CHAPTER XIV
SNATCHED FROM THE SEA
When he came back to consciousness, he found himself tightly bound andgagged. His head swam, and objects danced giddily before him.
Gradually he accustomed himself to the light and looked about him. Ascore of men stood leaning against the walls, while Namoto and Togi,seated at the desk, were conversing in low tones. They spoke inJapanese, but he had no doubt that they were deciding for him the issuesof life and death. He had no delusions as to what probably awaited him.He had learned too much to be allowed to live.
But the conspirators seemed perplexed. To kill him, then and there,would be awkward. There is nothing in the world harder to dispose ofthan a dead body. Burial, burning, destruction by acids--all lefttraces. And this was not Japanese but American soil. There might be ahue and cry, a search, exposure, arrest. Still, he must vanish from theland of the living.
At last, Togi seemed to have an inspiration. He bent over eagerly anddisclosed his idea. Namoto pondered and found it good. He beckoned toan officer in a naval uniform, and gave him his instructions.
At a signal, four men advanced, and, taking Bert by the legs andshoulders, carried him through a secret passage into the grounds. Assilently as so many ghosts, they followed a road that led through theestate to the river's brink. There lay the swift sea-going yacht thatTogi had mentioned. Bert was carried on board, the vessel slipped itsmoorings, and like a wraith passed down the Bay of Limon and out to sea.
It was with a sinking heart that Bert saw the lights of Colon grow moreand more indistinct, until they looked to be little more than a nebuloushaze rising above the water. His first thought had been that theJapanese were taking him to Japan, for some reason of their own, and asthey steamed on mile after mile this idea gained strength.
After his capture he had expected nothing better than instant death, andwhen he found that his captors had other plans he had a gleam of hope.Perhaps, after all, he could make his escape in some way, or get amessage to the authorities. But when he was taken to the yacht hope diedwithin him, and he almost wished he had been killed at the moment ofcapture. Knowing what he did, the possibility of his own life beingspared brought him but little comfort. Once fairly at sea, and he feltthat nothing could stop the awful catastrophe hanging over his country.
Filled with these melancholy reflections, he hardly noticed what wasgoing on around him, and only looked up when two sturdy Japanese seamenapproached him. They untied his bonds, removed the gag, and motioned himto follow them. Bert, seeing no sense in useless resistance, did asdirected.
As he approached the port rail, he saw that a group of sailors gatheredthere were lowering some object over the side. As he reached the railand looked down, he saw that it was a large, flat bottomed rowboat, withnothing in it except a wooden bailer shaped like an ordinary shovel.
This boat was quickly lowered until it touched the water, and then Bertsaw what had previously escaped his notice--namely, that several holes,each about as large as a five-cent piece, had been bored in the bottom ofthe boat, and through these the water was rushing in a dozen littlefountains.
Then he realized what were the intentions of his captors, and his heart,which at sight of the boat had begun to beat hopefully, seemed to turn tolead. This, then, was to be his end! With fiendish ingenuity, the Japshad prepared this death-trap for him, knowing that he would fight up tothe last moment from the instinct of self preservation. The enemy ofJapan should not die too easily. His agony must be prolonged. Accordingto their calculations, the water would continue coming in faster thanBert could possibly bail it out, and eventually he would sink, and hisperilous knowledge with him.
Well, at any rate, he resolved to make his enemies sorry that they hadever seen him. As the sailors came toward him with the evident intentionof forcing him into the boat, he grasped a camp chair that was standingnear the rail, and swinging it in a mighty circle about his head, broughtit crashing down on the head of the foremost seaman. The man dropped asthough struck by lightning, and for a second his comrades hesitated,looking about them for weapons.
At a crisp command from an officer, who was standing a little to oneside, they came on again with a rush. Bert felled the first of hisantagonists with the stout chair, and then, as they were too close uponhim for further use of this weapon, dropped it and resorted to his fists.He struck out right and left with all the strength of his powerfulmuscles, and for a few seconds actually held his swarming assailants atbay. Three men dropped before his hammer-like blows, before he wasfinally forced over the railing by sheer force of numbers and hurled intothe rowboat.
As he struck it, the water spurted through the holes in the boat, and ashrill cackling laugh came from the row of slant-eyed faces peering downover the rail. The little craft was by now a quarter full of water, andas the Japanese yacht took on speed and swung away on its course Bertstarted bailing desperately. He realized that there was hardly onechance in a thousand of his being picked up before, in spite of all hecould do, the little boat would fill with water and sink.
However, he resolved to keep afloat as long as he could on the barechance of some vessel passing in his neighborhood. Accordingly he set towork with the wooden scoop, sending sheet after sheet over the side. Heworked desperately, and at first almost thought that he was gaining onthe incoming water. His exertions were excessive, and before long he wasforced to bail more slowly. He kept watching a deep scratch in the sideof the boat to see if the water was gaining. With a sinking heart herealized that it was. In spite of all he could do, it crept up and upuntil finally it was over the scratch and the boat was nearly half full.Luckily for him, the sea was unusually calm, or he must soon have beenswamped.
At the thought of all that it would mean to his country if he drownedwith his secret, Bert fell to with the scoop with furious energy, but wasnot able to hold his terrible pace long, and finally flung down thebailer in despair.
