CHAPTER XIV.
ENGLISH REACH.
When safely beyond Punta Arenas, the _Grampus_ arose to the surfaceand rode as high as completely empty ballast tanks would let her. Thehigher she was in the water the more speed she would develop--and speedwas the one crying need at that time.
Luck had favored the chums in Punta Arenas, and all were hoping thatthe good fortune would hold until they passed the western end of thestrait. But in this they were destined to be disappointed.
With everything working perfectly they passed Port Famine, and, alittle later, the southernmost point of South America that enters thestrait--Cape Froward. Here the weather usually changes, but it did notchange for Motor Matt and his friends. They had, what was rare in thosewaters, a fair day, which, so far as the barometer could foretell, waslikely to hold.
But after passing Cape Froward, and while Mount Sarmiento's snowycrown was still visible in the distance, the motor developed a seriouscomplaint. It refused absolutely to run, and the trouble was too muchfor Gaines and Dick. Matt had to go down and give the machinery hispersonal attention.
The batteries were not working properly. Matt replaced some of thecells. That, however, did not remedy the matter. Further examinationdeveloped carburetter trouble, and, as the examination continued, oneill after another showed itself until it seemed as though every part ofthe motor had gone into a decline.
Matt, of course, remedied the matter, but it took hours of time andmade it impossible for the _Grampus_ to glide into the waters of thePacific that day.
After supper, smothering their disappointment as best they could, thesubmarine descended to the bottom according to her usual fashion, andher crew had supper together in the periscope chamber.
"How long does it take a good fast steamer to sail around the Horn?"asked Speake.
"About a year, I guess," grinned Dick. "It would depend on the numberof sails the steamer had. Probably she could steam around in two orthree days."
"From that," spoke up Clackett, "I should infer that the Jap boat hashad time to get somewhere near the end of the strait and lay for us?"
"It's hard to tell where the Jap steamer is," said Matt. "We've donethe best we can, so let's not borrow any trouble. Our periscope ball isa pretty small thing for the crew of the steamer to see. We could passwithin a mile of the Japs and they'd never know we were anywhere intheir vicinity."
"We'll get through, somehow, mates," averred Dick cheerfully. "Afterwe pulled off that little game in Punta Arenas, I'm beginning to thinkthere isn't anything we can't do."
"There'll be more accidents," said Gaines seriously. "Something elsewill happen to the machinery. I've noticed always that motor troublescome in pairs."
"Why, Gaines," laughed Matt, "our last motor troubles came in bunchesof a dozen! Every part of the motor seemed to have developed aweakness."
"They all came at the same time," continued Gaines, with superstitiousfirmness. "There'll be something else, you mark what I'm saying."
The following morning there was another early start. Everything wentswimmingly for several hours; then, on rounding a particularly boldheadland, Speake, who was in the conning tower, steering, saw somethingwhich nearly caused him to fall off the ladder.
"Oh, Christopher!" he called down the hatch. "Look, Matt!"
Matt and Glennie both sprang to the periscope, drawn there by a quickjump on account of the wild alarm that throbbed in Speake's voice.
English Reach lay ahead of the _Grampus_, and there, out across thesurface of the water, quietly and expectantly waiting, was the Japsteamer!
Speake had been on the lookout, on the crest of the hill at GallegoBay, at the time the steamer had been raised the other time. Herecognized her on the instant.
There was a Chilian flag flying, and from a swift movement of men overthe steamer's decks it was certain that the _Grampus_ had been seen.
"They see us now," said Matt, "but they won't in a minute. Clackett,"he called through the tank-room tube, "we'll go down the usual depthfor periscope work."
Matt's voice was calm and steady, in spite of the fact that the thingfor which he had planned in Gallegos Bay--namely, the avoiding of thesteamer--had failed.
Minutes passed without bringing the usual swish of water filling theballast tanks. Through the periscope Matt could see that the Japs werelowering a boat. Speake had come down into the periscope room, closingthe hatch behind him in preparation for a dive. He stood with his handon the wheel and looking over Matt's shoulder.
"What's the matter, Clackett?" called Matt.
"The intake valves won't work!" came back the disgusted voice ofClackett.
Matt ran down to give his personal attention to the matter. For a fewminutes he struggled with the valves, but all to no purpose.
"I'll get at the bottom of this trouble," declared Matt, "if it takes aleg."
"I told you something else would happen," called Gaines from the motorroom. "That's what it is--tank trouble."
"And just when we need the tanks," said Matt. "That Jap boat is closeby, and we ought to be under the surface."
Matt, seeing a way whereby he thought the valve trouble might beremedied, was just beginning a new line of attack when Glennie calledfrantically through the tube:
"_Do_ something, Matt! One boat is on its way to us from the steamer,and another is dropped into the water. If you can't do anything downthere, then come up here."
Matt turned to Dick, explained to him what his new idea was regardingthe valve trouble, asked him to work along that line, and then hurriedup to the periscope room.
Speake was in the room, hardly knowing what to do.
"If we try to run," said he, "the Jap steamer will catch us, and if wedon't run, the rowboats will be on top of us. If we can't dive, Matt,we're in another kind of a hole."
"Don't lose your nerve, Speake," said Matt. "Go down and see if you canhelp Dick. Glennie will go up into the tower and steer. I'm for thedeck to watch and see how matters progress."
