CHAPTER XV.
A FEW SURPRISES.
There were a few surprises in store for Motor Matt and his friends.The first one was sprung when Cassidy, shouting loudly from the beach,called Matt to the top of the conning tower and reported that there wasno one in the makeshift tent.
Matt was dumbfounded for a moment.
"Jurgens and Whistler were there," he asserted. "We left them tied handand foot and gagged when we came out to the _Grampus_. If they're notin the tent, Cassidy, then they must have freed themselves and gone offsomewhere on the island. The island isn't so big but what you can findthem."
"They're not on the island," asserted Cassidy. "We've combed it fromend to end, an' we're ready to swear there ain't a livin' soul on theisland but us three."
"It couldn't be that a boat has put in and taken them off, Cassidy,"went on Matt. "No boat would have had time to do that. You'll certainlyfind them on the island if you look sharp."
Cassidy and his mates took another turn about the island, but with nobetter success. Jurgens and Whistler had mysteriously disappeared.
Giving up trying to locate the missing scoundrels, Matt had Cassidy,Burke and Harris tote the various parts of the air ship out to the_Grampus_. Some of the parts were loaded inside the boat, and therest--too large to come down the hatch in the conning tower--were ropedto the rounded deck.
This method of loading made it necessary for the _Grampus_ to keep onthe surface of the water all the way to Palm Beach. Matt, however, hadanother plan in mind before going to Palm Beach, and as soon as theHawk had been safely loaded he had a talk with Cassidy in the periscoperoom and led up to his plan. The result was another surprise for thethree chums--one that was well-nigh overwhelming.
"I suppose you know, Cassidy," observed Matt, "why Jurgens stole the_Grampus_?"
Cassidy cocked up his eyes shrewdly at Matt.
"I know," said he, "but I don't reckon any one else does, exceptin'Cap'n Nemo, Jr., hisself."
"That's where you're mistaken, Cassidy," returned Matt. "Captain Nemo,Jr., or Mr. Townsend, as we have come to call him, told me and my pardsall about it."
"Then I reckon that's the fust time he ever let the thing out."
"He had to tell us," went on Matt, "because he wanted to use our airship in order to get to Turtle Key. With the Hawk, Townsend thought hecould reach the Key before the _Grampus_ got there, and that we couldthen lie in wait for Jurgens and his men."
From this point, Matt rehearsed the adventures that had overtaken himand his chums and Townsend, bringing the recital down to the pointwhere Jurgens and Whistler had been captured, and the attack made onthe submarine.
Cassidy, Burke and Harris listened to the story with intense interest.When Matt was through, exclamations of wonder and surprise went up fromthe three men.
"Never heard of anythin' like that, dashed if I have!" averred Harris.
"Sounds like a fish story," asserted Burke, "only it has the facts tobear it out."
"You lads have gone through a lot for Cap'n Nemo, Jr.," said Cassidy,"an' you've not only done a lot for him, but you've likewise done alittle somethin' for us fellers."
"How's that?" asked Matt.
"I'm purty sure Jurgens was plannin' to maroon us on the island, here.He an' his men had found out from us all they wanted to know aboutrunnin' the ship, an' so, havin' no use for us, they wouldn't bother tokeep us around. Yes, I'm sartain they was goin' to turn us adrift onthe island; but you an' your mates, Motor Matt, saved us from that."
"Of course," said Matt, "we've got to go back to Palm Beach."
"Nacherly," agreed Cassidy, "if the old man is there. We'll takehim, busted ankle an' all, into the _Grampus_ an' snatch him back toPhiladelphy, or wherever else he wants to go."
"Before we do that," said Matt, "why can't we finish up this work forhim?"
"I don't savvy what you mean," said Cassidy. "Ain't the work about allfinished? You've got the boat back for him, an'----"
"But why not find Turtle Key, look into that cave and then go back ableto report to him that there's no iron chest on the island."
The eyes of all three of the men grew wide as they surveyed Matt.
"Great sandpipers!" exclaimed Cassidy, "didn't you hear about that? Isupposed you knowed."
"Supposed I knew what?" demanded Matt.
"Why, about that iron chest."
"What about it?"
"You come with me, son," and Cassidy reached for Matt's arm and led himout of the periscope room and into the corridor.
Halfway along the passage was a door leading off to the right. Cassidyopened this door, revealing a closet-like room with a box in itscentre. On the box rested an ancient appearing iron chest, some twelveinches long and twelve inches square.
"What's that?" asked Matt.
