CHAPTER XII.
BY A NARROW MARGIN.
Ysabel made poor work of the flight.
"Go on," she begged; "don't try to save me. You can get away if youdon't have to bother to help me along."
"I'll not leave you," answered Matt firmly, taking a quick look overhis shoulder. "The soldiers have not yet reached the path and there's agood chance for us. Do your best, Ysabel!"
The girl struggled along as well as she could, Matt bounding ahead anddragging her by main force. The shouts behind were growing louder. Arifle was fired and the bullet hissed spitefully through the air abovetheir heads.
"Fingal will kill you if he catches you," panted the girl.
"I'm not going to let him catch me," answered Matt.
"He will catch you if you try to take me with you! Leave me, I say. Iwon't be hurt. Perhaps, if I turn around and run toward them, I can dosomething to help save you."
"You're wasting your breath," said Matt finally. "Save it for running."
Ysabel was a girl who was accustomed, in some things, to having herway. She thought that, if Matt persisted in burdening himself with her,he would surely be captured, and she was anxious to save him at allcosts. Thus, in a fashion, she could atone for what she had done in NewOrleans.
Suddenly, while Matt was dragging her onward, she threw herself uponthe ground.
"I can't go another step!" she cried breathlessly. "Leave me and saveyourself."
He made no reply, but bent down and picked the girl up in his arms.Then, thus burdened, he staggered on along the path.
The pursuers were coming closer and closer. Two or three shots rangout, so close together that they sounded almost as one. Matt stumbledand nearly fell.
"You're hurt!" cried the girl, noticing how his left arm dropped at hisside, releasing her.
"Nicked, that's all," he answered. "The shock of it came near to takingthe strength out of me for an instant. I'm all right now, although thearm isn't much good for the present."
"I'll run along beside you," said the girl, in a strangely subdued tone.
Her ruse to get Matt to leave her--for ruse it was--had not succeeded.On the contrary, it had cost Matt something. The girl, all contrition,ran at his side and did much better than she had done before.
A turn in the woods put them out of sight of their pursuers andpresented a screen against the vicious firearms.
"Just a little farther," breathed the girl. "The river is close now."
"We'll make it," returned Matt cheerily.
His face was a trifle pale, but the same dogged look was in his grayeyes which, more than once, had snatched victory from seeming defeat.
"Does your arm hurt, Matt?" the girl asked.
"It's feeling better now," and Matt lifted it.
A little stream of red had run down his hand. The girl stifled a cry asshe looked.
He laughed lightly.
"A scratch, that's all," he assured her. "Let's see how quick we canget around that next turn. When we pass that, we'll have a straight runto the river."
They called on every ounce of their reserve strength, and were aroundthe bend before their enemies had had a chance to do any more firing.
Matt was wondering, during that last lap of their run, whether theywere to be defeated at the very finish of their plucky flight.
They had delayed too long in leaving the girl's camp. He saw that,plainly enough, and yet he would not have started back to the boat atall unless he had received the news contained in Coleman's note.
Had Dick reached the river in time to attract the attention of thoseon the submarine and have the craft brought to the surface, ready andwaiting for Matt and the girl?
If not, if the slightest thing had gone wrong and caused a delay, thenMatt and his companion must surely fall into the hands of Fingal andGeneral Pitou.
Yet, harassed though he was by these doubts, Matt's nerve did not for amoment desert him.
The rebels were behind them, and firing, when he and Ysabel reached thebank of the river. But the soldiers were firing wildly now, and theirbullets did not come anywhere near their living targets.
And there, plainly under Matt's eyes, was the _Grampus_. She was at thesurface, he could hear the throb of her working motor, and Dick wasforward, swinging back on the cable and holding her against the bank.Carl was half out of the conning tower, tossing his hands frantically.
"Hurry oop! hurry oop!" clamored Carl. "Don'd led dose fellers ged you,Matt. Schust a leedle furder und----"
Matt was about to yell for Carl to drop out of the tower and clear theway, but a bullet, fanning the air close to Carl's head, caused him todisappear suddenly.
