Motor Matt's Defiance; or, Around the Horn
Page 16
CHAPTER XVI.
NORTHWARD BOUND!
It was a jovial crowd that the submarine carried into Smyth Channel,practically free of the strait and ready to reach out along the coastup the western edge of two continents.
Speake was serving dinner, and all were in the periscope room with theexception of Gaines and Clackett, who had to be on duty below. ButGaines and Clackett were listening at their speaking tubes and hearingall that was taking place in the chamber overhead.
"These experiences of ours, during the last few days," said Glennie,"prove that luck wears as many disguises as those Japs."
"Dot vas some deep talk," said Carl; "so deep, py shinks, dot I can'tonderstand id."
"You're getting terribly thick-headed all at once, Carl," said Dick.
"Oh, I don'd know," said Carl easily. "Who vas id got loose mithimseluf in der beriscope room und got pack der _Grampus_ from dergonficts? Leedle Carl, I bed you. A feller vat vas t'ick-headedcouldn't do dot. Hey, Matt?"
"You're right, Carl," laughed Matt. "It took a pretty bright fellow todo that; and your brightness flashed up at just the right time."
"And then flashed out again," said Dick, with a wink at Matt, "and wehaven't seen it since."
"Vell, meppy," observed Carl. "Anyvay, subbose Glennie oxblains vat hemeans ven he say dot luck vears so many tisguises as der Chaps. I nefersee luck but in two vays--von iss goot luck, und der odder iss padluck. I can shpot dose fellers so far as I can see dem."
"Do you know good luck when you see it, Carl?" went on Glennie.
"Don'd I say dot? Sure I do."
"Well, was meeting those convicts good luck or bad for Motor Matt andthe rest of the motor boys?"
"Vat a foolish kvestion!" muttered Carl. "It vas pad luck righdt fromder chump off. Ditn't Modor Matt, und you, und Tick come pooty neargoing off der poat drying to ged dose fellers? Vas dot goot luck?"
"Well," went on Glennie, "what was it when Captain Sandoval made upwith Motor Matt and went after the Japs' steamer, thereby leaving usfree to proceed north without having anything to fear from the Sons ofthe Rising Sun?"
"Dot kvestion iss more foolish as der odder," said Carl disgustedly;"dot vas goot luck."
"Then if we hadn't had the bad luck we couldn't have had the good luck."
"You vas gedding grazy, Glennie. I von't lisden to sooch a ignorance."
There was a general laugh at this.
"Now, wait a minute, Carl," proceeded Glennie. "I want to change yourviews on the subject of luck. If we had not taken the convicts aboardwe should not have delivered them to Captain Sandoval; and----"
"Und oof ve hatn't telivered dem to Santoval," continued Carl, takingup the theme, "Matt vouldn't have gone on der poat und got indodrouple."
"And if Matt hadn't got into trouble, we should not have put in atPunta Arenas; and if we hadn't stopped there, we wouldn't have got Mattaway from Sandoval; and if Sandoval hadn't been trying to test Matt'sstory about the convicts, he wouldn't have come after us when we fledfrom Punta Arenas; and if he hadn't found us and made his peace withMatt, he wouldn't now be chasing the Sons of the Rising Sun or----"
"Ach, himmelblitzen!" groaned Carl, clapping his fingers over his ears,"shdop it! You vill haf me grazier as a pedpug."
"Well, you see, don't you, that helping the convicts, which youcalled bad luck, really resulted in bringing us in touch with CaptainSandoval, who is now our friend and doing his utmost to overhaul theJaps. He will keep the Sons of the Rising Sun so busy that they won'thave any chance to follow us up the coast."
"You've run the bell with your remarks, Glennie," said Dick. "We can'talways tell whether things are happening to us for the better or forthe worse. But, taking 'em full and by, they usually pan out what'sbest for us."
"My little scheme for gaining time on the Japs by sending them aroundthe Horn didn't work," put in Matt.
"It was a clever scheme, all right," declared Glennie, "and it wouldhave worked if the motor hadn't balked on us and compelled us to lose aday."