"Can't ye tell by lookin' at it?" cried Cassidy. "Why, that's the ironchest that all this pother has been about."
"I knowed dot!" breathed Carl, from behind Matt, "I hat some feelingsin my pones dot dere vas a chest like vat der baper say."
"Where did the chest come from?" continued Matt.
"From the cave on Turtle Key," explained Cassidy. "Jurgens went therean' got it. We was on our way north ag'in when Jurgens sighted thatwhite flag o' your'n through the periscope an' put in at the island toinvestigate."
Cassidy laughed.
"Ye can see what that investigation cost him," he finished. "He lostthe _Grampus_, and the iron chest. Motor Matt and his mates, byrecapturin' the _Grampus_, got the hull bag o' tricks for the old man.Mebby he won't be tickled!"
"Wished I was Motor Matt," sighed Burke. "The old man's rich, an' he'sallers full o' gratitude when any one does anythin' fer him."
"He can't do anything more for me than what he's agreed to," declaredMatt, "and that is to pay my pards and me five thousand for the use ofthe Hawk."
"Well," said Cassidy, "if that's how you stand we'll let it go at that;but hadn't we better be thinkin' of gettin' back to Palm Beach? Cap'nNemo, Jr., 'll be lookin' fer ye, an' if you don't show up he'll beworryin'."
"We'll start at once," answered Matt. "All I was delaying for was toget you to go to Turtle Key after the iron chest. Now that it isn'tnecessary to go there, the quicker we get to Palm Beach, the better."
"Go to your stations, men," said Cassidy to Burke and Harris. "By thesame token, I'll go to mine."
Cassidy dropped down below into a small room which contained thegasoline motor, Burke went away to some other part of the ship andHarris climbed into the conning tower. The top of the tower waslowered, and Harris, peering through the lunettes, began communicatingthe outlook to Cassidy by means of push-buttons.
The fabric of the submarine began to shake and quiver under the spurof the engine. Slowly she backed off the shallow bar where she hadgrounded, gained deep water, turned and started out into the open sea.
"The trip back to Palm Beach," Harris called down to Matt and hischums, "is to be made with the deck awash. If we was to submergethe _Grampus_, I'd have to give Cassidy his orders by means of theperiscope. There's push-buttons along the edge of the table, an' I cancommunicate with the engine room from there just as well as from uphere."
Matt pushed his head under the black hood of the periscope. The topof the table he found to be a mirror, and upon it was reflected thesurface of the sea from the _Grampus_ as a focal point clear out to thehorizon's edge.
"This is a fine craft," spoke up Ferral, who had been strolling throughthe submarine. "That Captain Nemo, Jr., has surely got a head on him tobe able to get up such a boat."
"I'm hoping, Dick," said Matt, "that we'll become better acquaintedwith the _Grampus_. Just now, though, I'd like to see if we can't get alittle information out of the three men in the strong room."
Matt led the way to what Cassidy had called the "foc'sle," and thethree boys were soon looking down on the scowling faces of theprisoners.
"You're the men who captured the _Grampus_ in the Inlet at AtlanticCity, are you?" queried M
att.
"Don't talk with him, men," said one of the prisoners sharply to theothers. "Whatever you say he'll use against you. Jest remember that andkeep mum."
"Did you go to Atlantic City with Jurgens' moving-picture outfit?" Mattwent on.
"Mebby we did an' mebby we didn't," answered the fellow who hadarrogated to himself the post of spokesman. "We ain't tellin' anythingwe know an' you ain't findin' anything out, see? Take a sneak and leaveus alone. You've raised hob with us and that ought to satisfy you."
"Have you any idea what became of Jurgens and Whistler?" Matt wenton. "We captured them and left them on the island, but they vanishedmysteriously, leaving you three men to bear the consequences of thelawless work Jurgens set on foot."
"We don't know anything about where Jurgens an' Whistler have gone,"replied the prisoner. "If they've fooled you, I'm mighty glad of it."
That was all the satisfaction Matt could get. The escape of Jurgensand Whistler was bothering him not a little, and it was past hiscomprehension how the two men could have made such a complete get-awayfrom the island.
As they themselves were the only ones who could explain it, the mannerin which the _coup_ had been accomplished seemed likely to alwaysremain a mystery.
The _Grampus_ was five hours making the trip across Florida Straits.When she tied up off Palm Beach it was midnight, and Matt, Dick andCarl bunked aboard the craft and went ashore in the morning withCassidy to pay their respects to Townsend.