"BOMBED"
Standing silently beside the aged engineer, Dave Tower gazed thoughtfully
at the golden dome that flashed, then slowly darkened in the setting sun.
That yellow gleam did not lure him on, for the honor of helping to reach
the Pole was more to him than money. But Jarvis? He perhaps had learned
in his long years of labor that "the paths of glory lead but to the
grave," and now that he was growing old wealth would mean escape from
toil and worry. Perhaps, too, somewhere in the States a gray-haired wife
awaited him to whom just a little of that gleaming gold would mean rest
and peace as long as she might live.
So Dave looked at the golden dome and pondered what he ought to do. When
at last, he spoke, his tone was kind:
"Jarvis," he began, "as you know, I am in command of this craft. The
fact that it has been stolen and won back, more by your efforts than by
anything I have done, does not change matters any. I am still commander."
Jarvis looked up with an impatient gesture, as if about to speak, but
Dave kept on:
"As captain of this submarine, I might order you below, and your refusal
to do so would be mutiny. But from the time we came aboard this craft we
have been more like pals than commander and engineer. I give you my word
of honor I will never order you below. If you go, you go of your own
free will."
Jarvis raised his face for a moment, and upon it was a look of
growing hope.
"You know," Dave continued, "what our duty is. We shipped under the
orders of the Doctor. Those orders still go. No matter how fine the
chances are that we are letting slip, we are bound to do as the
Doctor wants.
"More than that, we have friends back there who had only two days' supply
of food when we left them. They are living in a village of
superstitious, treacherous savages, who may attack and murder them at any
moment. Jarvis," he touched the old man's hand, "we are American seamen.
Will you forget your flag and your shipmates for gold?"
For a second the old man stood in silence, then with a rush, he stumbled
down the hatchway, and in another moment Dave heard him tinkering away at
his engines.
Before Dave wrapped the dead stranger in his burial blanket, he searched
the pockets of his clothing. There was no mistaking the garments; they
were oriental in make. And had there remained any doubt, it would have
been dispelled by two packets of papers taken from an inside pocket.
These bore the official stamp of that oriental government which had been
named by Jarvis.
"I must tell Jarvis," said the boy to himself. "It will please him to
know that he was right."
And that night, while they glided silently back toward the native
village they had left not many hours before, leaving the treasure city
a mystery unexplained, he _did_ tell Jarvis. As he finished, the old
man's face lighted.
"The thing that's troublin' me just now," he said slowly, "is the
question of th' two bloomin' 'eathen that faded from h'our h'eyes. H'I
'ates to think they live, an' h'I 'ates to trust my 'opes they're done
for. If they're h'alive, they may get the treasure yet, an' h'I 'ates t'
be beat by a bloody, bloomin' 'eathen."
"They're a long way from home base," said Dave with a grin. "They may
find the treasure, but getting it home's another thing."
"I want you to know," he went on, huskily, "that I appreciate your
standing by me, and if we get out of this alive, you and I, with our
discharge papers, I promise I'll be your partner in this new
enterprise--the quest for treasure; that is, if you'll take me on."
"Will h'I?" Jarvis sprang to his feet, a new glad light in his eye. "Will
h'I? 'Ere, give us a 'and on that. H'and we'll win, lad; we'll win! An'
that in spite of th' bloomin' 'eathen!"
It was early the next morning that the Doctor, who was enjoying, with
the gobs, the native festival of rejoicing over the killing of the great,
and to them unknown, beast which had attacked their reindeer herds, he
noticed a young native come running from the direction of the sea. He
paused now and again to shout:
"Tomai! Tomai!" which was the native call for the arrival of a boat.
Instantly the crowd was thrown into commotion. Natives rushed hither and
thither. But the white men realized at once that this could mean nothing
less than the return of the submarine, and, while they did not at all
understand it, they whooped their joy and rushed toward the shore to see
a dark body rounding the point.
"The sub! The sub! Hurray! Hurray!" they shouted, tossing their caps high
in air. And the submarine indeed it was. Dave and Jarvis were overjoyed
to rejoin their companions.
The stories of adventure were soon told and then everyone was set to
hustling the last bit of equipment on board. There would be neither
meals nor sleep until everything was in readiness and they were away.
As the Doctor and Dave stood on deck watching the casting off of the
ropes, the Doctor spoke of his plans.
"We may have lost the race," he remarked rather grimly, "but we're going
to the Pole just the same. It will mean something to you boys, at least,
to be able to say that you've been there. It was my purpose to lay our
course directly for the Pole without establishing a base, but since we
have been carried out of our way so far, and have used so much fuel, I
feel that it will be wise to head for the farthest-north point of
Alaska--Point Barrow.
"I was assured, in Nome, that there were two oil-burning whalers
wintering near there, and I have no doubt that we can depend on them for
extra fuel."
The hatches were lowered, the submarine sank from sight amid the
"Ah-ne-ca's" and "Mat-na's" of the awe stricken natives who lined the
cliffs a half-mile away. The sub, with all on board, was again on its
way to enter the race for the Pole.
