CHAPTER VI.
ANOTHER ATTACK.
This weird vanishing on the part of the object in dispute between MotorMatt and Captain Pons left those on steps of the Casa gasping. TheFrenchman dropped limply down and hugged his folded arms to his breast;the Chilian looked wild, and a superstitious fear arose in the eyes ofthe two negroes. Glennie grabbed up the glasses the captain had beenusing a few minutes before, clapped them to his eyes, and proceeded toexamine the surface of the bay.
The strange movements of the torpedo had had something of an effectupon the _Grampus_, for she had swung about on her cable and dippedslightly sternward. She was lying quietly enough now, however, andCarl, Dick, Speake, Gaines, and Clackett were swarming over her deckand evidently wondering what had become of the Whitehead.
Matt, with his naked eyes, could see his friends moving about, althoughit was impossible for him to discover exactly what they were doing.
"They're pulling in the rope that was made fast to the torpedo," saidGlennie. "They've got the end of it in their hands."
"Great spark plugs!" murmured Matt dazedly. "That was a queerperformance, I must say. Can you see anything of the Whitehead,Glennie?"
"Not a thing. There must have been some compressed air still left inthe cylinder, and in some way it got to the screws."
Matt shook his head.
"That's not it, Glennie. Even if the Whitehead's screws had begun towork they couldn't have caused the big tube to dance around in thatunheard-of fashion. I----"
Matt, with a sudden alarming thought running through his mind, starteddown the steps at a run. The Frenchman shouted something. Taking hiscue from Captain Pons, the Chilian also shouted. Probably it was acommand for Matt to halt, but the young motorist did not construeit in that way. Pons, himself, had said that there was no cause forthe arrest of Matt and Glennie, and Motor Matt believed that he wasperfectly free to go wherever he wished. Just then he was tremendouslyeager to get aboard the _Grampus_.
One of the old-fashioned pistols went off with a _bang_ like a smallcannon. A lead slug screeched through the air well over Matt's head.
"Come back, Matt!" yelled Glennie. "If you don't, the next bullet maycome closer to you."
Matt faced about indignantly.
"What are they shooting at me for?" he demanded.
"They don't want you to get away, just yet."
"But I've got to get away! We must get aboard the _Grampus_ as quick asthe nation will let us. Can't you understand this business, Glennie?That French submarine is in the bottom of the bay! The Japs arerecovering that torpedo! You know why they want it, as well as I do."
"Jupiter!" exclaimed Glennie, "I hadn't thought of that. But you'dbetter come back here, Matt, while we explain the situation to CaptainPons. It's better to have him and the captain of the port for friendsrather than enemies."
"Every minute's delay makes the position of the _Grampus_ just thatmuch more dangerous. Carl, Dick, and the rest don't know a thing aboutthis other submarine, and if the Japs made an attack on our boat, whileshe's lying at anchor----"
"Don't fret about that, Matt," cut in Glennie. "The Japs will havetheir hands full saving their torpedo. They're thinking more about thatWhitehead just at present than of anything else. But, anyhow, we can'ttry to dodge the bullets these negroes will send after us if we make arun of it."
Matt, fretting over the delay, slowly returned to the steps. The negrowas reloading his pistol, the other was making ready to use his weaponin case Matt refused to obey orders, and both the captain of the portand Captain Pons were looking extremely fierce and determined.
Both captains were talking to Glennie. The ensign answered themsharply, and the captains gave responses equally sharp.
"What a pair of dunderheads!" growled Glennie to Matt.
"How's that?" queried Matt.
"Captain Pons has developed a very bright idea," was the ensign'ssarcastic response. "He says we caused the torpedo to act in thatunaccountable manner, and that we did it in order to steal it from him."
Matt caught his breath.
"Is Captain Pons in his sober senses?" he demanded.
"All the senses Heaven endowed him with are on duty."
"How does he think we could cause the torpedo to act in that manner?"
