Jimmie listened for an instant. There certainly was something thematter with the air machine.
"Get a move on!" shouted the captive, "or we'll all be food for thesharks directly."
"Remain quietly where you are, then," Jimmie said, with a significantflourish at the gun which he had no intention of using, except in acase of the direst necessity.
"Go!" shouted the other.
Jimmie did not know what to do. While he had learned a good deal aboutthe submarine, he was by no means an expert in the handling of her.His experience with the air machines had been very slight, as the boyshad made little use of them.
"It's getting close in here already!" cried the captive in alarm. "Whydon't you do something?"
"What is there for me to do?" asked the boy.
"Release me and I'll fix it," suggested the other.
Before Jimmie could explain the foolishness of this proposition, heheard a pounding at the outer door of the water chamber. He boundedthrough the open doorway and looked out.
There was a helmeted face against the pane. The boy was motioning forthe door to be opened.
"Now," mused Jimmie, "I wonder how he got up there? The lifting lineshaven't moved. Why didn't he let me know he was coming up?"
"Hurry!" called the captive.
Jimmie knew, from the flounderings on the floor, that the fellow wasagain trying to get rid of the rope. He stepped to the door and lifteda hand in warning, then slid the bolts and guards so the water chamberdoor would open from the outside, then stepped back into the largerapartment and closed the door.
He heard a rush of water and knew that some one was entering. Then,satisfied that all was well, he turned to his prisoner.
The fellow was half out of the rope, and one hand was sneaking towarda heavy ax which lay not far off.
"Cut that!" cried the boy.
He stood guarding the man while the water chamber filled and emptied.Then the door opened and Ned came in, helmet in hand. First, he turneda screw and the trouble at the air machine ceased.
"What the dickens!"
Ned stopped short in the middle of the room as he turned and gazed inamazement at the prisoner.
"I've been fishin'," Jimmie explained, with a chuckle.
"What is it you caught?" asked Ned.
"This," said Jimmie, "is the original sea serpent!"
"Looks to me like Moore, Jr.," Ned said.
"No?" exclaimed the boy.
"Are you the son of Captain Moore?" asked Ned.
The other nodded.
"I thought you'd recognize me," he grunted. "I was a fool to comehere."
"That's about the only true word you've said since you came on board,I take it," Ned went on.
Young Moore scowled and bent his eyes to the floor.
Ned now turned to Jimmie and asked:
"Why didn't you draw us up?"
"Why," replied the little fellow, "I never got the signal."
"Guess you were too busy getting your sea serpent," smiled Ned.
"Did you pull?" asked Jimmie.
"Sure. Jack and Frank are out there now, ready to beat you up forkeeping them out so long."
The prisoner turned his face away from the two and sulked.
"There's the boys now," Jimmie said. "Let them in."
In ten minutes Jack and Frank were in the large room, busily engagedin taking off their deep-sea clothes.
As Frank threw his helmet into a corner he held up the end of a line.
"You see," he said, glancing angrily at the prisoner, who had moved asfar away as possible. "The line was cut."
"Aw, it would have come away in your hand when you pulled, then," saidJimmie. "You'd have found that out quick enough."
"I tell you it was cut," Frank insisted. "It was cut and tied to arock that lies at the bottom. When we pulled we pulled at the big oldboulder we saw lying there on the sand. Now, what do you think ofthat?"
"Why did you do it?" asked Ned, turning to Moore.
"I didn't," was the reply.
"Who did?"
"I don't know."
"I don't believe you."
"There were others besides me," insisted Moore.
Ned made an examination of the end of the three cords. All had beencut. All had been tied to something, for the ends were frayed as if bybeing twisted about in the hands.
"I presume you thought you were cutting the air-hose?" asked Ned,tentatively.
"I reckon I know a line from a hose," was the reply.
"So you did cut them?"
Frank sprang toward the prisoner with flashing eyes. "I'll show youwhat such sneaks get here."
Ned drew the enraged boy away.
"He'll get what's coming to him at some other time," he said. "Let himalone for the present."
"But he did attempt to cut the hose!" Jack exclaimed. "We ought tothrow him out to the sharks."
"Not now," said Ned, coolly.
"Anyway," Frank said, a smile showing on his face, "he made us swim tothe boat."
"He did that himself," laughed Jimmie, "and lost his weights."
"That's the worst of it," Jack remarked, "we've lost our weights, andthere's no knowing how we are to get more."
Jimmie now pointed to the air machine.
"Was there something wrong with it?" he asked.
Ned shook his head.
"Working perfectly," he said. "There wasn't a screw loose."
"Well, he," pointing to the prisoner, "said there was something wrong,and I began to think he was right."
"Imagination!" laughed Jack.
