A CRAZED CAPTAIN
“Say, wouldn’t it have been a joke if he had followed us all the way?”
chuckled Bob Baker, as he awoke late in the morning, and called to
Jerry.
“Who?” asked the tall lad, yawning, for he had slept well after the day
of excitement, with its various happenings.
“Noddy Nixon,” went on the stout lad. “You know he started to follow
us--he and Bill Berry. Wouldn’t they have had the surprise of their
lives if they’d seen us get aboard this submarine.”
“They sure would,” agreed Ned. “And I reckon they’d be glad because our
_Comet_ went to smash. Poor old ship! Will we ever have another?”
“I think we’ll go in for submarines,” announced Jerry. “This boat is a
marvel! If we could only get one like this--or half the size, we could
have no end of adventures!”
“And think of the service you could render science,” broke in Professor
Snodgrass. “There are wonders of the sea never even dreamed of, and we
could bring them to light. Oh, I must see when Dr. Klauss can let me
get after those hermit crabs.”
“Are we still moving?” asked Bob, beginning to dress.
“We seem to be,” said Jerry, as he felt a tremor throughout the craft
that showed her engines to be working. “No telling where we are,
though.”
“Well, let’s get up, and see what Mr. Sheldon has to say, boys,”
advised Jerry.
They were about to don the borrowed garments when a member of the
crew--the same one who had taken away their own clothes to dry--came
back with them. The boys were glad to get into their own things again.
“How large a crew is there aboard?” asked Jerry.
“There are five of us, but really three men can work the whole ship,”
replied the sailor. “There are two old German scientists aboard, who
will help if they are needed, but I and my two mates generally work
together. My name is Ted Rowland, and my mates’ names are Bill Burke
and Tom Flynn. We’re machinists, and we’re all wishing we hadn’t signed
for this voyage. But we’re in for it now. You see we’re all Irish,”
he explained with a twinkle in his blue eyes, “and the Dutch and the
Irish never mix any too well. Still I shouldn’t talk so. Dr. Klauss
pays us well.”
“What about his German friends?” asked Bob.
“Oh, we don’t see much of them. They keep to their own quarters, all
the time figuring something on paper, drawing plans, and the like. Dr.
Klauss spends a lot of time with them, too. They’re planning something,
but we’re not supposed to know what it is.”
“How did you come to get in with the doctor?” asked Jerry, who thought
it would be a good plan to obtain all the information he could.
“Oh, it was just by chance. I and my mates had been on one of Uncle
Sam’s submarines, and a short time ago we saw an advertisement to take
a private berth at a good figure, so we answered it. In that way we met
Dr. Klauss and his two foreign friends.
“It seems he built this vessel in Germany, and brought it over here
with a foreign crew. But there was a quarrel and he fired them. He had
to have help, so he got us.”
“Who steers her?” asked Ned.
“Dr. Klauss, mostly, though I’ve taken a hand at it. I understand
navigation, though you have to go pretty much by dead reckoning when
you’re under water. Then, too, there’s an automatic steering apparatus
that will work for a limited time.”
“Has Dr. Klauss any special object in cruising about?” Jerry wanted to
know.
“If he has he hasn’t told me and my mates,” was the man’s answer. “He’s
just been scooting about here, there--anywhere. I recall the time we
first sighted you--he got away from that vicinity in a hurry. Seemed
afraid, like.”
“I wonder why?” mused Ned.
“Well, I’ll be getting back to quarters,” said Ted Rowland. “I have to
look after the oiling. See you again,” and he took away with him the
borrowed garments.
“Well, what’s the program?” asked Ned, when he and his chums had had
breakfast. They ate alone save for Professor Snodgrass, Mr. Sheldon and
his daughter having eaten earlier.
“I fancy we had better first have a talk with your uncle, Bob,” replied
the tall lad. “He may be able to advise us. It is all very nice to be
aboard here, scooting along under the sea, but we ought to be home. Our
folks will surely be worried about us, especially if any part of our
wrecked motorship is picked up by some vessel. Word will go back to
Cresville that we are lost.”
