CHAPTER XIII.
WAITING FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN.
Ysabel sank down on the top of the locker. Carl had turned on theelectric light in the periscope room and was staring at the girl inunconcealed amazement.
"How vas dis?" he asked. "Miss Harris, iss it you, sure enough?"
"Not Miss Harris," answered the girl with a flush, "but Miss YsabelSixty."
"You bed you," returned Carl, slightly abashed. "Miss Sixdy, dis vaskevite a surbrise. I hat no itee dot you vas in dis part oof der vorld.How id vas----"
"Slow down your motor, Gaines!" shouted Matt, through one of the tubes."Make ready the bow anchor, there, Clackett--you don't need to botherwith the tanks, because we're going to anchor under the surface. Carl,"he added, turning to his Dutch chum, "below with you and make ready tolet go the stern anchor when I give the word. Sharp on it now!"
Carl jumped for the bulkhead door leading to the after-part of the ship.
Every one on board, with the exception of Dick and Ysabel, wereastounded at these maneuvres of Motor Matt's. However, Matt was incharge, and all hands obeyed him without question.
With his eyes on the periscope, Matt stood and watched, now and thencalling a direction to Dick, at the wheel.
When the _Grampus_ shot from the Purgatoire into the Izaral, she wentbroadside on against the current of the larger stream. The steel hullheaved over a little under the mass of flowing water, but the screw andthe rudder held her stiffly to her course.
"Now," shouted Matt into the speaking tube, "let go your anchors!"
The swishing clank of chains, paying out under water, came to the earsof those in the periscope room.
"Anchor's down!" cried Clackett.
"Dot's der same here!" yelled Carl, his voice ringing from aft.
"Stop the motor, Gaines!" ordered Matt.
The humming of the cylinders ceased, and the _Grampus_, anchoredbroadside on across the Izaral, tugged at her mooring chains.
"Where are we, Matt?" came the voice of Gaines through the motor-roomtube. "I thought we were making a run to get away from therevolutionists."
"Hardly, Gaines," answered Matt. "We don't want to run away and leaveour friends in the hands of the rebels. Come into the periscope room,all of you, and I'll explain what we are doing and why we are doing it."
"And while you're explaining," said Ysabel quietly but firmly, "I'lltake care of your arm. Where is something I can use for a bandage? AndI'd like a sponge and a basin of water."
"You'll find a bandage in that locker you're sitting on, Ysabel," saidMatt.
"I'll get the water," said Dick.
By the time Matt had been divested of his coat, and had had his shirtsleeve rolled up, Gaines, Clackett and Carl were in the periscope room,sitting on the low stools that served for chairs. Dick was back, also,with the basin of water and the sponge, and Ysabel began dressing thewounded arm.
"Great guns, Matt!" exclaimed Gaines. "Are you hurt?"
"A scratch, nothing more," Matt answered. "The bullet simply left amark and then went on. I brought you up here, friends," the youngmotorist continued, "to tell you where we are. We're anchored,broadside on to the current, in the middle of the Izaral River, ourperiscope ball some three or four feet above the surface of the water.We are going to stay here and wait for something to happen."
"What's to happen?" asked Clackett.
"Well, we've got news that a motor launch is coming down the Izaralloaded with prisoners. If possible, we must intercept the launch. Dicksays we've a chance in ten of winning out, but we can't neglect even soslim a chance as that, inasmuch as it happens to be our only one."
Gaines, Clackett and Carl were even more deeply puzzled than they hadbeen.
"Who are the prisoners?" inquired Gaines.
"Coleman, for one--the man we came to rescue. Then there are Jordan,Speake, and, I hope, Tirzal."
"Jordan and those with him were really captured?" demanded Clackett.
"Yes."
"Ach, du lieber, vat a luck!" wailed Carl. "Ve come afder vone Ameriganconsul und lose anodder! Dey vas hootoos, dose consuls."
Matt, carefully watching the periscope as he talked, repeatedthe experiences that had overtaken him and Dick while they werereconnoitring to find some trace of Jordan's party.
The presence of Ysabel had aroused much curiosity in all of them, andthe explanation as to how she came to be on the boat straightened outthat part of the matter to the satisfaction of every one. Carl, inparticular, was highly pleased. He had dried himself out, after hisfall in the river, and was feeling easy in his mind, now that Matt andDick, at least, had been kept out of the hands of General Pitou.
