross-lines.
"Where are we?" asked Madden, amazed. "What do they do here? I never saw
so much machinery before in so small a space."
Caradoc was stooping over a heavy metal box down at the floor level at
the side of the desk. It was one of a series of such boxes. "We're
inside of that submarine you saw enter a few hours ago," explained the
Englishman shortly.
Leonard stared around with new eyes. "So this is a submarine! Do you
know anything about them? What's that spirit level for?" He pointed at a
horizontal gauge.
"Measures air pressure--it's not a level."
"What's in these steel tanks overhead?"
"Compressed air."
"What's that you are getting into?" Here Caradoc lifted the lid, and
Madden got a view.
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