CHAPTER XIV.
A LITTLE WORK ON THE INSIDE.
When Matt drifted back to consciousness, his head lay on Carl's knee.Carl and Dick had dragged him out under the conning tower, where thelight was better.
"Where are we?" were Matt's first words.
"In the _Pom_, matey," was Dick's grim response.
"Ve can't ged oudt, eider, Matt," croaked Carl gloomily, "und der Chapscan't ged in. Vich vould you radder be, der Chaps or us?"
Matt sat up, rubbing his head.
"I remember now," he murmured. "The tow line broke, and the _Pom_ endof it sprang back and hit me on the forehead. You brought me below?"
"I couldn't think of anything else to do, matey," said Dick. "We weresurrounded by six Japs, and I thought it better to take our chancesinside. We got below and closed the hatch just in time. Listen! You canhear the Japs walking around on deck. If you get up in the tower youcan see them looking in at the lunettes! But it's not pleasant. Thestraightened eyes of those swabs are pretty savage. I wouldn't givetuppence for our chances if they could get at us. And they may find outa way to come in here. If you can think of anything to do that willhelp us out of this hole, Matt, please be in a hurry about it."
"Yah," put in Carl, "don'd vaste any time."
"Where's the _Grampus_?" asked Matt.
His head bothered him, but there was no time to think of physicaltroubles of that sort.
"I told Glennie to keep her away. There wasn't anything he could do byrunning close, anyhow. The Japs would have boarded the _Grampus_, if hehad come too close, and there would be only four on our boat to standoff the six Japs."
"Oh, well," remarked Matt, looking around, "this might be worse."
"How?" moaned Carl. "I don'd see dot."
Matt's interest in the _Pom_, now that he was able to give the boat apersonal examination, bade fair to eclipse his concern for the dangersby which he was surrounded. Here was a brand-new piece of mechanism, aboat crammed with French machinery that would well repay a close study.
A rigid box under the conning tower, enabled a man to lift the upperhalf of his body into the cupola and get his eyes opposite thelunettes. As the man stood there, his right hand fell naturally on asteering wheel and his left on push buttons which must communicate withthe engine room.
"This is a whole lot different from the interior of the _Grampus_,"muttered Matt.
"Id is so shmall as a rat drap," shuddered Carl. "I feel like I vasshut oop in a cage."
Matt, pushing backward from the turret, fell off a ledge into a sortof well. As he sat up and groped about with his hands, he touched aswitch. Pulling the switch, an incandescent lamp flared out overhead.
"That's better," said he. "Now we can look around without so muchtrouble."
Here, aft from the conning tower, machinery was packed away closely.
Up against the roof, on the port side, was a little engine, operatedby compressed air, by which the submarine was steered. Matt discoveredthat by observing the wires that ran to the engine from the steeringwheel.
On the starboard side, likewise against the roof, was another engine,with disks at each end as large as dinner plates.
"H'm," mused Matt, trying to rub the ache out of his head so his brainwould be clearer, "those disks are diaphragms, and must be connected,in some way, with the water pressure. I have it!" and a triumphantlook crossed his face, "this is the diving engine, and that wheel"--hetouched the wheel as he spoke--"controls it."
At one side was a cubic steel box.
"Air compressor," said Matt, touching the box.
On the floor, just where Matt had dropped into the well, were twolevers. Matt lifted one of them. Instantly there came a gurgle andsplash of water, directly under Carl and Dick.
"Avast, matey!" cried Dick. "I wouldn't fool with those things untilyou know more about them."
Muffled cries came from the Japs outside.
"They hear what's going on," laughed Matt, "and they don't like it.We're filling the submerging tanks, Dick," he explained.
"Then why don't we sink?"
"It takes the engine to help us sink--the diving engine and the motor."
Farther back beyond the well was the engine room.
"Here's where I'm at home," said Matt, creeping into the engine roomand turning on another incandescent light.
In one side were switchboards for the dynamotors, and near them werespiral resistance coils curving along the roof. Over on the other sidewas a trolley controller, which Matt knew must be used for speeding thevessel under water.
"Give the wheel of that diving engine a turn to the right, Dick,"called Matt.
Dick obeyed the order. Matt turned the switch of the controller andthen instantly there was a low, electrical hum and the _Pom_ startedtoward the bottom.
