"I guess they've got Ned!" Jimmie cried, as the heavy hatch of theShark closed with a slam. "If they have, we'll ram 'em to the bottom."
"You just wait!" Jack advised. "There's a good deal of a racket goingon over there. I guess Hans is putting his educated left into motion.Look at him!"
There was indeed a great commotion on the platform. Presently thehatch was lifted and one of the contestants disappeared.
"Do you mind that, now!" shouted Jimmie. "Ned has captured the boatfor keeps! There! Now he's tellin' them where to head in at!"
Through the still night air they heard Ned's voice:
"You people down there know what I am here for. If the thing I want isdestroyed you'll all be hanged for piracy. Understand?"
Then the hatch was jammed down again, and Ned and Frank stepped intothe rowboat, leaving Hans on the platform. Jimmie threw up his capwhen the two boys stepped on the Sea Lion's platform.
"You captured the bunch!" he yelled, "and you stole the boat. You suremade a good job of it."
"What's the proposition?" asked Jack.
"I thought I'd tow the old tub into a port where I can communicatewith an American man-of-war," replied Ned.
"This is luck!" Frank exclaimed. "Luck for us, and trouble for thepirates. I wonder if they've got much gold on board."
"If they have," laughed Ned, "Hans will see that they don't get awaywith it. They're nailed down hard."
"Talk about the luck of the British army!" roared Jack. "It is blindadversity to the luck of the Boy Scouts! Here we've got the piratesbunched! As soon as we communicate with a man-of-war, we'll turn 'emover to Uncle Sam and go back and get the gold."
"The Shark," Frank observed, "was a derelict when we picked her up,wasn't she? She couldn't move a foot. Well, then, we're entitled tosalvage. We'll put in a bill that will eat up the whole business!"
"If we get her into port," Ned replied. "The old tub is in bad shapeowing to the bunting she gave the Sea Lion. I'm afraid she'll go downbefore morning."
"Cripes!" Jimmie broke out. "What will we do, then, with all thembold, bad men? We've got our penitentiary full now!"
"And the prisoners are making all kinds of trouble, too," Jack added."If the door wasn't good and strong, it'd be in splinters by thistime. That young Moore is the worst."
"We won't cross any bridges until we come to them," Ned remarked. "TheShark may last until we get to Hongkong. Anyway, I'm counting on quitea run before she goes down."
"How many are there on board?" asked Jack.
"Six, not counting Hans. I think we can accommodate them all on boardthe Sea Lion, if we have to."
The Sea Lion towed the Shark all through the night, keeping to aneasterly direction with the idea of going to Hongkong, something over150 miles away. All along the eastern coast of Kwang Tung, from theslender peninsula which separates the Gulf of Tongking from the ChinaSea to the bay which penetrates almost to Canton, there is asuccession of little islands, so the submarine and her prize werealways in sight of land.
Just at dawn there came a cry from the platform of the Shark, and Hanswas discovered waving his cap excitedly in the air.
"Vater! Vater!" he cried. "Dis iss droubles! Make us off disdurdle--gwick!"
"Sinking?" Ned called back.
Further talk with the German informed Ned that water was seeping intothe different compartments of the Shark, and that the inmates werealready perched on tables and on the stairs leading to the platform.
The boy attached the towing cable to a windlass on the platform of theSea Lion, turned on the power, and the sinking craft soon layalongside. She was indeed in a bad predicament. Another half hourwould see the last of her.
"Now," Ned said, "we don't know what those fellows will try to do whenthe hatch is lifted. I've known snakes to sting the hand that fed andwarmed them. Anyway, we'll take no chances."
Following his orders, the boys got out their automatic revolvers andranged themselves on the platform. Then Ned lowered the rowboat,making a bridge between the two. The hulls of the boats met underwater, but the platforms, owing to the bulge, were some littledistance apart. The railings of the conning towers were not much abovethe surface.
His arrangements for securing the prisoners without trouble completed,Ned went over to the Shark and lifted the hatch. He was greeted with achorus of threats, supplications, and questions.
"You'll get yours for sinking the Shark!" one shouted.
"For God's sake let us out; we are drowning!" whined another.
"What's the matter with the boat?" asked a third.
"Listen," Ned said. "The Shark may go down in ten minutes, or she mayfloat, under tow, for a long time. Anyway, you are better out of her.I'll take you all out if you promise to behave yourselves. Come out ofthe hatch one at a time and be searched for weapons. The man thatcarries a weapon of any kind on his person will be thrown back, tofeed the fish. Do you understand?"
