GALLANT WORK.
The southern horizon had become almost a continuous glare of lightning.
This was a help to the rescuers, otherwise the deep gloom that
prevailed would have rendered it impossible for them to do anything.
The thunder rolled heavily, and this, united with the splash and roar
of the sea, lent an accompaniment to the scene well calculated to try
the strongest nerves.
At times, Matt, Glennie, and Dick seemed to be adrift in the waste of
waters with no substantial foothold under them. Rounded deck, and even
the conning tower, were covered with the creaming waves. When they were
not completely deluged, the stinging spray was hurled into their faces,
temporarily blinding them.
Glennie, however, kept his wits about him. Dick and Carl had never
liked the ensign, principally because his naval rank and his family
pride seemed to have gone to his head, enlarging it. But the way
Glennie hung to the conning tower, keeping his eyes in the direction of
the overturned boat and his hands on the steering and signaling devices
in the inner side of the tower, made a good deal of a hit with Dick.
By dexterous manoeuvring, Glennie brought the _Grampus_ to windward of
the five men. He did not dare halt the submarine, for to try and hold
her powerless in that rolling tumult would have invited disaster. Matt
and Dick, understanding this, prepared to hurl their ropes as they came
close to the other boat.
In some manner the five men had contrived to lash themselves to the
keel of their boat. They saw how gallantly the king of the motor boys
and his friends were trying to rescue them, and waved their arms
encouragingly. They must have shouted, too, although their voices were
lost in the bedlam of sounds that surrounded them.
Matt, being forward of the conning tower, came near the overturned boat
first. He had his weighted rope coiled in his hand, but did not cast it
immediately. He was holding back until the next wave should lift the
submarine. At that time the five men would be in the trough, and this
would give him a "downhill" cast.
Dick preferred not to wait. His line flew out, but was caught by the
fierce wind and twisted from the hands that were stretched to grasp it.
The next moment the _Grampus_ was lifted high, and Matt swung the
wrench. The rope uncoiled in his hand, was caught by one of the men on
the forward part of the wreck, and there was a cable stretched between
the two boats. But what happened during the next minute was hardly
expected.
As the submarine poised on the crest of the wave, her propeller was out
of the water, and racing; then, as the wave rushed on, the _Grampus_
fell away in the trough, rolling her deck plates under. The wreck was
lifted, and the pull of the line and the motion of the sea threw it
over almost on top of the submarine.
The wooden hulk struck the iron plates a tremendous blow. All three of
the boys had a narrow escape. Had the _Grampus_ delayed two seconds in
taking the windward roll, they would have been crushed under the impact
of the two grinding hulls.
The submarine, however, righted just in the nick of time. Two of the
men on the wreck were thrown off. Glennie managed to catch one of them,
and Dick laid hold of the other.
This left three still on the boat's bottom, with only Matt to deal with
the situation. Quick to think, the king of the motor boys flung the
second of the two ropes he had brought with him. It was caught, and two
of the men fastened themselves to it. The other man had already lashed
the first line about his waist.
As the _Grampus_ plowed her way onward, placing a rapidly widening
distance between herself and the wreck, the three men flung themselves
into the water.
Glennie, although busy with his steering, with his signals to the
engine room, and with his work of holding the man he had grabbed from
the wreck, contrived to let Carl and Speake know that they were to haul
in on Matt's two lines.
While those in the periscope room were engaged in this, Glennie was
passing his man down the hatch, and Dick was getting the other one
forward.
By the time Dick's man had followed Glennie's, Carl and Speake had
dragged the other three close to the submarine. A wave threw them with
crushing force against the plates. One was rendered unconscious--Matt
could not tell, in the lightning glare, but that he was killed. As his
limp body slipped downward over the rounded deck plates, Matt jumped
for it, and wrapped it in his arms.
A smother of water engulfed the _Grampus_. When she shook herself free,
Glennie and Dick had the two men on the other line, and Matt was still
clinging to the one he had rescued.
Glennie and Dick passed their half-drowned charges to the safe regions
below, and Dick helped Matt with the last of the five unfortunates.
