The steamer started at once in the direction indicated, and a minute or two before one o'clock the Captain said they were "there." No sign of the buoy could yet be seen in any direction; it had probably been drifted southward by the Mexican coast current which slowly glides along these shores from December to April.
"At last!" cried Marston, with a sigh of great relief.
"Shall we commence at once ?" asked the Captain.
"Without losing the twenty thousandth part of a second!" answered Marston; "life or death depends upon our dispatch!" The _Susquehanna_ again hove to, and this time all possible precautions were taken to keep her in a state of perfect immobility--an operation easily accomplished in these pacific latitudes, where cloud and wind and water are often as motionless as if all life had died out of the world.
In fact, as the boats were quietly lowered, preparatory for beginning the operations, the mirror like calmness of sea, sky, and ship so impressed the Doctor, who was of a poetical turn of mind, that he could not help exclaiming to the little Midshipman, who was standing nearest: "Coleridge realized, with variations: The breeze drops down, the sail drops down, All's still as still can be; If we speak, it is only to break The silence of the sea.
Still are the clouds, still are the shrouds, No life, no breath, no motion; Idle are all as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean!" Chief Engineer Murphy now took command.

Before letting down the buoys, the first thing evidently to be done was to find out, if possible, the precise point where the Projectile lay.

For this purpose, the Nautilus was clearly the only part of the machinery that could be employed with advantage.

Its chambers were accordingly soon filled with water, its air reservoirs were also soon completely charged, and the Nautilus itself, suspended by chains from the end of a yard, lay quietly on the ocean surface, its manhole on the top remaining open for the reception of those who were willing to encounter the dangers that awaited it in the fearful depths of the Pacific.

Every one looking on was well aware that, after a few hundred feet below the surface, the pressure would grow more and more enormous, until at last it became quite doubtful if any line could bear the tremendous strain.