The Motor Boys Under the Sea; or, From Airship to Submarine

by Clarence Young

  Produced by Donald Cummings and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  “OH, THERE’S ANOTHER SHARK--A HAMMER-HEAD.”]

  THE MOTOR BOYS UNDER THE SEA

  Or

  From Airship to Submarine

  BY

  CLARENCE YOUNG

  AUTHOR OF “THE MOTOR BOYS,” “THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE BORDER,” “THE RACER BOYS SERIES,” “THE JACK RANGER SERIES,” ETC.

  ILLUSTRATED

  NEW YORK CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY

  BOOKS BY CLARENCE YOUNG

  =THE MOTOR BOYS SERIES=

  12mo. Illustrated.

  THE MOTOR BOYS THE MOTOR BOYS OVERLAND THE MOTOR BOYS IN MEXICO THE MOTOR BOYS ACROSS THE PLAINS THE MOTOR BOYS AFLOAT THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE ATLANTIC THE MOTOR BOYS IN STRANGE WATERS THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE PACIFIC THE MOTOR BOYS IN THE CLOUDS THE MOTOR BOYS OVER THE ROCKIES THE MOTOR BOYS OVER THE OCEAN THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE WING THE MOTOR BOYS AFTER A FORTUNE THE MOTOR BOYS ON THE BORDER THE MOTOR BOYS UNDER THE SEA

  =THE JACK RANGER SERIES=

  12mo. Finely Illustrated.

  JACK RANGER’S SCHOOLDAYS JACK RANGER’S WESTERN TRIP JACK RANGER’S SCHOOL VICTORIES JACK RANGER’S OCEAN CRUISE JACK RANGER’S GUN CLUB JACK RANGER’S TREASURE BOX

  =THE RACER BOYS SERIES=

  12mo. Illustrated.

  THE RACER BOYS THE RACER BOYS AT BOARDING SCHOOL THE RACER BOYS TO THE RESCUE THE RACER BOYS ON THE PRAIRIES THE RACER BOYS ON GUARD THE RACER BOYS FORGING AHEAD

  Copyright, 1914, by Cupples & Leon Company

  The Motor Boys Under the Sea

  Printed in U. S. A.

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER PAGE I. A STRANGE SIGHT 1 II. A STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE 9 III. THROUGH THE STORM 19 IV. A NEW QUEST 28 V. A FEARFUL GALE 39 VI. BAD NEWS 46 VII. OFF ON A SEARCH 54 VIII. NODDY AND BILL 63 IX. THE WRECK 73 X. THE LONE SAILOR 80 XI. A QUEER STORY 87 XII. THE DRIFTING BOAT 97 XIII. THE SUBMARINE AGAIN 105 XIV. IN PURSUIT 113 XV. A BOLT FROM THE SKY 119 XVI. THE “SONDERBAAR” 130 XVII. A GLAD SURPRISE 139 XVIII. UNDER WATER 146 XIX. A MARVELOUS BOAT 154 XX. A CRAZED CAPTAIN 165 XXI. PLOTTING 173 XXII. IN DIVING DRESS 181 XXIII. THE DECISION 191 XXIV. THE ALLIES 200 XXV. IN CHAINS 206 XXVI. ENTANGLED 214 XXVII. THE ESCAPE 223 XXVIII. THE LONELY ISLAND 230 XXIX. THE END OF DR. KLAUSS 238 XXX. HOMEWARD BOUND 242

  THE MOTOR BOYS UNDER THE SEA

  CHAPTER I

  A STRANGE SIGHT

  “Look down there! What do you suppose that is?”

  “Must be a whale. See how it’s plowing along through the waves!”

  “And right on top of the water, too. But if it’s a whale why doesn’t itspout?”

  Three boys, who were sailing over the waters of Massachusetts Bay in alarge air craft, had seen a strange sight as they looked down throughthe glass floor of the cabin of their motorship, and their comments andquestions followed rapidly. So engrossed were they with the appearanceof what seemed to be some marine monster that, for a few moments, theypaid no attention to the course of their boat, which was carrying themalong just below the clouds.

