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MOTOR STORIES
THRILLING ADVENTURE
MOTOR FICTION
NO. 20 JULY 10, 1909
FIVE CENTS
MOTOR MATT MAKES GOOD
ANOTHER VICTORY FOR THE MOTOR BOYS
_BY THE AUTHOR OF "MOTOR MATT"_
_"FIRE away, kevik!" clamored Carl, and just then Matt pulled the trigger._]
_STREET & SMITH, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK._
MOTOR STORIES
THRILLING ADVENTURE MOTOR FICTION
_Issued Weekly. By subscription $2.50 per year. Entered according toAct of Congress in the year 1909, in the Office of the Librarian ofCongress, Washington, D. C., by_ STREET & SMITH, _79-89 Seventh Avenue,New York, N. Y._
No. 20. NEW YORK, July 10, 1909. Price Five Cents.
MOTOR MATT MAKES GOOD
OR,
ANOTHER VICTORY FOR THE MOTOR BOYS.
By the author of "MOTOR MATT."
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. OFF THE CHILIAN COAST. CHAPTER II. HURLED INTO THE SEA. CHAPTER III. SAVED BY A TORPEDO. CHAPTER IV. WEIGHING THE EVIDENCE. CHAPTER V. A SURPRISING SITUATION. CHAPTER VI. ANOTHER ATTACK. CHAPTER VII. A BAD HALF HOUR. CHAPTER VIII. CHASING A TORPEDO. CHAPTER IX. NORTHWARD BOUND. CHAPTER X. A HALT FOR REPAIRS. CHAPTER XI. DICK MAKES A DISCOVERY. CHAPTER XII. A WARY FOE. CHAPTER XIII. PLUCK THAT WINS. CHAPTER XIV. A LITTLE WORK ON THE INSIDE. CHAPTER XV. A STAR PERFORMANCE. CHAPTER XVI. CONCLUSION. THE SPIDER WATER. GOOD WORDS FOR THE 'GATOR. VENOMOUS FISH.
CHARACTERS THAT APPEAR IN THIS STORY.
=Matt King=, otherwise Motor Matt, king of the motor boys.
=Carl Pretzel=, a cheerful and rollicking German boy, stout of frame as well as of heart, who is led by a fortunate accident to link his fortunes with those of Motor Matt.
=Dick Ferral=, a young sea dog from Canada, with all a sailor's superstitions, but in spite of all that a royal chum, ready to stand by the friend of his choice through thick and thin.
=Ensign John Henry Glennie, United States Navy.=
=Sons of the Rising Sun.=
=Captain Pons=, who has come from Havre, France, to deliver the submarine boat, _Pom_, to the Chilian Government, only to fall into a net spread by the Sons of the Rising Sun.
=Captain Sandoval=, of the Chilian Navy, who has appeared before, in the MOTOR STORIES, and appears for the last time and bows himself out.
=Captain of the Port of Lota, Chili=, who plays a small but important part.
CHAPTER I.
OFF THE CHILIAN COAST.
"Great spark plugs!"
"Strike me lucky!"
"Py shiminy Grismus!"
There were three surprised and excited boys on the rounded deck ofthe submarine boat _Grampus_. It was a calm, cloudless night, and thesea was as smooth as a mill pond; but, for all that, the night wascloudless, a dank, clinging fog had rolled down from the Andes andout upon the ocean, blotting out moon and star and rendering theirsurroundings as black as Erebus.
The _Grampus_ was proceeding slowly northward along the Chilian coast.Motor Matt, Dick Ferral, and Carl Pretzel were on the deck forward,keeping a sharp lookout. The electric projector from the conning towerbored a gleaming hole into the darkness ahead, giving the lads alimited view in that direction. Speake was half in and half out of theconning tower, steering from that position.
The waters gurgled and lapped at the rounded sides of the boat, thenfloated rearward in long lines of phosphorescence, spreading out in thewake like two sticks of an open fan. At the stern of the submarine thepropeller churned up a glittering froth.
What the boys saw, however, that had aroused their startledexclamations was a cluster as of glowing lights a foot or two under thesurface of the water. This mysterious glow was moving, at a moderaterate of speed, in a course that crossed that of the _Grampus_.
"Slow down, Speake!" called Matt to the helmsman.
