Motor Matt's Close Call; or, The Snare of Don Carlos

by Stanley R. Matthews

  CHAPTER XV.

  THE "SEMINOLE."

  All night long the _Grampus_ felt her way up the coast. Clackett actedas pilot some of the time, and Matt "spelled" him in two-hour watches.Neither was very well acquainted with the coast, and it was necessaryto proceed slowly.

  The electric projector was turned against the forward lunettes, and,with this trail of light stretching before them, the _Grampus_ plowedher way through the breaking seas and safely escaped the reefs thatlined her course.

  Morning found the submarine still several hours from Belize.

  Ysabel and Speake got breakfast, and while it was being eaten a cry of"Sail, ho!" came from Clackett, who was in the tower.

  "Where away?" called Matt, only passively interested.

  "Dead ahead," answered Clackett. "But I ought to have said 'Smoke, ho!'as the craft is a steamer."

  "Which way is she heading?"

  "Toward us."

  "Then probably she's some Costa Rica fruiter."

  Matt went on with his eating. Dick was below, standing his trick at themotor in order to give Gaines a chance to eat and rest.

  "We're going back to Belize," said Gaines humbly, "and I feel like acriminal, caught and carried back to jail."

  "Why so?" inquired Matt.

  "Why, because Speake, Clackett and I got the _Grampus_ into that messof trouble. She's had more narrow escapes this trip than she ever hadsince she was launched--and when we listened to the don you'd havethought we were off on a little pleasure excursion."

  "I feel mighty tough myself," put in Speake.

  "So do I," cried Clackett from the conning tower.

  A little of the conversation had drifted up to him--enough so that hecould catch the prevailing sentiment of the remarks.

  "Don't fret about what you can't help, men," said Matt.

  "But what will Cap'n Nemo, Jr., say?" said Gaines.

  "Why, you said he'd be glad we went, after we came back and reported,"said Speake. "Have ye changed yer mind, Gaines?"

  "I've changed my mind a good many times since we set off on thiscruise," replied Gaines.

  "I don't believe the captain will find any fault with you," said Matt."I'll do what I can to smooth the thing over."

  "It's like you to do that," returned Gaines gratefully. "You were thesame with Cassidy, that other time when he came in from the RiverIzaral, and I remember I thought you were rather too easy on him."

  "We all thought that," said Speake. "And I'm free to say that I thinkMatt's too easy on us."

  "That bag with the gold pieces was left down in the torpedo room," wenton Clackett.

  "It was?" queried Matt, deeply interested.

  "Yes. I left it there. I wouldn't have touched it with a ten-foot pole."

  "That will pay for a new periscope ball and mast," said Matt, "and forthe provisions and gasoline we used up on this trip. Taking it alltogether, we've had a very successful cruise----"

  "Hot and lively," put in Speake.

  "And short," added Gaines; "that's the best part of it. If it had keptup much longer, I'd have been down with heart failure. We not only hada close call in the matter of losing the ship to Fingal and his gang,but likewise in the matter of that submarine mine. My nerves are inrags, and I hope Nemo, Jr., isn't going to sit down on us too hard.That would be about the last straw!"

  "Hard lines that we couldn't have nabbed Don Carlos," wailed Speake."I'd have taken particular pleasure in herding him with the rest of ourprisoners."

  "We've got Pitou," said Matt, "and he's of more importance. There----"

  "Hello, down there!" came from Clackett.

  "What now, Clackett?" sang out Matt.

  "That steamer's a warship--I've just been able to make her out. Byjing, I believe she's the _Seminole_!"

  The announcement aroused a commotion.

  "Make way for us to get out on deck, Clackett!" called Matt. "If she'sthe _Seminole_, I want to speak her."

  Matt, Speake, Clackett and Ysabel clustered on the forward deck nearthe conning tower.

  "Get the code book and the signal flags and the binoculars," criedMatt. "She's got signals going up at her gaff and wants to talk to us."

  Speake went below for the required articles and, after fifteen minutesof study and work, Matt and his friends learned, to their surprise,that the _Seminole_ had put in at Belize the day before and had beensent by the American consul to find the submarine. There was so much tobe said that signal flags could not convey that the cruiser hove to andhad the _Grampus_ come around under her lee.

  In this manner the submarine was able to come quite close--so closethat Matt and Dick could see their tow-haired chum on the cruiser'sbridge. Carl picked up a megaphone and hurled the following at hisfriends:

  "Ah, dere, bards! How you vas? You t'ink id vas some shmardness torun avay from me, eh? Vell, I haf peen having some hot dimes so vellas you. Dere is anodder seat oof drouple pesides Bort Lifingston undder----"

  Just there the captain grabbed the trumpet out of Carl's hands to do alittle talking that amounted to something.

  "We've started for the Izaral River to look for you," called thecaptain.

  "How did you know where we had gone?" asked Matt.

  "Don Ramon Ortega furnished the clue to the American consul at Belize."

  "Where did Don Ramon get the clue?"

  "Your Dutch pard helped--but he'll tell you about that later. What'sthe matter with your periscope?"

  "Bombarded by revolutionists."

  "Great Scott! Where?"

  "Off Port Livingston."

  "If those fellows to the south don't capture that little scoundrel,Pitou, before long, some of the bigger nations ought to interfere."

  "He's captured," said Matt.

  "Is that so? I didn't think Mendez would ever do it."

