THE "SEMINOLE."
All night long the _Grampus_ felt her way up the coast. Clackett acted
as pilot some of the time, and Matt "spelled" him in two-hour watches.
Neither was very well acquainted with the coast, and it was necessary
to proceed slowly.
The electric projector was turned against the forward lunettes, and,
with this trail of light stretching before them, the _Grampus_ plowed
her way through the breaking seas and safely escaped the reefs that
lined her course.
Morning found the submarine still several hours from Belize.
Ysabel and Speake got breakfast, and while it was being eaten a cry of
"Sail, ho!" came from Clackett, who was in the tower.
"Where away?" called Matt, only passively interested.
"Dead ahead," answered Clackett. "But I ought to have said 'Smoke, ho!'
as the craft is a steamer."
"Which way is she heading?"
"Toward us."
"Then probably she's some Costa Rica fruiter."
Matt went on with his eating. Dick was below, standing his trick at the
motor in order to give Gaines a chance to eat and rest.
"We're going back to Belize," said Gaines humbly, "and I feel like a
criminal, caught and carried back to jail."
"Why so?" inquired Matt.
"Why, because Speake, Clackett and I got the _Grampus_ into that mess
of trouble. She's had more narrow escapes this trip than she ever had
since she was launched--and when we listened to the don you'd have
thought we were off on a little pleasure excursion."
"I feel mighty tough myself," put in Speake.
"So do I," cried Clackett from the conning tower.
A little of the conversation had drifted up to him--enough so that he
could catch the prevailing sentiment of the remarks.
"Don't fret about what you can't help, men," said Matt.
"But what will Cap'n Nemo, Jr., say?" said Gaines.
"Why, you said he'd be glad we went, after we came back and reported,"
said Speake. "Have ye changed yer mind, Gaines?"
"I've changed my mind a good many times since we set off on this
cruise," replied Gaines.
"I don't believe the captain will find any fault with you," said Matt.
"I'll do what I can to smooth the thing over."
"It's like you to do that," returned Gaines gratefully. "You were the
same with Cassidy, that other time when he came in from the River
Izaral, and I remember I thought you were rather too easy on him."
"We all thought that," said Speake. "And I'm free to say that I think
Matt's too easy on us."
"That bag with the gold pieces was left down in the torpedo room," went
on Clackett.
"It was?" queried Matt, deeply interested.
"Yes. I left it there. I wouldn't have touched it with a ten-foot pole."
"That will pay for a new periscope ball and mast," said Matt, "and for
the provisions and gasoline we used up on this trip. Taking it all
together, we've had a very successful cruise----"
"Hot and lively," put in Speake.
"And short," added Gaines; "that's the best part of it. If it had kept
up much longer, I'd have been down with heart failure. We not only had
a close call in the matter of losing the ship to Fingal and his gang,
but likewise in the matter of that submarine mine. My nerves are in
rags, and I hope Nemo, Jr., isn't going to sit down on us too hard.
That would be about the last straw!"
"Hard lines that we couldn't have nabbed Don Carlos," wailed Speake.
"I'd have taken particular pleasure in herding him with the rest of our
prisoners."
"We've got Pitou," said Matt, "and he's of more importance. There----"
"Hello, down there!" came from Clackett.
"What now, Clackett?" sang out Matt.
"That steamer's a warship--I've just been able to make her out. By
jing, I believe she's the _Seminole_!"
The announcement aroused a commotion.
"Make way for us to get out on deck, Clackett!" called Matt. "If she's
the _Seminole_, I want to speak her."
Matt, Speake, Clackett and Ysabel clustered on the forward deck near
the conning tower.
"Get the code book and the signal flags and the binoculars," cried
Matt. "She's got signals going up at her gaff and wants to talk to us."
Speake went below for the required articles and, after fifteen minutes
of study and work, Matt and his friends learned, to their surprise,
that the _Seminole_ had put in at Belize the day before and had been
sent by the American consul to find the submarine. There was so much to
be said that signal flags could not convey that the cruiser hove to and
had the _Grampus_ come around under her lee.
In this manner the submarine was able to come quite close--so close
that Matt and Dick could see their tow-haired chum on the cruiser's
bridge. Carl picked up a megaphone and hurled the following at his
friends:
"Ah, dere, bards! How you vas? You t'ink id vas some shmardness to
run avay from me, eh? Vell, I haf peen having some hot dimes so vell
as you. Dere is anodder seat oof drouple pesides Bort Lifingston und
der----"
Just there the captain grabbed the trumpet out of Carl's hands to do a
little talking that amounted to something.
"We've started for the Izaral River to look for you," called the
captain.
"How did you know where we had gone?" asked Matt.
"Don Ramon Ortega furnished the clue to the American consul at Belize."
"Where did Don Ramon get the clue?"
"Your Dutch pard helped--but he'll tell you about that later. What's
the matter with your periscope?"
"Bombarded by revolutionists."
"Great Scott! Where?"
"Off Port Livingston."
"If those fellows to the south don't capture that little scoundrel,
Pitou, before long, some of the bigger nations ought to interfere."
"He's captured," said Matt.
"Is that so? I didn't think Mendez would ever do it."
"He didn't. We're the ones!"
"Well, well! How did you manage?"
