CHAPTER IX.
ABOARD THE "SALVADORE."
The _Grampus_ was between Elizabeth Island and the island of SantaMadalena when the war ship was sighted. She was headed eastward, and bythe time Dick got the hatch opened and looked out, the distance betweenthe two boats had rapidly narrowed.
There was a good deal of excitement on the deck of the war ship.Officers were crowding the bridge and sailors were pressing against therail, forward. Several of the officers had glasses to their eyes andwere studying the submarine with ill-concealed curiosity.
The waters of the strait were as smooth as a pond, and it was possiblefor the _Grampus_ to come close alongside the larger vessel.
"Ahoy!" roared Dick.
An answer was returned in Spanish.
"Can't savvy your lingo," roared Dick, making a trumpet of his hands."Haven't you got any one aboard who can talk English?"
"What ship is that?" cried an officer, so heavily embroidered with goldlace, brass buttons, and epaulettes that Dick was sure he must be thecaptain.
"It's the submarine _Grampus_," answered Dick.
"English?"
"No, American, although _I'm_ English, fast enough."
"Where's your flag?"
The war ship had slowed her engines and was lying to.
Dick signaled the engine room for just enough speed to give thesubmarine steerageway.
"We're under water so much," said Dick, in answer to the officer'squestion, "that we can't fly our colors."
"Is that a government vessel?"
"Not now, but she will be as soon as we get her to Mare Island NavyYard."
"I'd like to send a man aboard of her to look her over," said thecaptain. "Come closer alongside and heave to."
"We can't allow you to look her over," said Dick. "There areimprovements on this boat that no other nation is going to get hold of."
Dick was not very tactful. Whenever he wanted to make a point, he tookthe shortest way to it. His answer seemed to anger the officer.
"You're talking to a captain in the Chilian navy," cried the officer,an ostrich plume in his hat quivering with the wrath that shook hisbody. "If I want to look that boat over I'll do it. Who's your captain?"
"Better let me come up and talk with him, Dick," said Matt, who, at thefoot of the iron ladder, had heard all that had passed between his chumand the captain of the war ship.
Instead of coming down the ladder, Dick got out on the deck.
"I am in charge of this boat, captain," Matt called up to the commanderof the war ship, "but there is a representative of the United StatesNavy with us, and his orders are that the boat is not to undergoinspection. I am sorry, but, you see, this boat has virtually beenpurchased by the United States Government."
"If you're in charge," came from the man on the war ship's bridge,"then come up here--I want to talk with you."
"I shall be glad to do so," Matt answered, "but, first, we have someprisoners we should like to turn over to you."
"Prisoners?"
"Yes, escaped convicts."
"Ah, ha! You found those five rascals, did you?"
"Yes, captain. Their boat had overturned and we picked them offthe craft's bottom not far from Cape Virgins during the storm lateyesterday afternoon."
"Good enough! We were looking for those men. Come up close under ourlee and we'll send down a rope for the prisoners and a sea ladder foryou."
"Better drop a bosun's chair, captain," suggested Dick. "One of the menhas a broken arm."
The officer turned and gave some directions. While these were beingcarried out, the _Grampus_ was manoeuvred around the stern of the warship and up under the lee. As they passed the stern, Matt and Dick sawthe war ship's name. It was the _Salvadore_.
"That other ship, we talked with by wireless," commented Dick, "wasn'tthe _Salvadore_, by a long shot."
"I had a hunch to that effect right along," answered Matt.
As soon as the _Grampus_ was close in, on the lee side of the largervessel, a bosun's chair and a sea ladder were in readiness. Dick wentbelow to help bring up the prisoners.
The leader came bellowing and roaring his wrath. He fought againstbeing placed in the bosun's chair, and a rope was flung down from thesteamer's rail. Dick caught the end of the rope and it was tied aroundthe Chilian's body, under the arms. The rascal was still howling as hewas snatched aloft and dragged to the war ship's deck.
Another rope was sent down for the second uninjured prisoner. He wentup quietly, but with a stern face and glittering eyes.
The man with the broken arm made no struggle, but silently took hisplace in the bosun's chair. When he had been safely lifted over the warship's rail, the captain leaned over and called down:
"Where are the other two? There were five who escaped."
Matt explained how the two missing convicts had got away. Just as hefinished, a junior officer stepped to the captain's side, touched hisarm, and said something in a low tone.
