CHAPTER III.
THE OVERTURNED BOAT.
Matt knew why the original orders given him by Captain Nemo, Jr.,carried the _Grampus_ around the Horn. For a vessel that depended onanything but sails for motive power rounding the Horn was no difficultmatter. In those southern waters bad weather prevails, but it waspossible for the submarine to dive downward and escape the gales andthe rough seas. Magellan Strait, on the other hand, was difficult ofnavigation. Captain Nemo, Jr., had specified a course around the Hornin order to expose the _Grampus_ to as little hazard as might be. Hehad not known, of course, that Matt and his friends were to be beset bysuch relentless foes as the Sons of the Rising Sun. Matt preferred torisk the difficult passage of the strait rather than to take chancesrounding the southern tip of the continent.
It would have been possible for him, of course, so to word his wirelessmessage as to carry the mysterious steamer through the strait, leavingthe _Grampus_ free to take the course originally laid down for her. Butthat would have given the steamer the shortest course to the Pacific,and she could have been waiting in Smyth Channel, at the western endof the strait, when the submarine came picking her way among theislands. On the whole, it seemed to Matt better that he should send themysterious steamer around the Horn, and so get ahead of her for the runup the Chilian coast.
The barometer had been falling rapidly all afternoon, and Matt was in ahurry to round Cape Virgins and find anchorage in Possession Bay, thereto submerge to a good depth, avoid the storm, and pass the night. Whilein the strait they would have to do their navigating by daylight, andeither sink to the bottom or tie up during the hours of darkness.
While the _Grampus_ was still at the surface, Matt pushed through thehatch to get a look at the sky. Off to the south the heavens were blackas the inside of a tar barrel, and through the heavy gloom ran vividlines of lightning. The wind was high and constantly increasing, sothat the waves were lashed furiously. But the rollers were long, andwhen the submarine crossed one high wave, she slid down the wateryhill like a toboggan, ramming her sharp nose into the next comber, andflinging the scud high over the conning tower.
Our friends aboard the craft were hurled about at every angle, andit was necessary for those who had to remain at their posts to lashthemselves securely in order to avoid being thrown against themachinery, or the steel plates of side or bulkhead.
Matt closed and secured the hatch, after which he slid down the ladder.Speake, tied to rings in the forward bulkhead of the periscope room,was watching the periscope and doing the steering. The floor underneathseemed to tumble around like the back of a rearing horse.
"We're getting it good an' proper, Matt," said Speake. "For exercise inground an' lofty tumblin', a submarine in a seaway takes the banner."
"We'll submerge," said Matt, "but I'm in hopes we can get around CapeVirgins and into Possession Bay before the worst of it hits us."
He turned to the tank-room speaking tube.
"A ten-foot submergence, Clackett!" he called.
The pounding of waves against the hull caused a dull roaring throughoutthe boat, almost deadening the "ay, ay" that came from Clackett.
Presently, as the ballast tanks slowly filled, the _Grampus_ sank untilonly five feet of the periscope mast was out of water. The motionof the boat was perceptibly easier, but steering by periscope wasdifficult. Huge waves flung themselves at the ball that capped the mastand thus sponged out the view that should have been reflected on themirror. Only at intervals could a view above the surface be obtained.
Matt called Dick and had him lash himself at the periscope table, thusleaving Speake free to attend to the wheel.
"Keelhaul me!" muttered Dick. "It's as black as your hat all aroundus. And lightning! I'm a Fiji if I ever saw it so sharp."
"Can you raise Cape Virgins?" queried Matt.
"I can see something off to starboard that looks as though it might bethe cape."
"Well, after we once get around that we'll be in quieter waters andwill submerge for the night. Keep your eyes peeled, Dick. This would bea bad time to collide with some steamer just leaving the strait."
Matt, braced on the locker, fell to examining the chart again. While hewas at it, a yell of amazement and consternation came from Dick.
The shout lifted Matt off the locker.
"What's the matter?" he asked, ranging alongside his chum.
"An overturned boat," gasped Dick. "I saw it in a trough of the wavesjust as the periscope cleared--_and there were men lashed to thebottom_!"
"Positive of that?" returned Matt, fixing his eyes on the mirror.