  It was not until Jerry Hopkins, the oldest of the three lads, calledthe attention of his companions to the need of giving heed to theircraft, that the other two--Ned Slade and Bob Baker--turned their eyesfrom the strange creature below them--if creature it was.

  “I say there, Ned!” exclaimed Jerry, “just throw in a little more gas,will you? or we ourselves will be down in those same waves in a littlewhile. We’re sinking!”

  “That’s so!” agreed Bob. “But still we wouldn’t be in much danger, forthe automatic air planes would set when we began to fall too fast.”

  “Even at that,” went on Jerry, who was steering the _Comet_, as themotorship was named, “even then I think it’s just as well not to taketoo many chances. Turn on a little more gas, Ned.”

  “Aye, aye, sir!” exclaimed the one addressed, and with a quick motionof one of many shining levers and wheels in the pilot house he sentsome of the compressed gas into the lifting-bags of the _Comet_, thusmaking her more buoyant.

  “There it is again!” cried Bob, once more pointing below. They alllooked, Jerry turning his attention away from the wheel that guidedthe craft. First, however, he looked ahead to make sure there was nodanger of a collision, for the boys had come to Boston to attend anaviation meet, and at times there had been so many of the “birdmen” inthe sky-space that a collision was really not so unlikely as at firstit would seem.

  “Yes, it’s there yet,” agreed Ned. “I’m sure it’s a whale!”

  “But why doesn’t it spout?” demanded Bob, who had asked that questionbefore. “Then we’d be sure of it. I thought whales had to spout everyten minutes or so, and that one’s been in sight about that time.”

  “You’re off on your natural history, Bob,” said Jerry, with a smile.“Whales don’t have to spout oftener than a half-hour. And besides,that’s only when they’ve been swimming under water. This one is on thesurface, running awash, you might say, and so doesn’t have to send outa long breath that it’s been holding in a long while. It can breathenaturally.”

  “That’s it! I’m never right,” grumbled Bob, whose stout form andgood-natured face did not fit well with the scowl with which heregarded his chum. “I guess I know as much about whales as you do,Jerry Hopkins!”

  “That isn’t much,” admitted Jerry, frankly. “I don’t claim to bean authority, but I’m sure a whale on the surface doesn’t have tospout--at least, not very often.”

  “Are you sure it _is_ a whale?” asked Ned quietly, and there wassomething in the tone of his voice that caused his companions to lookquickly at him. “Why don’t we go lower down so we can have a betterlook at it. Then we could make certain.”

  “I guess that would be the best plan,” admitted Jerry. “We can drop towithin a few feet of the surface and----”

  “Don’t go too close!” interrupted Bob. “It looks to me like a storm. Wemay get a squall any minute, and if we go too low down we may not beable to rise quickly enough. I don’t want to see the good old _Comet_come to grief.”

  “Neither do I,” responded Jerry. “But I guess we’ve done harder stuntsthan that. Get ready to let her down, Ned. See if the rudder planes areall clear.”

  “Besides,” went on stout Bob, “we haven’t had lunch yet, and----”

  “There he goes!” cried Ned with a laugh, as he left his comfortableseat and prepared to go aft to the motor room. “It wouldn’t be Chunkyunless he mentioned the ‘eats’ every so often. I was just waiting tohear you come out with that, Bob.”

  “Huh! Well, then, you weren’t disappointed; were you?” demanded thestout lad.

  “That’s all right,” interposed Jerry, hastening to pour oil on troubledwaters. “Don’t g
et on your ear, Chunky. Ned didn’t mean anything. Comeon, we’ll take a little plane downward, and settle the identity ofthis mysterious creature of the sea.”

  “Listen to him!” exclaimed Ned. “He’s getting poetical!”

  “Quit knocking,” advised Jerry. “If Professor Snodgrass were along nowhe might be able to settle the question for us.”

