He made no objection to the signal given by the others to return; he even helped to cut the ropes by which the cannon balls had been attached.

Not a single word was spoken by the party, as they slowly rose to the surface.

Marston seemed to be struggling against despair.

For the first time, the impossibility of the great enterprise seemed to dawn upon him.

He and his friends had undertaken a great fight with the mighty Ocean, which now played with them as a giant with a pigmy.