"You'll make it!" yelled Dick, reaching over to help the girl to therounded steel deck.
"Into the tower hatch with you, Ysabel!" cried Matt. "Help her, Dick,"he added. "There's no use hanging onto the rope now."
As Matt scrambled to the deck, the impetus of his leap flung the bowof the submarine away from the bank. Dick was already pushing andsupporting Ysabel toward the tower hatch.
The bullets were now flying too thickly for comfort, but Matt drewa long breath of relief when he saw the girl disappear behind theprotection of the tower.
"In with you, Dick!" shouted Matt, the _pingity-ping_ of bullets on thesteel deck giving point to his words.
"But you're hurt, matey," answered Dick.
"No time to talk!" was Matt's brief response.
Dick, without delaying matters further, dropped through the top of thetower. The firing suddenly ceased. As Matt mounted the tower and threwhis feet over the rim, he saw the reason.
Four of the ragged soldiers had leaped from the bank to the submarine'sdeck. More would have come, but the gap of water had grown too wide forthem to leap across it. These four, scrambling and stumbling towardMatt, caused their comrades to hold their fire for fear of injuringthem.
Just as Matt dropped down the iron ladder, the foremost of the negrosoldiers reached the tower. His big hands seized the rim as he madeready to hoist himself upward and follow the fugitives into theinterior of the boat.
Matt had yet to close the hatch, and the negro's hands were in theway. With his clenched fist he struck the black fingers. His work wassomewhat hampered from the fact that his left arm was still not to bedepended on, so he had to use his right hand entirely.
With a howl of pain the negro pulled away his hands. Thereupon, quickas a flash, Matt reached upward and closed the hatch. Not a moment toosoon was this accomplished, for the other three soldiers had reachedthe tower and were preparing to assist their comrade.
Matt pushed into place the lever holding the hatch shut.
"Fill the ballast tanks!" he shouted. "Pass the word to Clackett, Dick.Lively, now! Ten-foot submersion! We've got to clear the decks of thesenegroes. If they should break one of the lunettes we'd be in a seriousfix."
Down below him Matt could hear Dick roaring his order to Clackett. Witheyes against one of the narrow windows Matt watched the rebel soldiers.
They were beating on the hatch cover with their fists, and kickingagainst the sides of the tower. On the bank, their comrades wererunning along to keep abreast of the boat and shouting suggestions.
The _Grampus_, steered by Dick with the aid of the periscope, hadturned her nose down-stream in the direction of the Izaral.
The hissing of air escaping from the ballast tanks as the water came inwas heard by the four ragamuffins on the outside of the steel shell.
From their actions, they began to feel alarm. This strange craft wasmore than their primitive minds could comprehend.
Slowly the submarine began to sink. As the water crept up the roundeddeck, the negroes lifted their bare feet out of it gingerly and pushedup higher. One of them leaped onto the conning-tower hatch.
Then, suddenly, the _Grampus_ dropped below the water. A mud-coloredblur closed Matt's view through the lunette, and as he slid down theladder into the periscope room, he heard faint yells from the negroes.
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Dick, hanging over the periscope table, twirling the steering wheel,was laughing loudly.
"Look, Matt!" he cried. "If you ever saw a lot of scared Sambos, therethey are, up there in the Purgatoire!"
Matt stepped to Dick's side and peered down upon the mirror. Farbehind, in the trail of bubbles sent up from the _Grampus_, the fournegroes were swimming like mad toward the shore. Their comrades on thebank were leaning out to help them, and it was evident that they wouldall be saved.
"We can laugh at the affair now," said Matt, "yet it was anything buta laughing matter a while ago. Eh, Ysabel?"
"You saved me, Motor Matt," replied the girl, "and now let us see howbadly you are hurt."
"A bandage will fix that in a little while, Ysabel," said the other;"just now I've got something else to attend to, and the arm can wait."
Turning back to the periscope, he watched the river bank sliding awaybehind them, and waited for the moment when they should draw close tothe Izaral.
Their work--the work which they had one chance in ten ofaccomplishing--must be looked after.