"The general got tangled up in his spurs, and before he could get clear
we snaked him below decks."
A roar of laughter came through the cruiser's megaphone.
"He's not the only prisoner we've got," went on Matt. "Fingal is below!"
"Bully! We want him. Perhaps we had better take all your prisoners, eh?"
"We'd like to get rid of them."
"Well, stay where you are and we'll send a boat."
"You mustn't let Pedro go, Matt!" exclaimed Ysabel.
"That's so," said Matt. "Suppose you go down, little girl, and set
Pedro free. Send him to the torpedo room and tell him to wait there
until the cruiser is gone."
Ysabel vanished into the tower.
Meanwhile the cruiser had been clearing away a boat. When she hove
alongside the submarine, Carl Pretzel, wearing a grin that could have
been tied behind his ears, was sitting in the bow.
"I vill go mit you part oof dis groose, anyvay," he whooped. "Drow some
lines so dot I may come apoard."
A line was thrown and Carl was heaved from the rocking rowboat to the
submarine's deck. He threw his arms around Matt and almost hugged him
over the side of the _Grampus_.
"I vas so habby as I don'd know!" he bubbled. "I t'ought you vas gone
for goot, und dot I don'd vas going to see you some more. Dere iss a
lod to dell, I bed you, und----"
"We haven't time to tell anything just now, Carl," said Matt. "As soon
as we get rid of our prisoners we'll have a little leisure."
Carl restrained himself, assisted in the work of getting the prisoners
up and transferred, and then watched while the launch pulled back to
the cruiser with its melancholy load.
"What will you do with Pitou, captain?" called Matt through his
megaphone.
"Turn him over to the government of that country down there to be
punished for running off the American consul, and for his many other
outrages against peaceable Americans."
"What do you think the government will do with him?"
"Firing squad at sunrise," was the laconic response.
"What about Fingal?"
"Our country will take care of him. He'll make a good cellmate for
his brother, Jim Sixty. Sorry you didn't capture Don Carlos Valdez.
The governor at Belize would like to lay hands on him. He made an
unprovoked attack on the Spanish consul, and, if caught, would do time
for it."
By that time the launch had got back to the ship's side, and Matt,
bidding the captain of the cruiser a hearty good-by, started the
_Grampus_ onward toward Belize.
Speake took the wheel for a while, and the three chums were able to
enjoy a quiet little talk together. While they were at it, the door of
the prison room opened and Ysabel Sixty stepped out. Carl almost fell
off his seat.
"Iss dot a shpook vat I see?" he mumbled, staring at the girl, "oder
iss id Miss Sixdy, der peaudiful maiten vat I know so vell?"
"Don't be foolish, Carl," smiled Ysabel.
"Foolishness iss natural mit me--I vas porn dot vay. I see somepody on
der teck oof der supmarine, ven ve first come glose, und I t'ought id
looked like you in der face, aber dose poy's clothes make some greadt
shanges. How id vas, anyhow?"
"Look here, Carl," said Matt, "did you borrow a guitar from a fellow at
the hotel the night the submarine left Belize?"
Carl proceeded to work up quite a temper.
"You bed you!" he cried, "und vat you t'ink? Dot feller vas some
shkinflinds. He make me pay six tollar for dot kiddar! Yah, so helup
me! Vy, I ged him for two tollar by any shdore in der Unidet Shdates
vat I know. Dot's right. Six tollar! Dot's vat he make me pay."
"What happened to the guitar?"
"Vell, I hit some pulltogs mit id ofter der headt, und dot kiddar vas
proke in a lod oof bieces."
"How did you come to smash the guitar like that?"
"A fellar set der tog on me."
"Why?"
"Pecause I vas singing some songs unter a vinder oof a house vere I
made some misdake. You see," Carl explained, "I t'ought id vas Miss
Sixdy's house, aber I vasn't far enough down der shdreed und aroundt
der gorner. It vas der house oof a feller vat hat a cross tisposition.
He pour vater on my headt, und set der tog on me, und I haf plendy oof
drouples. Aber oof id hatn't peen for dot, Matt, I vouldn't haf found
der don, und vouldn't haf learned vat he hat to say."
"Tell us about that, Carl," said Matt.
Thereupon Carl turned loose and told all about his disastrous serenade,
and how he climbed into the premises of Don Ramon Ortega, found the don
bound and gagged in his sitting room, released him, and then hurried
with him to the hotel to find Matt, and then to the landing, only to
discover that the submarine had left the harbor.
"Afder dot," proceeded Carl, "der gonsul vas der feller for us. He say
dot der _Seminole_ vould be in der harpor in der morning, und dot he
vould haf her go und look for der supmarine und Modor Matt. Und dot vas
vat he dit, und py shinks I vent along mit meinseluf. Now, den, you
fellers shpin some yarns und dell me all aboudt eferyding. I vant id
all, py shinks, und mit nodding lefdt oudt."
Carl got every detail, and by the time the boys were through
straightening the various events out in his mind, Speake was ringing
the motor-room jingler for less speed, and signaling for anchors.
"Belize!" he called. "We're at our old berth. Cut out the talk, down
there, and make ready to go ashore. Let Carl and Dick be the anchor
watch, Matt, for you know that Clackett, Gaines and I have business
with Captain Nemo, Jr."