  "He didn't. We're the ones!"

  "Well, well! How did you manage?"

  "The general got tangled up in his spurs, and before he could get clearwe snaked him below decks."

  A roar of laughter came through the cruiser's megaphone.

  "He's not the only prisoner we've got," went on Matt. "Fingal is below!"

  "Bully! We want him. Perhaps we had better take all your prisoners, eh?"

  "We'd like to get rid of them."

  "Well, stay where you are and we'll send a boat."

  "You mustn't let Pedro go, Matt!" exclaimed Ysabel.

  "That's so," said Matt. "Suppose you go down, little girl, and setPedro free. Send him to the torpedo room and tell him to wait thereuntil the cruiser is gone."

  Ysabel vanished into the tower.

  Meanwhile the cruiser had been clearing away a boat. When she hovealongside the submarine, Carl Pretzel, wearing a grin that could havebeen tied behind his ears, was sitting in the bow.

  "I vill go mit you part oof dis groose, anyvay," he whooped. "Drow somelines so dot I may come apoard."

  A line was thrown and Carl was heaved from the rocking rowboat to thesubmarine's deck. He threw his arms around Matt and almost hugged himover the side of the _Grampus_.

  "I vas so habby as I don'd know!" he bubbled. "I t'ought you vas gonefor goot, und dot I don'd vas going to see you some more. Dere iss alod to dell, I bed you, und----"

  "We haven't time to tell anything just now, Carl," said Matt. "As soonas we get rid of our prisoners we'll have a little leisure."

  Carl restrained himself, assisted in the work of getting the prisonersup and transferred, and then watched while the launch pulled back tothe cruiser with its melancholy load.

  "What will you do with Pitou, captain?" called Matt through hismegaphone.

  "Turn him over to the government of that country down there to bepunished for running off the American consul, and for his many otheroutrages against peaceable Americans."

  "What do you think the government will do with him?"

  "Firing squad at sunrise," was the laconic response.

  "What about Fingal?"

  "Our country will take
care of him. He'll make a good cellmate forhis brother, Jim Sixty. Sorry you didn't capture Don Carlos Valdez.The governor at Belize would like to lay hands on him. He made anunprovoked attack on the Spanish consul, and, if caught, would do timefor it."

  By that time the launch had got back to the ship's side, and Matt,bidding the captain of the cruiser a hearty good-by, started the_Grampus_ onward toward Belize.

  Speake took the wheel for a while, and the three chums were able toenjoy a quiet little talk together. While they were at it, the door ofthe prison room opened and Ysabel Sixty stepped out. Carl almost felloff his seat.

  "Iss dot a shpook vat I see?" he mumbled, staring at the girl, "oderiss id Miss Sixdy, der peaudiful maiten vat I know so vell?"

  "Don't be foolish, Carl," smiled Ysabel.

  "Foolishness iss natural mit me--I vas porn dot vay. I see somepody onder teck oof der supmarine, ven ve first come glose, und I t'ought idlooked like you in der face, aber dose poy's clothes make some greadtshanges. How id vas, anyhow?"

  "Look here, Carl," said Matt, "did you borrow a guitar from a fellow atthe hotel the night the submarine left Belize?"

  Carl proceeded to work up quite a temper.

  "You bed you!" he cried, "und vat you t'ink? Dot feller vas someshkinflinds. He make me pay six tollar for dot kiddar! Yah, so helupme! Vy, I ged him for two tollar by any shdore in der Unidet Shdatesvat I know. Dot's right. Six tollar! Dot's vat he make me pay."

  "What happened to the guitar?"

  "Vell, I hit some pulltogs mit id ofter der headt, und dot kiddar vasproke in a lod oof bieces."

  "How did you come to smash the guitar like that?"

  "A fellar set der tog on me."

  "Why?"

  "Pecause I vas singing some songs unter a vinder oof a house vere Imade some misdake. You see," Carl explained, "I t'ought id vas MissSixdy's house, aber I vasn't far enough down der shdreed und aroundtder gorner. It vas der house oof a feller vat hat a cross tisposition.He pour vater on my headt, und set der tog on me, und I haf plendy oofdrouples. Aber oof id hatn't peen for dot, Matt, I vouldn't haf foundder don, und vouldn't haf learned vat he hat to say."

  "Tell us about that, Carl," said Matt.

  Thereupon Carl turned loose and told all about his disastrous serenade,and how he climbed into the premises of Don Ramon Ortega, found the donbound and gagged in his sitting room, released him, and then hurriedwith him to the hotel to find Matt, and then to the landing, only todiscover that the submarine had left the harbor.

  "Afder dot," proceeded Carl, "der gonsul vas der feller for us. He saydot der _Seminole_ vould be in der harpor in der morning, und dot hevould haf her go und look for der supmarine und Modor Matt. Und dot vasvat he dit, und py shinks I vent along mit meinseluf. Now, den, youfellers shpin some yarns und dell me all aboudt eferyding. I vant idall, py shinks, und mit nodding lefdt oudt."

  Carl got every detail, and by the time the boys were throughstraightening the various events out in his mind, Speake was ringingthe motor-room jingler for less speed, and signaling for anchors.

  "Belize!" he called. "We're at our old berth. Cut out the talk, downthere, and make ready to go ashore. Let Carl and Dick be the anchorwatch, Matt, for you know that Clackett, Gaines and I have businesswith Captain Nemo, Jr."