They understood, and not even a penknife was found when search wasmade. Five of the rescued ones were plain seamen, with littleknowledge of submarine work. The other was the captain of the Shark.Under the direction of young Moore he had attempted to make off witheverything of value on the wreck, including the papers.
This man was a fair type of marine officer, had, in fact, resignedfrom the United States service with Captain Moore. He was by no meansan ill-looking man, but his snaky eyes and treacherous mouth told Nedto look out for him.
He came out of the hatch last and was stepping onto the rowboat whenNed stopped him with a question:
"Where are the papers?"
"What papers?" snarled the other, Babcock by name.
"The papers you took from the wreck."
"They are below, soaked with water."
"Get them!"
"But--"
"Get them! Quick!"
"But they are afloat, and--"
"Get them!"
Babcock went down the staircase with murder in his eyes. He returned,in a moment, with a sealed packet, which was perfectly dry. Ned brokethe seal and glanced at the sheets inside.
The one which met his eyes first was headed:
"General instructions, to be opened only when the demand for the coinis made."
"Now," Ned went on, "where are your sailing orders?"
"Lost!" was the reply.
"Get them!" Ned said, quietly.
"They are--"
"Get them," came again from the boy's lips.
Again Babcock went into the submarine, now rapidly filling with water.He returned dripping with sea water, holding in his hand a water-tighttin box which was secured by a brass padlock.
"You now have everything I held concerning the mission of the boat andthe disposition of the gold," he said. "I suppose I may get out of thewater now?"
Ned stepped aside and Babcock passed over to the Sea Lion. Nedattached a buoy to the tower of the Shark and cut loose from her.
"We'll let some of Uncle Sam's boats pick her up," he said. "I'm forHongkong with these papers."
The five sailors were not locked up, but were given the run of thecabin, the machine room only being closed against them.
"I'm not going to have them mixing things down here," Jack, who was incharge that day, said.
Babcock, however, was locked up with Captain Moore. When the doorclosed on the two men the boys heard them both talking at the sametime, and their language was not at all complimentary to each other.
"You're a blackmailer!" Moore yelled.
"You're a liar!" was the reply.
"Fight it out!" Jimmie shouted from the door.
"Get to going and see who's to blame for this!"
Then the voices quieted down, and no more words were heard.
"Did you hear what they called each other?" asked Jack. "Well, I'mbetting they are both right."
Ned went to his cabin and opened the tin box. He lingered over what hefound there until noon and then called Frank into conference with him.
"There's a plot
which involves officers at Canton," he said, "and wemay as well bag the whole bunch."
"Of course. We ought to make a good job of it, as Jimmie says."
Ned examined his map and called Frank over to the table where it wasspread out.
"If we go to Canton," he said, "we'll have to run into the lake-likemouth of the Si River. Guess that's its name. It looks dim on the map.Fifty miles to the north the little stream on which Canton is situatedruns into the larger stream.
"We can run to that point and leave the Sea Lion while we go toCanton. I guess the prisoners won't object to a few days more ofimprisonment. Anyway, we may meet a ship we can turn them over to."
"They are objecting, right now, it seems," cried Frank, opening thedoor and looking out into the main cabin. "Hans is sitting on one ofthe sailors and Jack and Jimmie are holding the others back with theirautomatics."
Both boys leaped out. The sailors, doubtless alarmed at the arrival ofthe leaders, sprang for the hatchway. The boys did not fire at them asthey passed, and directly splashes in the sea told those on the stairsthat the sailors had leaped into the water.
Hans arose, scratching his head, and looked down on the man he hadbeen sitting on. The fellow looked up into the lad's face with a queerexpression in his eyes.
"Vot iss?" demanded Hans. "Go py the odders if you schoose! Pyschimminy, dose shark haf one feast!"
"Not on your life!" cried the prisoner. "I'm not anxious to get away.I was shanghaied on the Shark, and it's glad I am to be out of thatbum crowd."
Jimmie, who had followed the sailors to the platform, now came backwith the information that three of them had been picked up by a nativecanoe which had now disappeared from sight in a group of islands. Theother, he said, had gone down.
"How much do those sailors know?" asked Ned of the man Hans had takenprisoner.
"They know a lot," was the reply. "They were all in together. What oneknew, all knew, I guess. It is too bad they got away, for they had adefinite plan to operate if there was trouble and any got away. Theywill lay in wait for you when you land."
"They'll have to travel fast if they do!" Frank laughed.
CHAPTER XIX
ON THE EDGE OF DISASTER