"I'm for der teck, too!" declared Carl, who happened, at that moment,to be in the periscope room.
He had a keen scent for trouble, and always tried hard to be aroundwhenever any was going to happen.
Without paying much attention to Carl, Matt opened the locker and tookout the submarine's copy of the Stars and Stripes.
"If the Sons of the Rising Sun try any of their old tactics," saidMatt, "I'll make it plain that it's a ship carrying Old Glory."
"What do they care for any flag?" demanded Glennie. "Why, they'reflying the Chilian flag now, and every man of them is got up in Chiliannaval uniform. It's hard to tell them from the real thing, at adistance, too."
Matt ran up the ladder, gained the deck, and bent the flag to thehalyards. Presently he had it flying, and drew back from the staff tolook at the approaching boats.
Carl was on the after deck. In order, perhaps, to make himself lookmore nautical, the Dutch boy had crowded himself into sailor clothes.They were too big for him, up and down, and too small the other way.
Glennie, braced in the top of the conning tower, was running the boatfrom that position.
The first boat that had put off from the steamer, and consequently thenearest one to the submarine, contained an officer and two sailors.
They were rigged out in genuine Chilian style, and Matt had to admitto himself that the imitation was admirable--so admirable, in fact,that he would have been deceived had he not had prior knowledge of theidentity of the steamer.
The submarine's motor was doing her best, but the craft had to followthe contour of the coast, and this threw her nearer and nearer thefirst of the approaching rowboats.
"We're in for it, Matt," said Glennie grimly.
"We'll try and keep ourselves out of harm until our diving gear is putin shape, Glennie," Matt answered. "After that we'll drop away andleave our Jap friends up above."
"Vell, vat oof der tiving gear don'd vas got retty in time, Matt?"asked Carl.
"Don't cross th
at bridge until you get to it, Carl. If the Stars andStripes can't protect us on a peaceable cruise, then the Sons of theRising Sun are taking long chances and running big risks."
A hail came from across the water. The officer in the nearest boat wasstanding and trumpeting through his hands.
"Spanish!" exclaimed Glennie. "They're not overlooking many details,those Japs. They want to know what boat this is, Matt."
"Just as if they didn't know!" muttered Matt. "Tell them, Glennie. Thenask them what boat they're from."
Glennie followed his orders, receiving some more Spanish talk from theofficer.
"He says," reported Glennie, "that he's Captain Sandoval, of theChilian war ship _Salvadore_, and, he says further, that he has beenrequested by his government to meet us at the Pacific end of the straitand give us safe conduct to Valparaiso."
"Talk about nerve!" murmured Matt. "We've seen Sandoval, and Sandoval'sship, the _Salvadore_, and we know what sort of a bold game ourfriends, the Japs, are playing. Ask him how he knew we were comingthrough the strait."
"He replies," pursued Glennie, "that our government communicated withhis, and requested that a Chilian gunboat protect the _Grampus_ fromJap miscreants known as Sons of the Rising Sun."
"Continued displays of nerve," murmured Matt, "and of the monumentalorder. Tell him we don't want his safe conduct, and to sheer away fromus."
The first boat was almost upon the submarine. Glennie repeated Matt'sorder.
"The officer insists on coming aboard," said the ensign.
"Just tell him we know he's a Jap, and that we left the _Salvadore_ andCaptain Sandoval at Punta Arenas."
There was no waiting on the part of the Japs in the rowboat for Matt'swords to be translated into Spanish. The Japs took the words as theyfell from the lips of the king of the motor boys, dropped their mask,and the sailors fell to with their oars.
"Stave in their boat, Glennie!" called Matt, his eyes flashing. "I hateto do it, but it's all we can do to avoid trouble. The sailors in theother boat will pick up these when they drop in the water."
"Dot's der dicket!" chirruped Carl, who had been shaking his fists atthe Japs and taunting them with various epithets. "Sink der poat! Den,afder dot, sink der odder poat; und vind oop by drowing a dorpeto indoder shdeamer. Make some cleanoops vile you vas aboudt id."
Glennie so manoeuvred the _Grampus_ that her sharp prow struck therowboat broadside on. Instead of staving the boat, however, the_Grampus_ ran under her, the forward part of the small boat's keelsliding over the deck. All the Japs were hurled into the water.
"Clear away the boat if you can!" shouted Glennie. "Hooray for MotorMatt!"
The _Grampus_ flung onward. Matt started ahead to clear the rowboat offthe deck, but, before he could reach her, she had cleared herself.
The speed of the submarine and the drag of the rowboat had accomplishedthe work.
"Don't cheer too soon, Glennie!" warned Matt. "Look behind you!"
Glennie turned in the tower and cast a glance rearward. A war ship wasjust rounding the headland, enveloping the top of the uplift in a densecloud of black smoke.
"The _Salvadore_!" fluttered Glennie, his despairing eyes returning toMatt.
"Anyhow," said Matt, "we're saved from the Sons of the Rising Sun. Lookat them! That rowboat is hardly taking the necessary time to pick upthe Japs we knocked into the water, she's so anxious to get back to thesteamer."
"I don'd know vich gifs me der mosdt colt chills," cried Carl, "derSons oof der Rising Sun oder der fellers on der _Salfatore_!"
Motor Matt's Defiance; or, Around the Horn Page 14
