ABOARD THE "SALVADORE."
The _Grampus_ was between Elizabeth Island and the island of Santa
Madalena when the war ship was sighted. She was headed eastward, and by
the time Dick got the hatch opened and looked out, the distance between
the two boats had rapidly narrowed.
There was a good deal of excitement on the deck of the war ship.
Officers were crowding the bridge and sailors were pressing against the
rail, forward. Several of the officers had glasses to their eyes and
were studying the submarine with ill-concealed curiosity.
The waters of the strait were as smooth as a pond, and it was possible
for the _Grampus_ to come close alongside the larger vessel.
"Ahoy!" roared Dick.
An answer was returned in Spanish.
"Can't savvy your lingo," roared Dick, making a trumpet of his hands.
"Haven't you got any one aboard who can talk English?"
"What ship is that?" cried an officer, so heavily embroidered with gold
lace, brass buttons, and epaulettes that Dick was sure he must be the
captain.
"It's the submarine _Grampus_," answered Dick.
"English?"
"No, American, although _I'm_ English, fast enough."
"Where's your flag?"
The war ship had slowed her engines and was lying to.
Dick signaled the engine room for just enough speed to give the
submarine steerageway.
"We're under water so much," said Dick, in answer to the officer's
question, "that we can't fly our colors."
"Is that a government vessel?"
"Not now, but she will be as soon as we get her to Mare Island Navy
Yard."
"I'd like to send a man aboard of her to look her over," said the
captain. "Come closer alongside and heave to."
"We can't allow you to look her over," said Dick. "There are
improvements on this boat that no other nation is going to get hold of."
Dick was not very tactful. Whenever he wanted to make a point, he took
the shortest way to it. His answer seemed to anger the officer.
"You're talking to a captain in the Chilian navy," cried the officer,
an ostrich plume in his hat quivering with the wrath that shook his
body. "If I want to look that boat over I'll do it. Who's your captain?"
"Better let me come up and talk with him, Dick," said Matt, who, at the
foot of the iron ladder, had heard all that had passed between his chum
and the captain of the war ship.
Instead of coming down the ladder, Dick got out on the deck.
"I am in charge of this boat, captain," Matt called up to the commander
of the war ship, "but there is a representative of the United States
Navy with us, and his orders are that the boat is not to undergo
inspection. I am sorry, but, you see, this boat has virtually been
purchased by the United States Government."
"If you're in charge," came from the man on the war ship's bridge,
"then come up here--I want to talk with you."
"I shall be glad to do so," Matt answered, "but, first, we have some
prisoners we should like to turn over to you."
"Prisoners?"
"Yes, escaped convicts."
"Ah, ha! You found those five rascals, did you?"
"Yes, captain. Their boat had overturned and we picked them off
the craft's bottom not far from Cape Virgins during the storm late
yesterday afternoon."
"Good enough! We were looking for those men. Come up close under our
lee and we'll send down a rope for the prisoners and a sea ladder for
you."
"Better drop a bosun's chair, captain," suggested Dick. "One of the men
has a broken arm."
The officer turned and gave some directions. While these were being
carried out, the _Grampus_ was manoeuvred around the stern of the war
ship and up under the lee. As they passed the stern, Matt and Dick saw
the war ship's name. It was the _Salvadore_.
"That other ship, we talked with by wireless," commented Dick, "wasn't
the _Salvadore_, by a long shot."
"I had a hunch to that effect right along," answered Matt.
As soon as the _Grampus_ was close in, on the lee side of the larger
vessel, a bosun's chair and a sea ladder were in readiness. Dick went
below to help bring up the prisoners.
The leader came bellowing and roaring his wrath. He fought against
being placed in the bosun's chair, and a rope was flung down from the
steamer's rail. Dick caught the end of the rope and it was tied around
the Chilian's body, under the arms. The rascal was still howling as he
was snatched aloft and dragged to the war ship's deck.
Another rope was sent down for the second uninjured prisoner. He went
up quietly, but with a stern face and glittering eyes.
The man with the broken arm made no struggle, but silently took his
place in the bosun's chair. When he had been safely lifted over the war
ship's rail, the captain leaned over and called down:
"Where are the other two? There were five who escaped."
Matt explained how the two missing convicts had got away. Just as he
finished, a junior officer stepped to the captain's side, touched his
arm, and said something in a low tone.