Ned now faced Moore and asked:
"Have you taken the gold out of the wreck?"
A shake of the head was the answer.
"Have you discovered any important papers? You know what I mean by'important.'"
"We have not."
"You came in the Diver?"
"Yes."
"Run her across?"
"No; came on a tow-line."
"I thought so. What steamer towed you over?"
"I can't answer that."
"Why?"
"I'm not permitted to."
"It was a Japanese boat?"
"Well, yes, it was."
"And she kept you out of sight all the way over and dropped you hereto do this dirty work?"
"She didn't put a brass band on board of us," replied the captive,sullenly. "What is the meaning of this third degree business? Who doyou think you are?"
"Your people know that we are here, of course?"
"Oh, yes, we're not fools. We saw you from the first."
"And they know where you started for?"
"Sure."
"Is your father in the Diver?"
"I refuse to answer any more questions," Moore stormed. "You've gotthe upper hand now, but the time will come when things will bereversed. Release me!"
"Of course," replied Ned, "we'll release you and give you the run ofthe boat! You came here to murder us, and so are entitled to the mostcourteous treatment!"
"Well, quit asking impertinent questions, then," snarled the other."You can at least do that."
Ned hunted up two pairs of handcuffs, ironed the prisoner, and thenconveyed him to a little room used for storage purposes. Moore did notappear to like this program.
"If anything should happen," he declared, "I'd be left here to dielike a dog."
"And serve you good an' right!" Jimmie consoled.
"What do you expect is going to happen?" asked Jack.
"Oh, I don't know," was the hesitating reply. "Something might, youknow."
The boys went out and shut the door, leaving young Moore protestingagainst the treatment he was receiving.
"Now," Ned said, when the boys were assembled in the large room, "itis plain that the rascals on board the Diver are preparing to attackus, or do something to imperil our lives. You saw how frightened Moorewas when he was locked in that room."
"Yes, he seems to fear that he will be brought to death by his own
friends," Frank said.
"What do you suggest?" asked Ned.
"Stay an' fight!" urged Jimmie.
"Hide away from them!" Frank proposed.
"Wait here until we see what they propose doing," Jack ventured.
"I think," laughed Ned, "that we'll bunch your advice and utilize itall. We'll hide in some deep spot until we see what they're up to, andthen we'll fight."
"I reckon they are about five to one."
This from Frank, who preferred meeting the enemy on dry land.
"Oh, we can't come to a hand-to-hand battle," Ned replied. "We've gotto fight submarine fashion."
Without attempting any explanation of this observation Ned proceededto make a careful inspection of the boat. There was a torpedo tube atthe prow, and this he studied over for a long time.
"Goin' to blow 'em up?" asked Jimmie.
"I was thinking," was the reply, "that we might use this as a bluff ifwe come to a tight place."
"Aw, what's the use?" demanded Jimmie. "You don't make bluffs! You getthe winning hand before you call! If I had my way, I'd blow 'em out ofthe water!"
"Yes, you would!" Frank said. "You'd be the first one to kick if weshould attempt to put that thief in there out of the boat. You're thetender-hearted little child of the bunch!"
All the boys laughed, including Jimmie, for they knew that what Franksaid was the truth. Jimmie liked to talk of merciless measures, but hewas not inclined to put them into practice.
"Well," Ned said, presently, "the Diver people will soon understandthat something has happened to Moore, and will be after us. We may aswell take a moonlight stroll."
The water tanks were filled, the power turned on, and the Sea Lion,with no lights in sight, save the one at the prow from which Frankwatched the level ahead, began feeling her way to the south.
"The charts show a deep pit not far off," Ned said, "and we'll hidethere for a time and see if they give up the job of looting the wreck.The loss of young Moore may scare them out."
"Why not go to the surface and air out the boat?" asked Jack. "Our airapparatus is all right, of course, but I like the real thing better.We can drop down again in a few minutes."
"That's a good idea," Ned replied, and in a moment the Sea Lion waslifting to the surface.
In half an hour she was down again, dark and silent, in the pit ofwhich Ned had spoken. Occasionally the submarine was lifted a fewfathoms in order that anything unusual in the vicinity of the wreckmight be observed.
Sometime near morning the Diver was seen making her way to the northas if setting out for a long voyage. The lights of the craft showedplainly--that is, as plainly as lights ever show at that depth--andthe Sea Lion had no difficulty in following her.
"She's steamin' up!" Jimmie cried, presently. "I believe she knowswe're after her."
But the Sea Lion was equal to the task set for her, and all theremainder of the night the chase went on.
CHAPTER XI
JIMMIE GOES OUT HUNTING
Boy Scouts in a Submarine; Or, Searching an Ocean Floor Page 10