"Now you come up," called the captain, beckoning to Matt; "I want totalk with you."
The captain turned away from the rail.
"You vould t'ink dot brass-plated feller owned der eart'," remarkedCarl. "Ve vas free American cidizens, py shinks, und he don'd got somepitzness shpeaking to us like vat he dit."
"Nonsense, Carl," laughed Matt, "that's only his way."
The sailors on the war ship gave the rope ladder a heave that sentit close enough for Matt to catch it. Gripping the iron rungs, Mattallowed himself to swing from the submarine's deck. He was jarred alittle as he struck the armored side of the war ship, but he went on upto the rail quickly and easily.
An officer said something to him and took him by the arm. Leading himaft, they entered a passageway at the break in the poop, walked alongit a few steps, and then turned in at an open door.
Two men, who were armed with muskets and looked like marines, steppedon each side of Matt as he entered.
Dick, Glennie, and Carl, down on the deck of the _Grampus_, had watchedMatt vanish over the rail with anything but easy minds.
"I don't like the looks of things, mates," said Dick, "and that's afact."
"Me, neider," added Carl. "Dot feller in der brass drimmings shpeakslike ve vas togs. He iss some Shmard Alecs, I bed you."
"I don't think Matt ought to have gone aboard the war ship," averredGlennie.
Dick turned on him in a flash.
"Then why didn't you say so?" he demanded sharply. "You're an officerin the United States Navy, and these Chilian swabs wouldn't dare lay afinger on _you_. What did you let Matt go for, when you could have gonejust as well?"
"Hold your luff, Ferral," answered Glennie, reddening. "You didn'tthink I stayed off that war ship because I was _afraid_, did you?"
"I'm a Fiji if I know why you stayed off," scowled Dick. "That dagocaptain is hot because he couldn't come aboard the _Grampus_----"
"He's hot because you refused him the privilege in the way you did."
"Oh, my eye!" scoffed Dick.
The dislike Dick had for Glennie was increased by a vague alarm forMatt, and the ensign and Matt's sailor chum were never nearer an openrupture than at that moment. Dick's fists had clinched, and a dangerousgleam had leaped into Glennie's eyes.
Carl, to his great credit be it stated, interfered. He had as littleliking for Glennie as Dick had, but he saw the folly of quarrelingunder the eyes of the _Salvadore's_ sailors.
"Dot vill do you, Tick!" growled Carl. "You vant dose tagos to t'inkModor Madd's friendts vas a punch oof yaps? Keep shdill mit yourseluf;und you, Glennie, nodding more schust now, oof you blease."
Glennie turned and walked to the base of the conning tower. There hesat down moodily and watched the war ship, hoping every moment to seeMatt reappear.
"I don't like that swab a little bit," muttered Dick to Carl. "There'ssomething wrong with his top-hamper. Do you recollect the time he cameaboard the _Grampus_, Carl? How he laid it down that we were all to'mister' him?"
"We
can't forged dot," said Carl, "aber id vas pedder dot ve try, Tick."
"I guess he'd like to make us black his boots, if he could."
"Nod so pad as dot. He's a prave feller--you saidt dot yourseluf ven hevas heluping you und Matt safe dose fellers on der poat."
"Of course he's got nerve, but he spoils it all with that way of his.Why didn't he put in his oar, while that cock of the walk up there wasordering Matt around?"
"He knowed pedder as to inderfere mit Matt's pitzness, same as you undme. Modor Matt knows vat he's got to do, und chenerally, you bed you,he does id. _Nicht wahr?_"
Dick remained silent. He was not acting at all like himself, but wasangry because something had not been said or done to keep Matt off the_Salvadore_.
Half an hour passed, with the war ship and the submarine lyingalongside of each other. At the end of that time another officer, whocould not talk English quite so fluently as the captain, thrust hishead over the rail.
"We go to Punta Arenas," he called down. "You come 'long in your leetleboat."
"Where's our skipper?" roared Dick.
"He iss arrest'," was the calm answer. "You know more w'en you get toPunta Arenas!"
Dick said a good many wild and unreasonable things, then, but no one onthe war ship paid any attention to him. Carl said quite a few things,too, but, strange as it may seem, he had himself under better controlthan Dick.
The war ship got under headway again, put about and started westwardalong the strait. There was nothing for the _Grampus_ to do but tofollow.