The jingle of a bell, down in the motor room, was heard faintly, andthe submarine's speed fell off perceptibly. The cluster of starlikepoints bubbled onward, missed the bow of the _Grampus_ by a few feet,and vanished in the gloom on the port side.
"Vat it iss?" murmured Carl, rubbing a hand dazedly across his eyes."Dere iss lighdning pugs on der land, und I vonder iss dere lighdningpug fishes in der sea? Dot looked schust like a shark mit some searchlights on his headt."
"I'm a Fiji if there was any fish about that," averred the bewilderedDick. "Can you rise to it, matey?" he asked, turning to Matt. "Whatsort of a sizing do you give it?"
The king of the motor boys was puzzled.
"It might be a piece of drift from the shore," he answered, "or thefragment of a wreck."
"Aber it _moofed_!" exclaimed Carl. "It moofed droo der vater schustlike it vas alife!"
"The current may have caused that. There are all kinds of currents inthis part of the ocean."
"Und der lights, Matt. Pieces oof wreck don'd haf lights like dot!"
"That was a trick of the phosphorescence. There were probably nails orspikes in the timber, and wherever they projected and caused a ripplethere was a glow in the water."
Matt turned to Speake.
"Make a turn to the left, Speake," said he. The submarine swervedslowly to the port tack. "There," said Matt; "hold her so."
Dick gave a low laugh.
"You don't take much stock in that explanation of yours, matey," heremarked, "or you wouldn't be following that bit of supposed flotsamand jetsam."
"I've explained it in the only way I know how, Dick," returned Matt,"but I'm still a good deal in doubt. We'll see if we can overhaul thething and make a further examination. I don't like to take the time,but it may turn out to be time well spent."
Motor Matt knelt well forward, just where the V-shaped waves partedover the sharp nose of the _Grampus_, and while he knelt he peeredfixedly into the water ahead.
"You're such a cautious chap," spoke up Dick, hanging to one of theflagstaff guys and likewise staring ahead, "that I've been all ahoowondering why you were doing this night cruising. The night's as blackas a pocket, and this coast is about as dangerous as you can findanywhere, and yet here we are, groping our way along, never knowingwhat minute we may bounce upon a reef or say how do you do to a sharprock."
"Remember that Pacific Mail boat we spoke yesterday?" inquired Matt,over his shoulder.
"The one that told us they had news, in Santiago, that a Japanese boathad got away from the Chilian, Captain Sandoval, below the Strait ofMagellan?" responded Dick.
"Exactly. When we left English Reach, at the western end of the strait,we know Captain Sandoval, of the Chilian warship _Salvadore_, waspursuing the mysterious Japanese steamer; and we also know that thatsteamer had on board our enemies, the Sons of the Rising Sun. The mailboat said the news that the steamer had escaped the _Salvadore_ hadbeen flashed by wireless from Punta Arenas, and had been repeated bytelegraph to Santiago and Valparaiso."
"I don'd pelieve dot Chap poat efer got avay from der _Salvatore_!"declared Carl.
"It may be that she did, Carl," went on Matt, "and we've got to makesure of it just as soon as we possibly can. That's the reason we'retraveling through this thick fog, and taking our chances on hitting areef or sunken rock. We've got to reach Lota and find out for sure ifthose Japs are again free to bother us. You know what it means if theSons of the Rising Sun got aw
ay from Sandoval. Those misguided Japshave sworn that the _Grampus_ shall never be turned over to the UnitedStates Government at Mare Island Navy Yard. They're a desperate andfanatical lot, and we've got to know just what we're up against, so faras they are concerned. Lota is on the railroad and telegraph line, andwe'll get news there, if anywhere."
"As usual," observed Dick, "that head of yours has been working, oldship, while the rest of us have been wondering what you were trying todo. I don't think you'll catch up with that piece of drift."
"Nor I," Matt answered, getting to his feet and coming aft. "Whateverthat was, I suspect we'll never be able to discover, so my guess willhave to stand. Put her on the starboard tack, Speake," he added to theman in the conning tower.
The submarine once more resumed her course toward Arauco Bay and Lota.
"You fellows go below and turn in," Matt went on to Dick and Carl. "Ican con the ship, all right, and there's no need of the two of youstaying awake and helping me on the lookout."