"The race is on," said Dave.
"I wonder?" smiled the Doctor.
Three times they rose in dark waterways for air. The fourth time it
seemed they must be nearing land--
Yes, as the submarine bumped the edge of an ice-floe, a point of land
showed plainly to port.
Dave, with field-glass in hand, sprang to the nearest ice-cake, then
climbed to a pinnacle to take an observation.
"Clear water to the left of us," he reported.
"Too close ashore?" asked the Doctor.
"I think not," was Dave's answer. "We'll have to submerge for three or
four miles; then we'll be clear of the ice."
Signal bells clanged, and again they were gliding under the ocean's
armor of ice.
As he listened to the hum of the machinery, one question puzzled Dave. He
had seen something along the end of that ice-floe. What was it? A sail?
If so, it was a very strange one--half white and half black. He could
not be sure it was a sail. But what else could it have been?
But now they had swept out from under the ice. It was time to rise.
Instantly he pressed the button. The craft slowed again. Another press,
and as before they rose. This time no white surface would interrupt them.
A current coming from land caught them forward and tilted the craft. She
slanted from fore to aft. This did not matter; she would right herself on
the surface like a cork.
But what was this? As the point shot from the water, something rang out
against the steel. This was followed immediately by what, in the narrow
apartments, amounted to a deafening explosion; then came the sound of
rushing waters.
"Great God! We're bombed!" shouted the Doctor.
Dave's cool head saved them for the moment. His hand seized an electric
switch and he pulled it desperately. The bow compartment was quickly
closed, checking the rush of water into the rest of the "sub,"
Fortunately, no one had been forward at the time.
But now they were sinking rapidly. Then came the throb of the pumps
forcing out the water from the compartments aft. Slowly the sickening
sinking of their ship was checked.
"Will she rise again?" asked the Doctor, white-faced but cool.
"I think so, sir," responded Dave.
Dave watched a gauge with anxious eyes. The pumps were still working.
Would the craft stand the test? Would she rise?
One, two, three minutes he watched the dial; then a fervent "Thank God!"
escaped his lips. The sub was rising again.
But once more his brow was clouded. What awaited them on the surface?
"One more," he muttered, "just one more, and we are done for."
Every man aboard the submarine had a different explanation for the bomb
which had disabled their craft. Jones, the electrician, had just finished
reading the adventures of a young British gunner in these very waters
somewhere back in the eighties. The story had to do with the defense of
seal fisheries against the Japs, and Jones was sure that a Japanese
seal-poaching boat had bombed them. McPherson, who had seen active
service chasing German subs, was certain they had encountered one of the
missing U boats. Wilder believed it had been a Russian cruiser, and, of
course, Jarvis blamed it to the "bloomin' 'eathen."
The first and third of these theories could be discarded at once, since
no craft was to be seen when last they submerged, and a cruiser or
schooner of any size could scarcely have escaped their attention.
As for Dave, he had another theory, but was too busy to talk about it. He
had read a great deal regarding the Eskimos and their methods of hunting.
Meanwhile the submarine was rising slowly toward the surface. She was
coming up with her stern tilted high this time, for the water in her
forward compartments disturbed her balance. Every heart beat fast as the
water above grew lighter.
"McPherson, be ready to throw open the hatch the minute we are clear,"
commanded Dave. "All life belts on?" he asked.
"Aye, aye, sir!" came in chorus.
"Rifles?"
"At hand, sir."
"Ready then."
There came a sudden burst of light, the creak of hinges, the thud of the
hatch, then the thud of feet as the men rushed for the deck.
In another moment the crew found themselves outside clinging to the
tilted and unsteady craft, blinking in the sunlight, and seeing--?
Principally white ice and dark water. Off in the distance, indeed,
was an innocent-looking native skin-boat. There were, perhaps, ten
natives aboard.
"Thought so," chuckled Dave.
"You thought what?" demanded the Doctor. Every eye was turned on the
young commander.
"Thought we'd been shot by natives with a whale-gun. Took us for a
whale, don't you see? Whale-gun throws a bomb that explodes inside the
whale and kills him. In this case, it exploded against us and raised the
very old dickens. Here they come. You'll see I'm right."
And he was right. The crew of christianized natives were soon alongside,
very humble in their apologies, and very anxious to assist in undoing the
damage they had wrought.
"Have we any extra steel plate?" asked the Doctor.
"Yes, sir. Have to be shaped, though," replied Dave.
"Can we do it?"
"I think so, on shore."
"All right, then. Get these natives to give us a hand and we'll go on the
sand-bar for repairs. Bad cess to the whaling industry of the Eskimos!
It's lost us a full two days, and perhaps the race! But we must not give
up. Things can happen to airplanes, as well."
It took a hard half-day's work to bring the craft to land, but at last
the task was done and the mechanics were hammering merrily away on the
steel with acetylene torch sputtering, and forty natives standing about
open-mouthed, exclaiming at everything that happened, and offering
profound explanations in their own droll way.