"Get on the box under the conning tower, Dick," said Matt, "and do thesteering."
"How'll I steer? There's no periscope."
"Steer by compass--there's one right in front of you as you stand inthe tower."
"But what'll I do for light? We're under water and no daylight comes inat the lunettes."
Matt touched a switch, and electric light flooded the tower.
"I don't like this tinkering, I'm a Fiji if I do," muttered Dick, as hecrawled up into the tower.
"We've got rid of the Japs by the tinkering, Dick," said Matt. "They'reswimming ashore by now."
"What I'm afraid of is," went on Dick, "you'll get us on the bottom andnot be able to take us to the surface again."
"Don't let that worry you. If we want to go to the surface, all we haveto do is to twist the diving rudders and empty the tanks."
"What's the course, matey?" asked Dick.
"West by north until we clear the point, then north."
"How am I to know when we clear the point?"
"Why, we'll go to the surface and take a look. Glennie will probably beglad to have a sight of us before long."
"I'll bet he's worrying his head off! The quicker we can go up, Matt,the better."
"All right. Carl!"
"On der chump!" answered the Dutch boy.
"Give the wheel of the diving engine a turn to the left--to the _left_,mind."
"Dere she goes."
Instantly there was a perceptible movement upward.
"Now," went on Matt, "lift that other lever on the floor near you--theone I didn't lift, if you can remember."
Carl lifted the lever, and, by chance, the right one. A hiss ofcompressed air was heard, followed by a splash of water being forcedfrom the ballast tanks. The _Pom_ jumped for the surface like a streak.
"Daylight at the lunettes!" shouted Dick, overjoyed to make sure thatMatt really knew what he was about. "All you've got to do to know allabout a piece of machinery, Matt," he added, "is just to look at it."
"And use my head," laughed Matt.
"Py shinks," boomed Carl, "you can do more mit a cracked head dan anyodder feller can do mit vone dot's all ridght. Yah, so helup me. Youknow more aboudt machinery in a year as anypody else does in a minid."
"See anything of the Japs, Dick?" inquired Matt, stopping the electricmotor.
"Not a sign!" exulted Dick. "But there's the old _Grampus_, with Speakeon deck and Glennie half out of the tower. Their eyes are this way, andyou'd think, from their faces, they're looking at a ghost."
"Dey can't oondershtand how ve got oudt oof dot schrape," said Carl."Ve hat some pooty pad brospects, for a vile, you bed you."
"Holy smoke!" exclaimed Dick, almost falling off the box he wasstanding on.
"What's the matter?"
"Why, there's our old friend, the cruiser _Salvadore_, with--with----'Pon my soul, Matt, I'm a Fiji if that Captain Pons isn't on the bridgewith Captain Sandoval!"
This was amazing news.
"The war ship must have just got here, then," said Matt.
"But how did she know where we were?"
"Probably she spoke the _Sovereign_," Matt answered. "That would havegiven
Sandoval a pretty good clue."
"Oh, strike me lucky! The _Salvadore_ is turning broadside on, and someof her crew are manning the small guns--the rapid-fire guns. They'regoing to blow us out of water, Matt!"
"Hardly that, Dick," said Matt easily. "Sandoval isn't going to destroythis submarine. Pons wouldn't let him, even if he had such a notion. Ifanything happened to the boat, Pons wouldn't be able to deliver her tothe Chilian government."
"They're mighty warlike, anyway," went on Dick. "And there's Glennie,on the _Grampus_, trying his best to attract the attention of Sandoval."
"Sandoval and Pons think the _Pom_ is full of Japs," laughed Matt."We'd better go up and clear the fog out of their brains. It will be apleasure to meet Captain Sandoval again. He's a good friend of ours,you know."
"Meppy dot vas a lucky t'ing," vouchsafed Carl, "seeing as how Pons issmadt pecause ve vouldn't go afder der _Pom_ mit der _Grampus_."
"That's just what we did, though, although we didn't intend making anysuch move. We shall now have the pleasure of turning the _Pom_ over toCaptain Pons."
Making their way through the bulkhead door, Matt, Dick, and Carl gainedthe hatch, threw it open, and crawled out on the submarine's deck.