"Now you come up," called the captain, beckoning to Matt; "I want to
talk with you."
The captain turned away from the rail.
"You vould t'ink dot brass-plated feller owned der eart'," remarked
Carl. "Ve vas free American cidizens, py shinks, und he don'd got some
pitzness shpeaking to us like vat he dit."
"Nonsense, Carl," laughed Matt, "that's only his way."
The sailors on the war ship gave the rope ladder a heave that sent
it close enough for Matt to catch it. Gripping the iron rungs, Matt
allowed himself to swing from the submarine's deck. He was jarred a
little as he struck the armored side of the war ship, but he went on up
to the rail quickly and easily.
An officer said something to him and took him by the arm. Leading him
aft, they entered a passageway at the break in the poop, walked along
it a few steps, and then turned in at an open door.
Two men, who were armed with muskets and looked like marines, stepped
on each side of Matt as he entered.
Dick, Glennie, and Carl, down on the deck of the _Grampus_, had watched
Matt vanish over the rail with anything but easy minds.
"I don't like the looks of things, mates," said Dick, "and that's a
fact."
"Me, neider," added Carl. "Dot feller in der brass drimmings shpeaks
like ve vas togs. He iss some Shmard Alecs, I bed you."
"I don't think Matt ought to have gone aboard the war ship," averred
Glennie.
Dick turned on him in a flash.
"Then why didn't you say so?" he demanded sharply. "You're an officer
in the United States Navy, and these Chilian swabs wouldn't dare lay a
finger on _you_. What did you let Matt go for, when you could have gone
just as well?"
"Hold your luff, Ferral," answered Glennie, reddening. "You didn't
think I stayed off that war ship because I was _afraid_, did you?"
"I'm a Fiji if I know why you stayed off," scowled Dick. "That dago
captain is hot because he couldn't come aboard the _Grampus_----"
"He's hot because you refused him the privilege in the way you did."
"Oh, my eye!" scoffed Dick.
The dislike Dick had for Glennie was increased by a vague alarm for
Matt, and the ensign and Matt's sailor chum were never nearer an open
rupture than at that moment. Dick's fists had clinched, and a dangerous
gleam had leaped into Glennie's eyes.
Carl, to his great credit be it stated, interfered. He had as little
liking for Glennie as Dick had, but he saw the folly of quarreling
under the eyes of the _Salvadore's_ sailors.
"Dot vill do you, Tick!" growled Carl. "You vant dose tagos to t'ink
Modor Madd's friendts vas a punch oof yaps? Keep shdill mit yourseluf;
und you, Glennie, nodding more schust now, oof you blease."
Glennie turned and walked to the base of the conning tower. There he
sat down moodily and watched the war ship, hoping every moment to see
Matt reappear.
"I don't like that swab a little bit," muttered Dick to Carl. "There's
something wrong with his top-hamper. Do you recollect the time he came
aboard the _Grampus_, Carl? How he laid it down that we were all to
'mister' him?"
"We can't forged dot," said Carl, "aber id vas pedder dot ve try, Tick."
"I guess he'd like to make us black his boots, if he could."
"Nod so pad as dot. He's a prave feller--you saidt dot yourseluf ven he
vas heluping you und Matt safe dose fellers on der poat."
"Of course he's got nerve, but he spoils it all with that way of his.
Why didn't he put in his oar, while that cock of the walk up there was
ordering Matt around?"
"He knowed pedder as to inderfere mit Matt's pitzness, same as you und
me. Modor Matt knows vat he's got to do, und chenerally, you bed you,
he does id. _Nicht wahr?_"
Dick remained silent. He was not acting at all like himself, but was
angry because something had not been said or done to keep Matt off the
_Salvadore_.
Half an hour passed, with the war ship and the submarine lying
alongside of each other. At the end of that time another officer, who
could not talk English quite so fluently as the captain, thrust his
head over the rail.
"We go to Punta Arenas," he called down. "You come 'long in your leetle
boat."
"Where's our skipper?" roared Dick.
"He iss arrest'," was the calm answer. "You know more w'en you get to
Punta Arenas!"
Dick said a good many wild and unreasonable things, then, but no one on
the war ship paid any attention to him. Carl said quite a few things,
too, but, strange as it may seem, he had himself under better control
than Dick.
The war ship got under headway again, put about and started westward
along the strait. There was nothing for the _Grampus_ to do but to
follow.