"Perhaps I can plug up the holes," he thought, and ripped off his coat.He tore great pieces from it and tried to stuff up the holes, but to noeffect. Such crude plugs as he could make were inadequate to stay theinrush of water, and he would hardly have time to insert one in oneopening before that in another gave way.
So he was forced to give up this plan, and had recourse once more to thebailer. His only hope now was to keep afloat until he might be seen andpicked up by a passing boat. He strained his eyes over the surroundingsea, but there was no sign of help in sight.
Slowly but surely the water crept up the sides of the boat until it wasonly a few inches from the gunwales. As the boat sank deeper, the waterrushed in with ever-increasing force, and finally the conviction wasforced in upon Bert that he had really come to the end of his resources.Of course, even after the boat sank, he could swim a little while, butafter his fierce fight on the deck of the Japanese yacht and his terrificexertions afterward, he knew he would have little strength left.
Nevertheless he stripped off his outer clothing and resolved to do thebest he could. Suddenly he was startled by a splashing, gurgling noisebehind him, and, looking around, was surprised and puzzled to see whatlooked like the back of a huge whale floating within fifty feet of thestern of his little craft. In a second he understood, and a great waveof joy surged over him.
"It's a submarine," he thought, "and an American one at that," as herecognized the design.
Even as he looked, a hatch was thrown open in the deck of the submarine,and the head and shoulders of a man emerged from the aperture. Almost atthe same instant Bert's rowboat gave a gentle lurch and disappearedbeneath the surface. As he felt it sinking, Bert gave a great shout, andthe man on the submarine whirled around in his direction, surprisewritten large on his countenance.
"By thunder!" he exclaimed, "what in the name of--" But here he divedbelow and in a few seconds reappeared with a life preserver attached to along cord. This he cast toward Bert, who in the meantime had beenswimming steadily toward the submari
ne. Bert grasped the preserver andwas rapidly drawn on board by the first man who had appeared, and by twoothers who by now had joined him. Bert was soon safe on the slopingdeck, and was besieged by a thousand questions.
The man who had first espied Bert was evidently an officer, and he soonquitted the others and took the cross-examination in his own hands. Itwas some time before Bert was able to answer, and probably at no time inhis strenuous career had he come nearer complete exhaustion.
Finally, however, his strength began to return, and he staggered to hisfeet.
"For Heaven's sake!" he exclaimed, "take me to the captain and let megive him a message I have for him. Never mind anything else just now--Ican tell you all about that after we get started."
The officer saw that he was in deadly earnest, and although he was ratherinclined to think this young fellow's experiences had unbalanced hismind, he led him below without further loss of time.
They descended a steep ladder, and presently entered the room in whichwere kept the machinery controls, gauges, and other apparatus relating tothe operation of the submarine. There was a solidly built table in thecenter of this room, and at this, carefully examining a chart spread outin front of him, sat a sturdy, thick-set man of perhaps fifty years ofage. As the officer entered, followed by Bert, the captain rose andwaited for the officer's report.
He gave Bert only one glance, but it was such a keen, searching one, thatour hero felt there was little in his appearance that the other hadoverlooked. Then the captain turned his eyes back to the officer, andreturned the latter's salute.
"Well, Mr. Warren, what have you to report?" he asked.
"Why, sir," replied the officer, "I don't exactly know myself. When weascended to the surface and I went up on deck, the first thing I saw wasa foundering rowboat with this young man in it. A few seconds later itsank, and he swam toward the ship. I threw him a life preserver, and wehauled him aboard. He wouldn't answer any questions, though, andinsisted on speaking with you personally, so I thought it best to bringhim along."
"Very good," responded the captain, and turned slightly toward Bert."Now, young man," he said, "you wished to speak to me, and here I am.What is it you wanted to tell me?"
Thereupon Bert poured out the whole story of the Japanese plot as fast ashe could speak, and the captain and his officer listened attentively,once in a while asking a terse question. The commander's eyes wereriveted on Bert during his whole speech, and when he had finished he sata few moments immersed in deep thought.
Then he sprang to his feet and gave crisp orders to get the submarineunder way. "See that the lad is clothed and well taken care of, Mr.Warren," he ordered, as his commands were being carried out. "He'sevidently had some rather strenuous experiences, during the last fewhours, and a little food and rest will do him a lot of good. We can wakehim up when we need him."
Lieut. Warren saluted, and motioned to Bert to follow him. He led himthrough a long passage to the officers' dining room, and when a placewas set for him at the table Bert fell to with a good appetite. Theofficers were naturally very much interested in his adventures, and hetold them as much of his recent experiences as he thought fit, of coursenot mentioning details of the plot. Before very long they asked him hisname, and when they learned that he was actually the man who had won theMarathon race at the last Olympic games, they would gladly have made hima present of the ship had they been able.
It was with the greatest difficulty that he finally broke away and madean attempt to get a little sleep. He was so excited that he found thisimpossible, however, and soon returned to the company of the officers.The electric motors driving the ship were humming at top speed, and theregistering apparatus indicated a rate of fifteen knots an hour. Thiswas good speed for a submarine, but Bert figured that, as the yacht onwhich he had been carried out was unusually swift, it must have traveledat least one hundred and fifty miles from the Colon harbor. At the rateof fifteen knots an hour, then, it would take them a little over tenhours to get back into the harbor, and he did not know how much longer toget up the canal to the mined gate of the lock. There was always thechance of accidents or delay, and he must reach the city before themorrow dawned.