"We've given the Sons of the Rising Sun something to think about," saidDick. "Keelhaul me if I don't think they'll just about throw up theirhands and quit after this."
"If Sandoval gets them," returned Glennie, "he'll keep them in PuntaArenas until we reach Mare Island."
"And if he don't get them," queried Matt, "what then?"
"There's no doubt about his getting them, old ship!" exclaimed Dick."The war ship is a faster boat than the steamer."
"But Sandoval hasn't the cunning nor the brains that the leader ofthose Japs has!"
"That may be, but it doesn't take much cunning or brains for astraight-away race. The fastest boat will win, and I'm banking on the_Salvadore_. You don't mean to say, matey, that you're expecting tomeet the Young Samurai somewhere up the coast?"
"I'm not expecting it, Dick," answered Matt, "but I'm not going to letanything surprise me. The things you least expect are the things thoseJaps are certain to do."
"I hope like anyt'ing dot der resdt oof dis gruise don'd vas going tobe some Suntay-school bicnics," piped Carl grewsomely. "I vould like tohaf a leedle chincher shdill lefdt in der expetition."
"I guess we'll have ginger enough left, Carl," said Glennie, "even ifwe don't have anything more to do with the Sons of the Rising Sun."
"Where's our next port of call, matey?" queried Dick, directing thequestion at Matt.
"You know what Brigham said we were to do when we mentioned any placewhere we were to put in with the _Grampus_?" laughed Matt.
"He said," replied Glennie, "that we ought to go down in the deepestpart of the ocean and then whisper it."
"Vat dit he mean by sooch grazy talk as dot?" inquired Carl.
"He meant," said Matt, "that the Japs were full of guile, and that theplans we least expected them to overhear would be the very ones theydiscovered. We came down the east coast of the continent from Braziland the River Plate, and laid in at Gallego Bay. If we hadn't donethat, we shouldn't have discovered that the Japs were following us,their boat newly painted and two wireless masts on her deck. Those ladshad their wits about them when they did that wireless work; and it wasonly an accident that enabled us to catch their messages, and answerthem, putting them on a wrong tack."
"But that isn't telling us, mate, where our next port of call is tobe."
"I was trying to emphasize Mr. Brigham's advice of keeping such mattersto ourselves."
"But it isn't necessary, now that the Sons of the Rising Sun are out ofthe running."
"Possibly it isn't. Well, we shall have to have more gasoline about thetime we reach Valparaiso. You can draw your own inferences from that."
"That means," said Dick, "that we put in at Valparaiso. That will do,fine. I've been there a lot of times, and I'm a Fiji if I wouldn'tlike to renew some old acquaintance among the Chilians and the Englishcolony. Let's lay over a day or two, Matt, when we get there, and notjust paddle ashore, get the gasoline, and put to sea again."
"How long we stay in the place, Dick," returned Matt, "will haveto depend on circumstances. We've got to make good, you know, bydelivering the _Grampus_ safely at Mare Island Navy Yard."
"Well, I guess we've nothing but plain sailing ahead of us," said Dick."You won't have to set a pattern of defiance for the rest of us again,or use our wireless apparatus to send a disguised Jap steamer aroundthe Horn."
"When we ought to have gone around the Horn ourselves," added Matt.
"I don't agree with you there," said Glennie. "By coming through thestrait you took the most dangerous passage, and it will count more as atest of the submarine's capabilities than rounding the Horn."
"I agree with you on that point, Glennie," returned Matt, "and I amglad you take that view of a case that was practically forced upon usby the Sons of the Rising Sun."
"To their own undoing," finished Glennie.
THE END.
THE NEXT NUMBER (20) WILL CONTAIN
Motor Matt Makes Good;
OR,
Another Victory for the Motor Boys.
Off the Chilian Coast--Hurled into the Sea--Saved by a Torpedo--Weighing the Evidence--A Surprising Situation--Another Attack--A Bad Half Hour--Chasing a Torpedo--Northward Bound--A Halt for Repairs--Dick Makes a Discovery--A Wary Foe--Pluck that Wins--A Little Work On the Inside--A Star Performance--Conclusion.