CHAPTER X.
A HALT FOR REPAIRS.
Late in the afternoon of the day they left Lota Bay the _Grampus_ spokethe British ship _Sovereign_, bound from Santiago to Liverpool. Bymeans of a megaphone, Matt had a brief talk with the captain of thesailing vessel.
"What craft is that?" inquired the British captain, after answeringMatt's hail with information concerning his own vessel.
"The submarine _Grampus_," answered Matt, "six weeks out from Belize,British Honduras, and bound for San Francisco."
"My word!" came from the other megaphone. "Sure about that?"
Matt was "stumped." It was certainly an odd question to ask.
"Of course I'm sure of it. Why?"
"Well, we passed another submarine, two hours ago, and she was towinga torpedo. Said she had discharged it at a target and was going tobeach it somewhere, and get it in shape for further use. But the ballyjoke of it is that the captain of that other submarine said that _his_boat was the United States submarine _Grampus_. It's a main queer goif there are two submarines of that name both belonging to the UnitedStates Government."
"Well, what do you think of that?" muttered Glennie, leaning out of thehatch. "The nerve of it!"
"That other boat was the _Pom_," called back Matt, "sent over to Chiliby a firm of French shipbuilders. She was stolen from the harbor ofLota by a handful of Japs."
"Fancy that! Those Japs are----"
The rest of it Matt could not hear. The two boats had merely spokeneach other in passing and were quickly out of reach of each other'smegaphones.
"Those Sons of the Rising Sun are stealing our thunder," remarkedGlennie.
"I suppose," returned Matt, "that it's a heap safer for the Japs tocall their boat the _Grampus_ than the _Pom_. If they happened to speaka vessel that knew of the stealing of the _Pom_ results might provedisastrous if they told the truth."
Matt descended to the periscope room to give the news to Carl and Dick.
"Dot's der vorst yet!" grunted Carl. "Der itee oof dem Chaps callingdeir old frog-eader poat der _Grampus_! I don'd like dot. Id vas someinsulds."
"I guess we can stand it, Carl," said Matt.
"Did Pons tell you anything about that French submarine, matey?"inquired Dick.
"A little, but not as much as I would have liked to learn. The _Pom_, Iinfer, is smaller than the _Grampus_, and is propelled by electricitywhen submerged and by gasoline on the surface. She's only able tostay under water an hour. Captain Nemo, Jr., could teach those Frenchbuilders a trick or two with his patent submerged exhausts."
"How's her diving? Can't she remain submerged longer than an hour withher ballast tanks full and her electric motor quiet?"
"No. Her rudders keep her below the surface, and the diving rudderswon't work unless her motor's going."
"She don'd amoundt to mooch, oof dot's der case," commented Carl."Der _Grampus_ has got der _Pom_ shkinned bot' vays for Suntay. I bedyou somet'ing for nodding der _Pom_ couldn't have come aroundt derbottom end oof Sout' America like vat ve dit. _Pom!_ She vas vat derFrench fellers call a _pomme de terre_, by vich, ven I so expressionmeinseluf, I mean a botato. Whoosh!" and the Dutch boy gave a grunt ofdisgust.
The night fell clear and bright. It was Matt's intention to continuerunning during the night, but submerged so that only the periscope ballwas awash.
When the time came to fill the ballast tanks, however, an unexpecteddifficulty presented itself--a difficulty which had almost broughtoverwhelming disaster once before, when the _Grampus_ had just emergedfrom Magellan Strait: the Kingston valves by mean of which the tankswere operated failed to work.
This was no particular fault of the valves, but of some damage that hadbeen done to them, and which caused them to go wrong occasionally--andusually at the most inopportune times.
Matt had made up his mind that new valves would have to be put in, butthat was a job which would necessarily have to wait until the submarinereached the end of her long journey.
Repairing the valves would take several hours, and Matt decided to stayon the surface and put in a little bay on Quiriquina Island.
It was not necessary to reach the island before morning and when Dickrelieved Gaines at the motor, a call for half speed went through thespeaking tube to the motor room.
The young motorist studied his charts, then, with the surroundings ofthe islands clearly in mind, took the steering wheel himself and laidhis course by compass.
It was about five o'clock in the morning when the _Grampus_ rounded abluff headland and took a due east course across Tona Bay. QuiriquinaIsland loomed up clear and distinct against the gray dawn hovering inthe eastern skies.
The cove which Matt selected as a berth for the submarine while repairswere being made had a sloping beach of white sand. It was virtually abay within a bay, and the waters were as calm as those of an inlandlake.