  “Yes, and he’d be sure to want to capture the beast for his privatecollection,” said Bob, whose ill-humor had disappeared, leaving himwith a smile on his round countenance.

  “All ready, Ned?” asked Jerry, who was giving his attention to variousgear-wheels and levers. “Shall I send her down now?”

  “I guess so. Just a minute until I open the gas intake a little wider.You’re going to navigate as a dirigible; aren’t you?”

  “No, I was thinking of sailing as an aeroplane,” was the answer.

  “Oh, then wait until I throw in the rudder gears.”

  The _Comet_, about which I will tell you more presently (that is,you boys who have had no previous acquaintance with her), could benavigated as a dirigible balloon by means of a powerful lifting-gasstored in reservoirs, or she could sail as a biplane, her powerfulpropellers sending her along on the principle of all “heavier than air”machines.

  While waiting for Ned to adjust the machinery, so that the change fromone form to the other could be made, Jerry glanced down toward theheaving waters above which the _Comet_ had been sailing, and amid thewaves of which had appeared the strange object that had excited thecuriosity of the boys. It was still there, plowing slowly through thewater, but the air craft was so high up that a good view could not behad of it.

  “All ready!” called Ned from the motor room.

  Jerry was about to shut off the supply of gas, sending it into thecompressors where it could not exert a lifting force, and had stretchedhis hand toward the lever of the deflecting rudder, when Bob cried:

  “Say, I’ve got an idea! Why didn’t we think of it before, fellows?”

  “What is it?” asked Jerry, pausing in his intended operations.

  “The telescope,” replied Bob. “We can get a view of the mysteriousbeast with that, and won’t have to go down at all. I’ll get it,” and hestarted toward a locker.

  “Oh, never mind,” said Jerry. “As long as we’re ready we might as wellgo down anyhow. Besides, only one of us can use the glass at a time. Ifwe get the _Comet_ near enough we can all see. Let her go, Ned.”

  “Going she is!” came from Ned.

  There was a hissing as the automatic pumps began compressing thelifting-gas, and a few seconds later Jerry yanked on the lever thatwould tilt the big rudder to such a position that the ship would divedownward. At the same time the propellers, which had been revolvingslowly, to keep the _Comet_ from drifting, were whirled with greatrapidity as more power was turned into the motor. While navigatingas a dirigible balloon the propellers were not needed to keep theship afloat, but once the lifting-gas was not used they were vitallynecessary, for only by keeping in motion can a “heavier than air”machine be prevented from falling.

  Bob, who was looking through the glass floor in the main cabin, tracingthe course of the object that had so excited the boys, suddenly lookedup at Jerry.

  “Something’s wrong!” cried the fat lad, and by his tones it couldeasily be told that he referred to the motorship, and not to the objectbelow him in the water.

  “I should say there was!” gasped Jerry, for the _Comet_ had plungeddownward with such abruptness that the boys were fairly dizzy.

  “What’s the matter?” yelled Ned, making his way from the motor room byfairly pulling himself along. He had to do this as the ship was tiltedat such a sharp angle. “What happened?” Ned went on.

  “It’s that deflecting rudder again!” answered Jerry. “I thought we hadit adjusted too fine. Now it’s jammed again.”

  “Shut off the motors! Stop the propellers!” cried Bob.

  “I’m doing it as fast as I can!” returned tall Jerry. He had reachedover and snapped off a switch that controlled the electric currentwhich fired the gasoline motor.

  “We’re heading straight into the sea--bow down!” cried Ned, taking ahasty observation.

  “Turn on the gas again!” ordered Jerry. “That’s the only thing thatwill stop us now! And do it quick, too! I’ll have a new rudder if weever get out of this alive!”

  Ned, with desperate haste, was opening the gas valves. With an angryhiss the vapor rushed from the condensers it had so recently entered,and began filling the lifting-bags. Still the _Comet_ plunged downtoward the ocean, in which could still be seen that strange creature.It was circling about now, as though waiting for the destruction of themotorship.