In some manner, the boys could never tell just how, they succeeded
in getting the man below deck and in following him themselves. Matt,
who was the last to leave, was so nearly fagged that he had not the
strength to close the hatch. Carl bounded up the iron ladder, got the
hatch in place, and slid down again.
Matt, Dick, and Glennie, utterly exhausted, were lying on the floor
among those whom they had rescued. Water, which had entered the open
hatch, was churning back and forth and splashing through scuppers into
the tank room. Clackett had set a pump to work, and was ejecting the
water as rapidly as possible.
"Were any of the port plates sprung by that collision with the wreck,
Carl?" inquired Matt, rousing himself. "Did all this water come down
the hatchway?"
"Efery pit oof id, Matt," declared Carl. "Clackett looked ofer der
blates, und he say dot dey vas all righdt."
"Then submerge until the periscope ball is awash," went on Matt. "These
poor fellows can't stand this knocking around."
The violent rolling and pitching of the boat was throwing the five men
in every direction.
Carl communicated at once with Clackett, in the tank room, and the
_Grampus_ was soon riding easier, some ten feet under the surface.
"We're off Cape Virgins," announced Speake, once more at the steering
wheel and with his eyes on the periscope.
Matt crawled to the locker and pulled out one of the charts. After a
few moments' study of it he gave Speake the course.
"As soon as we get into Possession Bay," said Matt, "we'll be out of
this gale. Be careful, Speake."
"It's hard to be careful, Matt, when you ain't able to see the surface
more'n a third of the time," was the answer, "but I'll do the best I
can. I think you fellows are entitled to a little rest after what you
done on deck. Je-ru-sa-lem! but that was a plucky fight you made. I
wouldn't have given the fag end o' nothin' for your chances of savin'
those fellows--and not much more for your chances o' gettin' back
yourselves."
One by one the rescued men began to recover. Carl had been working over
the unconscious man, and when he opened his eyes he began to groan.
"He's hurt," announced Carl. "He vouldn't make a noise like dot oof he
vasn't hurt."
"I'll see if I can tell what's the matter with him," said Glennie.
Picking his way to the man's side, he and Carl lifted him and laid him
on the locker. The man's groans redoubled as he was raised.
"It's his arm," announced Glennie, after a brief examination. "There's
a fracture."
"Do you know anything about surgery?" queried Matt.
Glennie shook his head.
"Then it's up to me," said Matt, leaving the periscope chamber.
There was a chest in the torpedo room well stocked with everything
necessary in the medicine line, also with lint, bandages, and splints.
Selecting a set of splints and bandages, Matt returned to the periscope
room.
Glennie and Carl had already stripped the water-soaked flannel shirt
from the injured man, and Matt, Dick, and Glennie at once got busy.
It was a painful piece of work. While Glennie held the man down on the
locker by the shoulders, Dick pulled at the arm, Matt pressing his
hands about the fracture so that he might know when the bones got into
place.
The patient groaned and yelled, for the pain must have been terrific.
"There you are, Dick," said Matt suddenly. "Now hold it that way until
I get it bound up."
Adjusting the splints, Matt wound them rapidly with bandages, and
presently had the arm rigidly in the cast.
The work had required some time, and when it was finished, Speake
turned from the periscope table.
"Here we are in Possession Bay, Matt," said he. "The chart shows twenty
feet of water under us."
"All right," answered Matt. "Drop to the bottom, Speake, and then get
busy and make us a little hot coffee. We all feel the need of a bracer,
I guess."
Clackett could be heard opening the tanks, and the downward movement
of the submarine became perceptible. The motor was stopped, and in
a few minutes the boat touched bottom gently and came to a rest in
undisturbed waters.
Speake went below to attend to getting the supper, and Clackett and
Gaines, all agog with curiosity, came into the periscope room.
Matt was just preparing to give his attention to the rescued men, and
to learn how they had come to be in their desperate plight. Glennie, in
a few words, explained to Clackett and Gaines how the rescue had been
effected.