"He lays it to our friends on the _Grampus_, but is gloriouslyindefinite concerning the way they worked the trick."
Matt walked up the steps and faced Captain Pons. "We had nothing todo with the disappearance of the torpedo!" he cried. "Why, the veryidea is preposterous! How could any of our men cause the Whitehead todisappear in that fashion?"
"You want ze torpedo," insisted Captain Pons doggedly. "You make zedispute wiz me. Zen, w'en I say _non_, ze torpedo belong wiz me,_pouf!_ away he go lak a streak. You haf stole heem, and you willanswer to ze French government for zat, by gar!"
"That is foolish talk, Captain Pons, for a man of your age andexperience."
"Hein! I am not so foolish as w'at you zink."
"It was the other boat that stole the torpedo--the submarine the Japsstole from you."
"Zat could not be ze _Pom_. Ze Jap zey would not dar-r-r-e bring ze_Pom_ back in ze bay."
"You don't know those Japs as well as we do, captain. They are enemiesof ours, and have followed us clear from Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. Theywant to destroy the _Grampus_, to keep her out of the hands of theUnited States Navy. If I don't go down there, and warn my friends anddo something to protect our submarine, this _Pom_ of yours may make anattack."
"Zis is a friendly port," replied Captain Pons, with a wave of thehand. "Ze Japs will not dar-r-r-e make attack in ze friendly port."
Matt was disgusted. He felt that he had never met a man so dense asthis Captain Pons.
"The Japs stole your submarine in a friendly port," he remarked dryly."I guess that proves that they're not above committing lawless actsin a Chilian harbor. You have no right to detain Ensign Glennie andmyself. We are under the protection of the Stars and Stripes. Ifyou are determined to keep us with you on this ridiculous charge ofstealing the torpedo, then will you not accompany us to the _Grampus_while we take measures for the boat's protection? While there, perhapswe may be able to convince you how foolish this charge of yours is."
"Zat is reasonable talk," admitted Captain Pons gravely. "I vill spikwiz my good friend, Captain Arco."
Matt and Glennie drew apart while the two captains held a whisperedconversation, although a very animated one.
"A couple of jumping jacks!" muttered Glennie; "and blockheads, toboot. I wonder what those French shipbuilders were thinking of to senda man like Captain Pons with their submarine."
"Well, he may know all about the submarine, and be perfectlytrustworthy," answered Matt.
"I wouldn't trust him to drive a pair of mules on a canal."
The ensign was completely disgusted.
"Ah!" he said, a moment later. "The two great minds have at last cometo a decision in this momentous matter."
Captains Pons and Arco approached the two lads importantly.
"Ze good captain has agreed to go back wiz you and me to ze submarine,"announced Captain Pons. "If, w'en we get zere, you will hand ovair zetorpedo, zen we not make ze trouble for you any more. _Allons!_ let usbe gone."
The negroes, following an order from the captain of the port, droppedin on either side of Matt and Glennie, their antiquated pistolsprominently displayed. Then, with the two captains leading the way, theAmerican lads left the Casa de la Administracion.
"How those Japs managed to get hold of that torpedo without showingthemselves," remarked Glennie, on the way to the landing, "is aconundrum."
"They must have come up under the torpedo," answered Matt, "just closeenough to the surface to grapple a coil of the rope that was around thesteel shell."
"Even on that theory the move is hard to understand. While the _Pom_was under water it would not be possible for any one aboard of her towork at the ropes around the torpedo."
"Perhap
s the grappling was done by manoeuvring the boat."
"That might be----"
Glennie was interrupted. By that time the party had nearly reached thelanding. Before any of them stepped foot on the wharf, however, therecame a loud detonation, and a geyser-like column of water arose highin the air. So lofty was the column that some of the spray from it washurled across the intervening stretch of the bay and into the faces ofMatt, Glennie, and the rest.
When the column had sunk downward, those on the shore could see thatthe _Grampus_ had disappeared!