CHAPTER XIII.
A DIVE FOR LIBERTY.
Carl fell over the top of the conning tower, descended the rounded deckwith one hand clinging to a wire guy, and reached out over the water.
"Schust a leedle vay farder, bard!" he cried encouragingly. "Shvim aleedle fasder! Der fellers on shore iss pooty glose!"
Glennie was first to clasp Carl's outstretched hand, and, with itsassistance, to reach the deck; then Glennie, dripping wet, laid hold ofanother guy and bent down to give a hand to Matt. Carl assisted Dick upthe sloping deck at the same time.
By then the soldiers were almost upon the wharf. Sudden flares lit thenight, and each flare meant the explosion of a gun.
"Quick!" cried Matt, "get below. We're in the right, but those fellowsdon't know it yet."
Carl pushed Dick toward the conning tower. The sailor was loath to bethe first to seek safety, but hesitation on his part only blocked theway for the others. Down Dick went, Carl close after him. Then Glennietook a dive through the hatch, and had no more than cleared the waybefore Matt followed.
Flashes were shooting up in the darkness all along the wharf. Leadenhail pattered on the steel sides of the _Grampus_, but the stout ironmerely gave a ringing laugh and flung the softer metal off.
An unexpected event happened just as Matt ducked below the hatch. Thepropeller, working against the pull of the anchors, suddenly took agrip and hurled the _Grampus_ ahead.
Carl had set the rudder for a move toward the wharf. It was in thatdirection, therefore, that the boat plunged, thus carrying those aboardnearer their enemies. Matt grabbed the tower steering device just intime to turn the craft. So narrow was the margin that the rounded sideof the hull brushed the wharf timbers as the boat swept by.
This gave the soldiers a chance to do some shooting at close range;it likewise gave them a chance--for the fraction of a minute--to jumpaboard, but no one improved the opportunity. Another minute and thesubmarine was headed out into the strait.
"Take the wheel, Carl, until I get down," called Matt.
"Dot's me!" boomed Carl from below.
Matt closed the hatch and descended to the periscope room.
"Stop the engine, Gaines!" he called through the tube. "Fill the tanks,Clackett!" he added.
"Hooray!" came from Clackett as the splash of water echoed from thefilling tanks. "It's good to hear your voice again, Matt. How far downare we going?"
"Till we touch bottom. There's where we're to pass the night."
The bottom was reached at forty feet. Clackett announced the depth asthe _Grampus_ came to a rest.
"We're forty feet from all the military and naval forces of PuntaArenas," said Glennie.
"But it's forty feet of water," added Dick, "and, even if those ashoreknew where we were, it would puzzle them some to get at us."
"We're safe enough," said Matt. "In the early morning we'll riseuntil we show just the periscope ball and will start for the Pacific.Now that there's nothing particular for all hands to do, let's becomfortable and find out how it all happened."
"You're the cause of it, matey," declared Dick.
"I know that, of course. If I hadn't been held a prisoner by CaptainSandoval, there wouldn't have been any need of you and Glennie takingall those chances to rescue me. What I mean is, what suggested such anaudacious proceeding?"
"You did," persisted Dick.
"Explain how?"
"Why, when you landed from the war ship, you stood up there on thewharf and defied this Captain Sandoval. It was Motor Matt's defiancethat suggested to me a plan that was a little more comprehensive. Youhad defied Sandoval, so why couldn't the three of us defy all theChilians in the town? Well, we did, didn't we? And we got clear withwhole skins, every one of us."
"I can hardly believe it possible," muttered Glennie.
Dick turned on the ensign.
"You had as big a finger in the pie as any one," said he, "and you tookthe foolhardy risk like a whole man. I like you better this minute,John Glennie, than I ever thought I could. Toss us your fin!"
Glennie looked surprised, then a pleased look crossed his face and hereached forward and caught the young sailor's hand.
"If I've won your friendship by that piece of work, then I've had adouble gain," said he.