"You'd better let Glennie relieve you, mate," suggested Dick. "You'vebeen on deck duty for six hours."
"I'm going to stay right here," said Matt, "until we get safely intoArauco Bay."
There was no use arguing with Motor Matt when he made up his mind thatduty commanded him to do a certain thing, and Dick and Carl wished himluck and went below.
Ensign Glennie was lying on the locker in the periscope room.
"You shifted the course," said he, rising on one elbow and peering atDick and Carl as they dropped off the iron ladder. "What was up?"
"Somet'ing mit a shiny headt vent past us," replied Carl, dropping downon a stool and beginning to draw off his shoes.
"Something with a shiny head?" queried the nonplused ensign.
"Yah, so. It vas a funny pitzness."
"What was it, Dick?"
"I'm by," answered Dick, shaking his head. "I've seen a good many queerthings afloat, but that was the queerest. It was too dark to see much,though. Mayhap if we'd had a little more light, we could have made acloser examination and the mystery would have been explained."
Thereupon he went into details, telling Glennie all that he and Carlknew.
"Can you make anything out of it, Glennie?" Dick finished.
"I'm over my head, like the rest of you," answered the ensign."Probably Matt hit it off pretty well when he said it was a bit ofwater-logged drift, floating between two waves, with spikes cuttingthe water and throwing off gleams of phosphorescence. This part of thePacific is full of cross-currents. And it's a mighty dangerous stretchof water, too, I'm telling you. Matt is certainly anxious to reachLota, or he'd never persist in pushing through waters like these insuch a fog."
"He's worrying again over those Sons of the Rising Sun."
Dick pulled off one of his shoes and swung it reflectively in his hand.
"I don't think it is possible that that Jap steamer got away fromSandoval," said Glennie. "The officers on that mail boat must have gotit wrong."
"Our old raggie is bound to find out just how much truth there is inthe yarn, anyhow," continued Dick. "We're what you might call on thelast leg of our cruise, and the little old _Grampus_ has covered theeast coast of two continents and is well up the west coast. We havedodged trouble in pretty good shape, so far, and Matt don't intend tolet the Sons of the Rising Sun put us down and out at this late stageof the game."
"The Japs can't put Motor Matt down and out," averred Glennie, withsuppressed admiration. "He has met them at every point, and has giventhem the worst of it. They'll never be able to destroy the _Grampus_.Mark what I say, my lads, Motor Matt is going to 'make good' withground to spare, and chalk up another victory for the motor boys."
Dick and Carl would have cheered this warm sentiment, but before theyhad a chance to do so, a wild yell came from Speake.
"Tumble up here, you fellows! Quick, now!"
Speake, as he spoke, crushed himself against the side of theconning-tower hatch, in order to make room for those in the periscoperoom to pass him and reach the deck.
Startled by the words and wildly excited manner of the helmsman, Dick,Carl, and Glennie lost not an instant in rushing up the ladder anddropping over the side of the conning tower.
"Where's Matt?" cried Dick.
"That's just what I want to know," answered Speake, his consternationgrowing and a tremulous awe finding its way into his voice. "He was onthe deck a few minutes ago, but he isn't here now. The last I saw ofhim he went aft, around the conning tower. The next thing I knew, whenI turned and looked for him, he wasn't aboard."
All three of the lads were stricken dumb. For a brief space none ofthem spoke, but looked toward each other in the gloom, franticallyalarmed and vaguely fearing--they knew not what.
"He couldn't have fallen overboard," spoke up Glennie, first to breakthe silence that held them as by an uncanny spell, "and yet it'scertain he's not on the boat."
"Matt!" roared Dick, making a trumpet of his hands and calling into theblank darkness. "Ahoy, Matt!"
No answer was returned. All that could be heard was the hum of thesubmarine's motor, the swish of the propeller, and the lap and gurgleof waves along the rounded side.
Carl began to whimper.
"Ach, du lieber! Oof anyt'ing has habbened py dot bard oof mine, Idon'd know vat I shall do, py shinks! He vas der pest friendt vat Iefer hat, und----"
"Put about, Speake!" cried Dick, now thoroughly alive to the situation."If Matt went overboard, then we're rushing away from him, and he'sswimming somewhere in our wake."
The shaken helmsman immediately turned the _Grampus_ in a wide circleand rang for full speed.