Transcriber’s Notes:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_), and text
enclosed by equal signs is in bold (=bold=).
Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end.
* * * * *
THE MOTION PICTURE COMRADES SERIES
By ELMER TRACEY BARNES
The object of these books is to place before the reader the unusual
experiences of a party of boys who succeed in filming a number of
interesting scenes.
The stories are replete with striking incidents on land and sea, and
above all they describe with remarkable accuracy the methods employed
to obtain many of the wonderful pictures which may be seen on the
screen.
=The Motion Picture Comrades’ Great Venture; or, On the Road with the
Big Round Top=
=The Motion Picture Comrades Through African Jungles; or, The Camera
Boys in Wild Animal Land=
=The Motion Picture Comrades Along the Orinoco; or, Facing Perils in
the Tropics=
=The Motion Picture Comrades Aboard a Submarine; or, Searching for
Treasure Under the Sea=
_12mo. Cloth 50c per volume_
THE NEW YORK BOOK COMPANY
201-213 EAST 12th STREET NEW YORK
* * * * *
[Illustration: _Before him he discovered the long sought hulk._]
* * * * *
THE MOTION PICTURE COMRADES ABOARD A SUBMARINE
OR
SEARCHING FOR TREASURE UNDER THE SEA
BY
ELMER TRACEY BARNES
[Illustration]
THE NEW YORK BOOK COMPANY
NEW YORK
* * * * *
Copyright, 1917, by AMERICAN AUTHORS PUBLISHING CO.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I HOW IT HAPPENED 13
II THE FIRST DIP UNDER THE SURFACE 20
III A PERIL OF TROPICAL WATERS 31
IV THE INDIAN SHARK-KILLER 38
V GIVING THE ENEMY THE SLIP 46
VI TREASURE ISLAND 55
VII WONDERFUL UNDER-THE-SEA SIGHTS 63
VIII “TALK ABOUT LUCK!” 71
IX THE DIVER AT WORK 79
X SPIED UPON 90
XI EQUAL TO THE EMERGENCY 97
XII THE WATER CHASE 105
XIII RECOVERING THE TREASURE 113
XIV INGOTS OF GOLD 121
XV WHEN MORNING CAME 129
XVI LEFT HOLDING THE BAG 138
XVII VIA WIRELESS 146
XVIII IN THE CANAL LOCKS 157
XIX BLOCKING THE GAME OF BADGER 164
XX THE END OF THE CRUISE--CONCLUSION 173
* * * * *
THE MOTION PICTURE COMRADES ABOARD A SUBMARINE
CHAPTER I HOW IT HAPPENED
“Jack will be back from the express office soon, and then, I take
it, if everything is shipshape, this queer contraption they call
a diving-boat and named the _Argonaut_, expects to get away from
Baltimore, eh, Oscar?”
“So the Captain told me, Ballyhoo. He has his clearance papers, all
right.”
“Huh! Guess the port officials didn’t examine this craft as closely as
they might have done in these troublous times, with more than half the
world ablaze.”
“Lower your voice a bit, Ballyhoo, when you are referring to the
rifles, and that quick-firing gun they’ve got so snugly hidden below.
But it’s all fair and square. Every steam craft is allowed one gun for
defensive purposes. Some big Atlantic liners have a three-inch gun at
the stern, you remember.”
“A very good reason we have, too, for carrying one, Oscar, since the
main object of our trip to tropical seas is the recovery of sunken
treasure.”
“And don’t forget either, while about it, Ballyhoo, that there’s
opposition in the field, a rival expedition headed by that old
blockade-runner and adventurer, Captain Badger.”
“That’s right, and we may need our gun badly before we come back
again--if we ever do.”
“Well, most of our interest in this wonderful trip doesn’t lie in
the chance of finding the stores of gold and silver lying in the old
hulks of vessels that were sunk, some of them a hundred or two years
ago. We’ve got our own plans to carry out, and could call the venture
a glorious success even if we didn’t run across a single Spanish
doubloon.”
“Yes, providing the scheme works, as Jack believes it will, and his
judgment is worth a whole lot on anything that is connected with motion
picture photography. We hope to secure films that are bound to startle
the world of screen lovers, showing as they will the up to now unknown
secrets lying deep down under the surface of the sea.”
“It’s a great risk we’re taking, but we’ve put over two big jobs so far
and why not a third? Those circus films are still going the rounds, and
pronounced gilt-edged wherever they are shown.”[1]
“Yes, and our series of pictures depicting wild animal life in
the African jungles have met with great favor too.[2] We’ve been
overwhelmed ever since we got back, with all sorts of wildcat offers to
undertake new schemes, all of which so far we’ve had to turn down. And
yet here we are about to start off on the most hazardous adventure that
any one could possibly think of.”
“But this is different, you know, Ballyhoo; and besides it came to us
through that old uncle of your mother’s, who has a third interest in
the venture, though he was knocked out of accompanying the boat by that
bad attack of rheumatism.”
“Well, I wish Jack would hurry up, because I think our Captain acts as
if he might be anxious to cast off, and steam down Chesapeake Bay.”
