CHAPTER XIV.
THE "GRAMPUS" GETS A CLUE.
For a few minutes Matt and Captain Nemo, Jr., stared at the overturnedwhaleboat. The captain read the dread suspicions that were passingthrough the young motorist's mind.
"Courage, my lad," said he, kindly. "Don't give up, yet."
"What else is there to hope for?" asked Matt. "Dick and Carl were inthat boat, and they were not able to keep it from filling and turningturtle. If that is what happened, then----"
Matt could not finish. For a moment all the courage was taken out ofhim.
"If the worst has happened to your friends, Matt," said the captain,gravely, "then this man Sixty is directly, or indirectly, responsiblefor it. But cheer up. We both know what a resourceful fellow Ferralis, and that Carl is full of pluck and energy. I can't believe thatthey went down in that storm, even with the evidence of the overturnedwhaleboat to make us think to the contrary. I'll have Cassidy up andwe'll draw closer to the boat and get a better look at her."
With Cassidy on deck, armed with a boathook, the _Grampus_ was drivenclose alongside the boat. With the boathook, the mate was able to turnthe boat partly over, giving those on the submarine a glimpse of herbroken bulwarks.
"Ah!" cried Captain Nemo, Jr. "The whaleboat was struck bysomething--perhaps by some ship. In that event, the boys may have beentaken out of the boat, and be as safe, now, as we are."
"What's to be done, captain?" asked Matt. "I don't feel like leavingthese waters until I learn something more definite regarding Dick andCarl, but I hardly see how we're going to learn anything by cruisingaround in this vicinity. If the whaleboat was stove by a ship, and Carland Dick were taken aboard, then by now they must be a good way fromthis part of the gulf."
"It won't do any harm to cruise around here for a day or two, anyhow,"replied the captain.
"Meanwhile," said Matt, "Captain Sixty is getting away on the _SantaMaria_."
"Then he'll have to get away," returned the captain. "He's onlysuspected of filibustering, and my orders were simply to keep track ofhim and discover what he was doing. We'll forget about Sixty and thinkonly of Dick and Carl."
From that moment the _Grampus_ began an aimless wandering through thewaters of that part of the gulf. They were delayed three hours, shortlyafter noon, by a mishap to the gasoline motor. The trouble was too muchfor Gaines, and Matt was called on to locate the difficulty and repairit.
This was a good thing for Matt, inasmuch as it drew his thoughts frommoody conjectures concerning his chums and gave him something importantto do in the line of work that he liked best.
An hour after the motor was in working order again, and the _Grampus_was traveling along at a good clip, Cassidy, who was on the lookout,raised a smudge of smoke on the horizon. The steamer was coming fromthe south, and was evidently bound for some port to the north, eitherMobile or New Orleans. With a desire to speak to her, on the possiblechance of learning something about Dick and Carl, the submarine alteredher course so as to intersect that of the steamer.
Matt, Nemo, Jr., and Cassidy were on the deck when the _Grampus_ hadcome close enough to get the steamer in full view.
"Great guns!" exclaimed Cassidy, as his eyes traveled over the vessel'strim lines, "it's the United States cruiser _Seminole_. I know herpretty near as well as I do the _Grampus_."
"Bring up the signal flags and code book, Mr. Cassidy," ordered thecaptain; "also the megaphone. We'll get into communication with thecaptain of the cruiser. Even if he can't tell us anything about Dickand Carl, we can talk with him a little about Jim Sixty."
Cassidy was soon back with signal flags, code book and megaphone. Whilehe gave his attention to running up the flags at the short staff of the_Grampus_, Matt handled the code book.
"Have you seen anything of two men who were lost in a small boat duringthe storm last night?"
This was the first question spelled out by the flags.
With the binoculars, Captain Nemo, Jr., read the answer.
It was "No."
"Wish to communicate with you at closer range," the flags of thesubmarine next signaled.
"We'll heave to," answered the war ship. "Come up under our lee."
Cassidy dropped the flags through the conning tower hatch, thendescended to reach the push buttons and send word to the engine room.
Gracefully the submarine rounded the stern of the _Seminole_ in a widearc and came to a halt within thirty feet of the big vessel on thestarboard side.
"What boat is that?" came from the bridge of the cruiser.
"The submarine _Grampus_, Captain Nemo, Jr., out of New Orleans andacting under orders from the government."
"What orders?"
"To watch a suspected filibuster named James Sixty."
"We've been looking for him and his brig, the _Dolphin_. The _Dolphin_is said to have been wrecked and is reported as a derelict, dangerousto commerce. We have orders to examine her, if possible, and she can befound, and then to destroy her. Where is Sixty?"
