But it was not enough to fish up the bullet.  It was necessary to act promptly in the interest of the travellers.  No one doubted that they were still living.

“Yes,” repeated J.T.  Maston incessantly, whose confidence inspired everybody, “our friends are clever fellows, and they cannot have fallen like imbeciles.  They are alive, alive and well, but we must make haste in order to find them so.  He had no anxiety about provisions and water.  They had enough for a long time!  But air!—­air would soon fail them.  Then they must make haste!”

And they did make haste.  They prepared the Susquehanna for her new destination.  Her powerful engines were arranged to be used for the hauling machines.  The aluminium projectile only weighed 19,250 lbs., a much less weight than that of the transatlantic cable, which was picked up under similar circumstances.  The only difficulty lay in the smooth sides of the cylindro-conical bullet, which made it difficult to grapple.

With that end in view the engineer Murchison, summoned to San Francisco, caused enormous grappling-irons to be fitted upon an automatical system which would not let the projectile go again if they succeeded in seizing it with their powerful pincers.  He also had some diving-dresses prepared, which, by their impermeable and resisting texture, allowed divers to survey the bottom of the sea.  He likewise embarked on board the Susquehanna apparatuses for compressed air, very ingeniously contrived.  They were veritable rooms, with port-lights in them, and which, by introducing the water into certain compartments, could be sunk to great depths.  These apparatuses were already at San Francisco, where they had been used in the construction of a submarine dyke.  This was fortunate, for there would not have been time to make them.

Yet notwithstanding the perfection of the apparatus, notwithstanding the ingenuity of the savants who were to use them, the success of the operation was anything but assured.  Fishing up a bullet from 20,000 feet under water must be an uncertain operation.  And even if the bullet should again be brought to the surface, how had the travellers borne the terrible shock that even 20,000 feet of water would not sufficiently deaden?

In short, everything must be done quickly.  J.T.  Maston hurried on his workmen day and night.  He was ready either to buckle on the diver’s dress or to try the air-apparatus in order to find his courageous friends.

Still, notwithstanding the diligence with which the different machines were got ready, notwithstanding the considerable sums which were placed at the disposition of the Gun Club by the Government of the Union, five long days (five centuries) went by before the preparations were completed.  During that time public opinion was excited to the highest point.  Telegrams were incessantly exchanged all over the world through the electric wires and cables.  The saving of Barbicane, Nicholl, and Michel Ardan became an international business.  All the nations that had subscribed to the enterprise of the Gun Club were equally interested in the safety of the travellers.