If they could stop the remaining holes, the big pump ought to throw out the water; but Cartwright had talked about another opening and this would be awkward to reach.
Signing the diver to go on, he followed him round the vessel's stern.
The sand on the other side was high and one could climb on board, but Lister shrank from the dark alleyway that led to the engine-room.

For all that, he went in and saw the diver had opened the jambed door.

When he reached the ledge a flash from the other's electric lamp pierced the gloom and he tried to forget his throbbing head and looked about.
Sparkling bubbles from his and the diver's helmets floated straight up to the skylights, along which they glided and vanished through a hole in the glass.

The water, moving gently with the pulse of the swell, broke the beam of light and objects it touched were distorted and magnified.
The top of the big low-pressure cylinder looked gigantic, and the thick columns appeared to bend.

Long weed clung to the platforms, from which iron ladders went down, but so far as Lister could distinguish, all below was buried in sand.
He had seen enough.