The speakers were a couple of hardy looking well grown boys. They
lounged on the little upper deck, if such it could be called, of a
very odd-looking craft lying snugly hidden in a certain secluded basin
connected with a Baltimore shipyard.
In fact the low, squatty craft was nothing more nor less than a
submarine built somewhat after the style of those steel whaleback
barges used for carrying huge cargoes of grain on the Northern Lakes.
Money had not been spared in the building and equipping of this craft,
which was really owned and controlled by the “Argonaut Submarine
Diving-boat Company,” and constructed for a purpose which has been
partly disclosed by the brief conversation between the two boys.
Oscar Farrar and his two chums lived in the town of Melancton in
an Eastern State. The boy whom he had been calling by that quaint
nickname of “Ballyhoo” was really Jonathan Edwards Jones. For some
years he had taken such delight in mimicking the animals usually seen
in a menagerie, as well as the “barkers” who tried to coax the gaping
public to patronize their side shows, where all manner of freaks were
on exhibition, that naturally enough he soon found himself given the
name of “Ballyhoo,” which term is often used to designate loud-tongued
orators.
The third boy, whom they had mentioned as “Jack,” had Anderson for a
surname. He was a positive marvel in connection with anything that
had to do with photography in all its branches. His father before him
had been devoted to the art, and had spent several years, lost in the
wilds of Darkest Africa, a prisoner in the big kraal of a savage black
king, from which captivity he had only recently escaped, thanks to the
bravery of his son and his chums.
The three comrades were now about to start forth on an expedition that
really dwarfed their previous successes by virtue of its daring. This
fascinating project had come about in a peculiar fashion which may as
well be explained here and now while Oscar and Ballyhoo impatiently
await the coming of Jack.
To the Jones home in Melancton had come one day a queer old gentleman
who turned out to be an uncle of Ballyhoo’s mother. This Abner Crawley
had led an adventurous life, though no one would suspect it to look at
his mild blue eyes and hear his mellow, jolly laugh.
He had followed the hazardous profession of a deep sea diver, spending
years out in Far Eastern seas, diving with the natives for pearl
oysters, and in many ways had managed to accumulate quite a nice little
fortune.
The stories he spun to Ballyhoo, Oscar and Jack thrilled them with a
boyish desire to also see some of the wonders of that same submarine
world. Then, as the old man learned how they had already shown a
disposition to do and dare, he began to interest them in his latest and
greatest scheme.
It seemed he had been induced to take a third interest in a
venture that had for its main object the salvage of certain sunken
treasure-ships, which were located on a chart. In many cases
these ships had gone down scores and scores of years ago, but in
comparatively shallow water, so that it seemed feasible to reach them
through the agency of an ordinary diving suit; or better still, with
the assistance of a modern submarine built for that express purpose.
The boys of course hastened to read Jules Verne’s startling book,
“Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” with which they were more or
less familiar beforehand. Their enthusiasm grew by leaps and bounds
as they started to discuss the possibilities of their being allowed to
join this strange expedition.
Jack, aided and abetted by his father, had conceived the idea that as
the undersea boat had been constructed particularly with a view to
cruising down at the bottom of the sea, and had unusual facilities for
allowing those aboard to see all that went on in subterranean depths,
it might be possible to secure a remarkable series of motion pictures
disclosing undreamed of wonders, the queer creatures that never came to
the surface, as well as the amazing forest of giant plants that grew
far down in the ever peaceful valleys of the ocean.
In the end it had worked out just as the scheming old master diver had
wished. The boys were given an opportunity to accompany the expedition
as representatives of Uncle Abner Crawley. They would be given all
sorts of chances to use their camera, and at the same time if fortune
favored the work of the divers one half of the Crawley third was to be
handed over to them.
And such was the final arrangement that had been made. They had
proceeded to Baltimore, made the acquaintance of their intended future
companions, taken up their limited quarters aboard the well named
_Argonaut_, and Jack was even now paying a parting visit to the post
office to get final mails, as well as to the express office for an
extra supply of films made especially to resist damage by warm, sticky
weather in the tropics.
“There he comes at last!” Ballyhoo presently announced, as a boy was
discovered heading their way, and well laden with bundles.
Jack turned out to be a well-built young chap, with a thoughtful face,
and the glow of an enthusiastic artist in his eyes. He soon climbed
aboard the strange boat, after which the Captain’s voice was heard
giving orders. Then they could feel the quiver that told them the
engines were beginning to work; cables were cast off, and a cheer broke
from the group on the shore, some of them laboring men belonging to the
shipyard, others relatives of those aboard, or it might be stockholders
in the venture.
Soon afterwards they had left the city of Baltimore behind them, and
were moving smoothly and swiftly down the bay. After that would come
the open sea, with its mysterious influences, its terrible storms,
dreaded calms, and all surrounded by the halo of romance of long-gone
centuries.
The three boys sat there on the miniature upper deck long after the
voyage had really begun, saying little, since their hearts naturally
enough were heavy because of the fact that they had finally severed the
ties that bound them to the loved ones at home.
And so they started down the great Chesapeake Bay, bound for the
tropics.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See “The Motion Picture Comrades’ Great Venture.”
[2] See “The Motion Picture Comrades Through African Jungles.”