As soon as the anchors were down, all hands came on deck to get a whiffof the morning air.
"We'd better have breakfast before we tackle the valves, hadn't we,Matt?" inquired Speake. "I know I can work better on a full stomach,and I suppose the rest of you can."
"Good idea, Speake," returned Matt. "I had thought about that, butsupposed you would like to loaf a little and not pen yourself up in thetorpedo room with an electric stove."
"Those confounded valves bother me," grumbled Speake, "and I couldn'tloaf and enjoy myself if I had to think about them."
"They bother me, too," added Glennie, "and I believe I'll go below andlook them over."
"I'll go with you," said Clackett. "We can make a preliminary surveyand then get busy right after breakfast. Plenty of chance to loafduring my watch below."
"Glad to see you fellows so industrious," laughed Matt. "Perhaps, ifyou are real smart, you can get those valves fixed by breakfast time,and the rest of us won't have to tinker with them."
"You'll be needed, Matt, when it comes to the fixing," answeredGlennie, as he climbed into the conning tower.
Clackett followed him.
"I guess I'll go down, too," yawned Gaines, "and catch forty winks ontop of the periscope-room locker. This morning air is fine, but I'msatisfied to take my share through the open hatch."
He followed Clackett into the tower. Dick, descending to the edge ofthe rounded deck, peered into the clear depths of the water below.
"I can see our cable, mates," said he, "and our anchor with one flukein the sand. Come on, Carl. Let's take a swim before breakfast."
"Nod me, Tick," answered Carl. "I feel like loafing, und shvimming isstoo mooch like vork."
"How about you, Matt?"
"I feel as Carl does," said Matt. "Take your swim if you want to, Dick,and Carl and I will be the anchor watch."
Dick was out of his clothes in a jiffy. "So long," he called, as hetook a "header" from the bow of the boat.
He was perfectly at home in the water, and when Matt saw him swimmingout toward a headland that walled in the cove on the south, he thoughtlittle of it. When he saw that Dick was intending to swim around thepoint, however, he stood up and called out a warning. But Dick onlylaughed and kept on until he was out of sight.
"He von't go so far dot he can't ged pack again," remarked Carl. "Heiss like a fish, Tick iss, und he feels pedder in der vater as oudt oofid."
Carl, for some days, had been wearing an outfit of sailor togs which hehad found in the slop chest of the submarine. He was trying to be asnautical as possible, so that he could "shiver his timbers" and "dashhis deadeyes" with the best of them when the _Grampus_ reached SanFrancisco.
"I can valk like a sailor," remarked Carl, getting up from his seat bythe tower, "und aboudt all I lack now iss to be aple to hitch oop mydrousers like vat a sailor does. How iss der vay oof it, Matt?"
"Never mind that part of it, Carl," laughed Matt. "You'll be enough ofa sailor at the end of this cruise, even if you don't know how to hitchup your trousers. Besides," and Matt squinted at him critically, "Idoubt if you could ever do the trick."
"Why, the trousers are too tight a fit around the waist."
"Yah, so, aber dey're so pig a fit oop und down dot I valk on derpottoms, und id iss eider hitch dem oop oder cut dem off. Now, vatch.Meppy id goes like dis."
Carl jumped into the air, grapped the band of the trousers with onehand in front and the other behind, and kicked out his legs. When hecame down, his feet were so far apart that they slipped on the roundedplates, and he went down and rolled over and over. Matt grabbed himjust in the nick of time to keep him out of the water.
"Look out," warned Matt, "or you'll take a swim whether you want to ornot."
"I guess dot I leaf der hitching pitzness oudt," said the chagrinedCarl, "aber id vas so bicturesque dot I vish I could manach id. Now,ven I----"
Carl was interrupted by a shout, wafted toward them from across thecove. He and Matt started up and saw Dick swimming in their directionwith all his might.
"What's the matter, Dick?" called Matt.
"Sharks!" came back the breathless answer.
Matt was no more than a second making up his mind what he should do.To help Dick by bringing the _Grampus_ closer to him was out of thequestion--disaster might overtake the young sailor before the anchorcould be lifted from the bottom.
"Ach, himmelblitzen!" murmured Carl fearfully. "Vat ve going to do,Matt?"
"Below with you, quick!" flung back the king of the motor boys."Glennie's rifle is in the periscope room. Get that and a coil of ropeand hustle back here."
Carl, shaking with excitement, hurried to carry out the order. As hevanished into the tower, Matt went forward toward the bow of the boat,keeping his keen eyes on Dick.
Motor Matt Makes Good; or, Another Victory For the Motor Boys Page 10