“And my uncle, too,” added Bob. “Probably father and mother have
already given him up for lost.”
“Then we’ve got to make a bid to get back to land,” decided Ned.
“Let’s look up Mr. Sheldon.”
Professor Snodgrass was so busy over some of his scientific notes that
he paid little attention to the boys, and they felt they could leave
him for the time being.
They found Bob’s uncle and cousin in the main cabin. Dr. Klauss, Mr.
Sheldon said, had gone to the engine room, as there was some difficulty
with one of the motors.
“And where are we?” asked Jerry anxiously.
“Well, we’re running along, about three hundred feet under the
surface,” answered Mr. Sheldon. “I was just in the pilot house, and
noted the depth gage. As for our exact location, I can’t say. Somewhere
beneath the Atlantic ocean.”
“That’s a big place,” remarked Bob. “And have we been under water all
night?”
“Yes.”
“The air is very fresh,” observed Ned.
“Oh, we carry enough for several days,” remarked Mr. Sheldon. “The
_Sonderbaar_ could be submerged nearly a week at a pinch, so Dr. Klauss
says.”
“I wouldn’t want to stay down here that long,” came from Jerry. “What
are we going to do, Mr. Sheldon? We have come to you for advice. We
feel that we ought to go back home.”
“That’s exactly how I feel about it, my boy. But the difficulty is
that Dr. Klauss won’t put us ashore.”
“He won’t?”
“No. He refused in my case; decently enough, but firmly. Now my plan is
to have you boys ask him. If he acts in the same way he must have some
reason for it. If he acts and talks differently it may indicate what I
have begun to suspect.”
“What’s that?” inquired Bob.
“Wait until you make your request,” was the reply. “Then you can judge
for yourselves. He is a very strange man. Ask him the first chance you
get.”
The opportunity came sooner than the boys expected. Shortly after their
talk with Mr. Sheldon, Dr. Klauss came into the main cabin.
“Doctor,” began Jerry, “can you spare us a few moments?”
“What for?” and the words came with a snap.
“We wish to find out when you are going to set us ashore, or put us on
some other vessel. You have been very kind, but we must not tax your
hospitality further. We want to get back to America.”
“And I say you shall not go!” fairly shouted the captain. “I am not
going back to the United States until I come again with a fleet that
will destroy all their ships!”
“Doctor!” cried Mr. Sheldon, leaping to his feet. “What do you mean?”
“Just what I say! I am going back to my own country, and build more
submarines. I have proved what this one will do. With her, and more
like her, I can destroy the whole United States navy. And I’m going to
do it! I’m going to do it!
“I hate you! I hate all Americans. They shot my brother in the
Spanish-American War, and I am going to revenge him. They called him a
spy. He was not! I say he was not!
“America! You shall never see it again. I did not ask you to come
aboard my vessel, but, since you are here, you must take the
consequences. I shall not turn you free to have you reveal my
secrets--the secrets I have guarded for years. I shall keep you with me
forever. You shall never see home again!
“America! Bah! How I hate her!” and he stamped his feet with rage.
“I shall wipe her from the face of the earth. No, I will not put you
ashore! I shall not put you aboard some other vessel, to let her crew
pry into my secrets! I tell you I will not! You are here--here you
shall stay. Don’t ask me again!
“When my brother was shot--shot unjustly as a spy--I vowed to be
revenged. Now my chance has come. After many years I have perfected
my submarine. In it I can carry enough torpedoes to destroy a whole
flotilla of United States warships, and some day I will do it.
“I hate Americans! I have three in my crew, but they shall never see
their own land again. Nor will you! Don’t ask me again.”
“But, Dr. Klauss,” said Mr. Sheldon, endeavoring to speak calmly,
“please consider----”
“No! I will consider nothing! Here you are--and here you will
remain--aboard my submarine. I did not ask you to come--I did not want
you. I am a monster, perhaps--a monster when I think of my wrongs; but
I could not leave you to drown. You owe me a debt for saving your lives.
“Very well! You will pay that debt by never seeing your own country
again. I have you--I shall keep you!” and his voice rose to a scream
as, clapping his hands together, he rushed from the cabin.