"Vat in der vorld," chimed in Carl, "dit dose fellers shpeak to youlike you vas a tog for? Und arrest you und keep you apoardt der varship? I hat id all fixed oop in my mindt to put a dorpeto indo dotgruiser oof she ditn't led you go."
"It isn't very clear to me yet," answered Matt, "what I was made aprisoner for. Garcia started the trouble for me----"
"He said he would, you remember," put in Glennie.
"Yes, and he carried out his threat as soon as he got on the deck ofthe war ship. He told one of the officers that he had hired me to takehim and his friends out of that sailboat in the _Grampus_, and that Ihad lost my courage and was heading for Sandy Point with them."
"You don't mean to say that this Captain Sandoval believed that?" criedGlennie.
"He professed to," answered Matt. "I was to be held in Punta Arenasuntil Garcia's yarn could be verified, which, the captain said, mighttake a week or two. The American consul, and the British consul, thecaptain also told me, were both out of town for a week----"
"Which is a fact," spoke up Glennie. "Dick and I went ashore to see thetwo consuls, and were informed, at their residences, that they had goneinto the interior for a week."
"Then I owe Captain Sandoval an apology," said Matt, "for I doubted hisword."
"Vell, he owes you some abologies, too, don'd he?" asked Carl.
"Well," smiled Matt, "a few."
Matt got up and turned off the electric light that flooded theperiscope room.
"What's that for?" asked Dick.
"The light might shine through the lunettes and be reflected up to thesurface," was Matt's answer. "I just happened to think of it."
"Well you did, Matt!" exclaimed Glennie.
"There was something else that Captain Sandoval told me," went on Matt,"which had to do with the Jap steamer."
"What was that?" came the questioning chorus.
"Why, at the time we were doing our wireless work from Gallegos Bay,the war ship _Salvadore's_ wireless apparatus was not working. Sandovaldiscovered, from the station at Punta Arenas, that, at that very time,the station was communicating with a ship which claimed to be the_Salvadore_."
"It was the Jap steamer, eh?" put in Dick.
"Yes. You see, our second-hand machine wasn't powerful enough tocommunicate with Punta Arenas nor to receive messages from there; butthe Jap steamer was closer, and so we exchanged messages with her. Butthe Japs were able to communicate with the Punta Arenas station, andthe Chilians thought it was us. At least, that is what Captain Sandovalsaid. I couldn't explain without getting us into more trouble with theSons of the Rising Sun, so I kept quiet."
Matt cut short the general comment by declaring that he was tired, thatthey were perfectly safe from pursuit, and that he was going to sleep.
All the rest were of the same mind, and presently the echoes of theexcited voices had died out, and only sounds of deep and peacefulbreathing disturbed the silence that reigned within the _Grampus_.
Matt was astir at five o'clock the next morning, and went around wakinghis friends.
"We must get an early start," he explained, "so all take your stationsquietly. We are still off the town, remember, and we shall have to comeclose enough to the surface so that our periscope ball will be free ofthe water and show us the course. If the red ball should be seen as itglides over the water, we might have trouble, so we must proceed aswarily as we can."
With Matt at the wheel and the periscope table, Gaines and Dick in themotor room, Carl and Clackett in the tank room, and Speake working athis electric stove in the torpedo room, the ballast tanks were slowlyfreed of a part of their watery load. Matt, watching the periscope,signaled to Clackett to stop unloading the tanks just as the reflectedimage of t
he surface appeared in the mirror.
"How is everything, matey?" queried Dick through the speaking tube.
"The _Salvadore_ is within twenty fathoms of us," replied Matt, "buteverything is quiet. Full speed ahead, Gaines," he added. "We'll notcome to the surface until we're several miles nearer Smyth Channel."
With all the machinery working smoothly, the _Grampus_ glided as softlyas a huge fish away from the dangerous port of Punta Arenas, the redperiscope ball alone showing, and flashing a crimson trail in thedirection of the Pacific.