"Watch, matey, and mayhap you'll see them for yourself."
Just then the periscope ball shook itself free of the waves, and thetumbling sea lay under Matt's eyes. As the darkness was lighted bya glare of lightning, the young motorist was thrilled by the vividglimpse thus given him of the overturned boat. It was about a hundredfeet away on the starboard side, and, at that moment, was being hurledhigh on the top of a comber. There were five dripping forms on theboat's bottom--Matt saw that much before another wave drenched theperiscope ball.
Whirling away, he turned to the motor-room tube.
"Is Glennie or Carl down there?" he shouted.
"Glennie's helping me," answered Gaines, "and Carl's with Clackett."
"Send 'em both up here on the jump."
"What're you going to try to do?" demanded Speake, as Matt beganthrowing coils of light, strong rope out of the locker.
"There are five men on that overturned boat," was the determinedanswer, "and we're going to save them."
"It's as much as your life is worth, Matt," returned Speake earnestly,"to bring the _Grampus_ to the surface and venture out on deck."
Matt had thrown off his coat and hat and was now taking off his shoes.
"It's our duty to do what we can," said he. "We can't leave those fivemen to be washed into the sea and drowned."
"No more we can't," seconded Dick, likewise beginning to peel off hisextra clothing. "Watch your old periscope yourself, Speake. I wouldn'tgive tuppence for those fellows' chances if we don't snatch 'em off."
At that moment Carl and Glennie came rolling into the periscope room.It took Matt only half a minute to tell them of the work that lay ahead.
"Hoop-a-la!" shouted Carl, beginning to strip, "dot means me!"
"And me, too," averred Glennie, likewise preparing himself.
"Dick and I will tie ropes around us and go on the deck," said Matt."Glennie will stand in the tower and do the steering. Dick and I willeach carry the spare ends of a couple of ropes with us, and the coilswill be left down here in the periscope room. As soon as one of themen makes fast to a rope, Carl and Speake will tail onto it and haulhim aboard."
Matt turned to the tank-room tube.
"Empty the ballast tanks, Clackett!" he shouted.
Clackett must have thought that a strange order, but he was thereto obey, and the tone of Matt's voice told him clearly that instantcompliance was wanted.
The splash of the turbines could be heard, and the _Grampus_ beganrising into rougher water.
"I'll go out first," said Matt, stepping to the ladder. "You follow me,Dick, and, Glennie, you come last."
Matt lingered a moment to pick up an iron wrench and secure it to theend of one of the ropes that was going aloft with him, and then madehis way up the ladder.
By then the _Grampus_ was rolling and pitching on the surface, and whenMatt opened the hatch, a wave swept over his head, nearly smotheringhim and hurling him fiercely against the inner wall of the tower.
It looked like suicide to venture out into the waves that hurledthemselves over the rounded deck of the submarine, but he watchedhis chances, got over the edge of the tower and crawled to the steelperiscope mast. Just as he reached it, another wave flung itself overthe boat. Had his arms not been around the mast, he would have beenplucked bodily from the deck and swept into the sea.
As soon as the wave had passed, he tied his life
line to the stoutsteel upright, and stood erect. Just then the submarine was ridinga wave, and he saw the overturned boat to the north and on the portside--twice as far away as when he had first seen her through theperiscope.
Dick was on the other side of the tower, lashing himself to theflagstaff, and Glennie was out of the hatch to the waist line.
Talking, at such a time, was impossible. Matt pointed in the directionof the overturned boat, and the faint tinkle of the motor-room bellbelow was heard as Glennie signaled for a turn on the port tack.
As the _Grampus_ came around, she was rolled like a barrel, Matt,Glennie, and Dick, all three, being entirely submerged. But the stoutcraft was nothing more than a big air chamber, and so long as herplates held together she was practically unsinkable.
Righting herself, the submarine brought the three boys up out of thewhirling maelstrom of water.
Matt looked behind. Glennie, dauntless and determined, still rearedabove the hatch, peering ahead and directing the course; and Dick,farther aft, was hauling at one of his spare lines, coiling it in hishand and making ready to cast as soon as the _Grampus_ came closeenough to the overturned boat.