"You dit a pig t'ing, Miss Sixdy," said Carl, "ven you safed Matt undTick, und Matt dit some more pig t'ings ven he safed you, so dot vasefen. Now, oof ve don'd make some misdakes in our galgulations undare aple to resgue dot poat loadt oof brisoners, eferypody vill be sohabby as I can'd dell. Oof gourse, I don'd vas in id, ad all. I hat mydrouple mit an allikator, und hat to shday pehindt und dake care oofder supmarine."
"Do you feel pretty sure, Matt," queried Gaines, "that the motor launchwith the prisoners will come down the Izaral?"
"All we have to go on, Gaines, is Coleman's note," answered Matt. "Imay say that this move constitutes our only hope. If something doesn'thappen, about as we expect and hope it will, then we'll have to give upall thought of doing anything for Coleman, or our friends."
"We'll hope something will happen, mate," said Dick. "In case thelaunch comes down the river, what are you intending to do?"
"I have my plans, Dick," said Matt. "If every one carries out hisorders on the jump, I feel pretty sure the plan will carry. The mainthing is to keep a keen watch for the launch."
"That's easy enough during daylight, with the periscope ballelevated as it is," remarked Gaines, "but if the launch happens tocome down-stream in the night--which, it strikes me, is altogetherlikely--then the boat is apt to get past us."
"Not if a good lookout is kept."
"How will you keep a good lookout if you don't go to the surface?"
"Well, what the eye can't see the ear will have to tell us. The hollowball and the hollow periscope mast will bring the _chug_ of the motorboat's engine into the submarine. The craft ought to be heard a gooddistance away. One man will have to be at the periscope all the time,and all the rest of you must be at your stations, ready to carry outorders at a second's notice. You go down to the motor room, Gaines,and Clackett, you go to the tank room. I will stay on the lookout. Atmidnight, I will have Carl and Dick relieve both of you, but all handsmust be on the alert to turn out at a moment's warning. Carl will getsome supper for us, and pass it around."
Matt, as usual, had made no arrangement whereby he could secure anyrest for himself. But he felt that he could not rest, even if he hadthe chance.
The rescue of Coleman meant much to Captain Nemo, Jr., for on theperformance of the _Grampus_ might depend the sale of the submarine tothe United States government. While the failure to rescue Coleman, andeven the loss of Jordan, Speake and the pilot had nothing to do withthe boat's capabilities, yet failure, nevertheless, would spoil a saleand fill the authorities in Washington with distrust.
The _Grampus_ was not a passenger boat, and she had now a ladypassenger to take care of. Matt finally solved the difficulty by havingYsabel conducted to a small steel room abaft the periscope chamber.This was set aside entirely for the girl's use, and she arranged afairly comfortable bed on the floor.
After supper had been eaten, Ysabel retired to her cabin, and Carl andDick nodded drowsily on the looker in the periscope room. Matt, wideawake as a hawk, kept his eyes on the periscope table and his earsattuned for the first sound of the launch's motor.
Night, however, closed in without bringing any sign of the boat. Thegloom, of course, put the periscope out of commission as it deepened,but still Matt watched the table top, looking for possible lights andlistening for the clank of machinery.
Dick
took Matt's place for an hour or two, while Matt lay down andtried to sleep. Although he had had only three hours' sleep in twodays, yet the young motorist found it impossible to lose himself inslumber. He was keyed up to too high a pitch, and was too worried.
At midnight he sent Dick and Carl to relieve Gaines and Clackett, andwas alone with his vigils in the periscope room.
From midnight on the night seemed an eternity; and the gloomy hourspassed without anything happening. Matt had believed with Gaines thatnight would be the time the captors would choose for coming down theriver with their captives. Inasmuch as they had not come, did this meanthat they were not coming at all? that General Pitou had changed hisplans?
Desperately Matt clung to his last shred of hope and watched the comingday reflect itself in a gray haze over the top of the periscope table.
Slowly the trees along the river stood out with constantly increasingdistinctness, and the bosom of the rolling river took form beneath hiseyes. Up-stream he could see nothing, but--what was that he heard?
Scarcely breathing, he gripped at the table top and listened intently._Chuggety-chug_, _chuggety-chug_--there was absolutely no doubt of it!A motor boat was coming down-stream--his ears had heard it before theperiscope had been able to pick it up.
"At your stations, everybody!" Matt shouted. "Dick! up here in theperiscope room with you! _The motor launch is coming!_"
Motor Matt's Quest; or Three Chums in Strange Waters Page 14