"He left New Orleans under suspicious circumstances aboard the fruiter_Santa Maria_, ostensibly bound for Belize."
"He's not bound for Belize. If he's doing anything, he's hunting forthe _Dolphin_, hoping to salvage her cargo or else blow her up and sendher to the bottom before any naval officer has a chance to look herover. We're cruising around to see if we can locate the derelict."
"And we're trying to find a couple of young fellows who were tornadrift from the _Santa Maria_ during the storm, last night."
"Any success?"
"Found the whaleboat, stove and floating upside down on the water."
"Then you'd better give up," was the curt remark that closed theconversation.
The cruiser got under headway again and slanted off on a new course.
"You see how it is, captain," said Matt. "Even those on the cruiserthink our search is useless."
"We'll keep it up, nevertheless," was the captain's dogged response.
"That's what I'm anxious to have you do, for I don't leave this part ofthe gulf until I know something more."
Night came on, and the _Grampus_ was still running circles in thewaters of the gulf. The sea had quieted down to an abnormal smoothness,and the submarine, with Matt at the engine to relieve Gaines, went onher aimless wanderings.
At midnight Gaines took the engine and gave Matt an opportunity tosecure a little rest.
Matt was up for breakfast, and while he, and Captain Nemo, Jr., andGaines were eating, they heard a muffled detonation, as it might havebeen of a blast from a great distance. Matt and the captain hurriedto the deck, where they found that the mysterious noise had likewiseclaimed the attention of Cassidy.
"What did it sound like to you, Cassidy?" asked the captain.
"Like a cannon, sir," was the reply, "but it was a powerful ways off."
"That's how it sounded to me."
"What do you think it is?" inquired Matt.
"At a guess," replied the captain, "I should say the cruiser has foundthe derelict and is trying to break her up. We'll alter our course andsee what we can discover."
Just as the _Grampus_ was put on a new tack, there came another of themuffled crashes, which served to give them a further clue as to thelocation of the firing.
Gaines was told to speed up the motor to the top notch, and thesubmarine began to cleave her way through the water at her best speed.
Presently Cassidy, who was using the binoculars, declared that hecould see a sail. This compelled the captain to alter his views as tothe cause of the firing. If there was a sail, then it was impossiblethat the cruiser was struggling to destroy the derelict.
Just about then another roar of cannon was heard, this time so weirdlydistinct that there could be no doubt as to what had caused the report.
"That's cannon, all right," muttered Cassidy, "but why is a schoonerdoing the shooting?"
"We'll get inside," said the captain, "and submerge until the periscopeball is just awash. It may be well to come into this
thing cautiously."
All those on deck descended to the periscope room. Here, as oncebefore, the captain and Matt kept their eyes on the mirror of theperiscope table.
Slowly but clearly a schooner came into sight, and also the wreck of atwo-masted brig.
"That brig is the derelict," remarked the captain, "and it looks asthough the schooner is trying to sink her."
"Mighty queer to find a schooner carrying cannon," observed Cassidy.
"That's right, too," said the captain, plainly puzzled.
"There are two boats alongside the wreck," said Matt, excitedly, "andmen are climbing over the bulwarks! What does that mean, captain?"
"Right you are, Matt," muttered the captain, "and I'm in a quandary.We'll come up between the schooner and the brig and investigate beforetaking any decided action."
On and on the _Grampus_ glided, unseen until, when she had attained theposition she desired, she rose upward with a flurry of waves creamingfrom her deck plates.
From the elevated top of the periscope there was a view of the brig'sdismantled deck; and Matt and the captain could see, as plainly asthough they were on the derelict, Dick Ferral, gun at his shoulder,standing over the form of Carl. And Captain Sixty's bulky form wasequally clear, as well as the figures of the rabble at his heels.
It was an astounding sight for those in the submarine, but it was asight that left no time for useless words.
"Cassidy," cried Captain Nemo, Jr., with a snap of his lean jaws,"go to the torpedo room, take Speake with you and slip one of theWhiteheads into the port tube. After that, stand by for orders."
"Ay, ay, sir," answered Cassidy, and quickly vanished.
"I'm going up in the tower, Matt," said the captain. "You can crowd into the lunettes and watch what goes on."
Then the captain made his way up the ladder with Matt tight at hisheels. Hardly had Matt got his eyes to the lunette when a ringing thumpechoed from the deck plates.
"A rifle shot!" exclaimed Nemo, Jr. "I'll just warn those rascals whatthey're up against."
As he finished speaking, he pulled the lever that secured the hatch andpushed the iron disk slowly upward.