The Boy Aviators on Secret Service; Or, Working with Wireless
Page 29
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE LAST OF BELLMAN'S CREW.
"Up anchor, quick!" shouted Lieutenant Selby, springing into the conningtower. The shrill whistle of the bos'un's pipe sounded at the samemoment and in a second the ship that had been so still and inert was amaelstrom of activity. The anchor was broken out and long before it waslanded home at the catheads the _Tarantula_, a long line of white foamstreaking aft from each side of her sharp bow, was steering through thewater in pursuit of the flying submarine.
Lieutenant Selby's first action after they were under way had been toorder the searchlight played on the chase and kept on her. Fortunatelythe phosphorescent glow left on the water by the submarine, as shedashed away, made her course as plain as day and the man operating thesearchlight had no difficulty in finding her.
As the light played about her the watchers on the _Tarantula_, made outtwo forms standing on her railed-in back.
"Bellman!" exclaimed Frank as his eyes fell on the taller of the two.
"Foyashi, the scoundrel," was Lieutenant Chapin's recognition of theshorter one.
"We'll get 'em if we blow the _Tarantula_ up," exclaimed LieutenantSelby tensely, as he shouted down to the engineer, "more steam, Mac."
The pace was terrific, moreover it was dangerous navigation, buteveryone aboard well knew that they would have to catch the submarinebefore she got out of the waters where she did not dare to dive, andthere was not a man aboard that was not willing, in the heat of thechase, to take the chance of running aground.
Lieutenant Selby himself had taken the wheel from the man who had heldit when the chase began and like greyhound and hare the destroyer andthe submarine raced along.
"Try them with the bow gun," suggested Lieutenant Chapin to hisassociate.
"A good idea, old man," was the reply, and old Bob Adams, a seamy-facedveteran, was called aft and promised unlimited tobacco and spendingmoney if he could hit the submarine and "wing" her. Old Adams was a manof few words and didn't change his usual habit of silence, as the gunwas made ready for him. It was a Hotchkiss rapid-fire capable ofpiercing steel-armor at half-a-mile and the submarine's broad glisteningback offered a good mark.
"Are you ready, Adams?" asked the lieutenant, as after a lot ofsquinting and adjustment the old man stood with the firing cord in hishand.
"Bin ready, tew minuts," was the reply.
"Go ahead then."
The Hotchkiss spat viciously, but the water spurted up a good ten feetof the mark.
The shot had missed.
Old Adams didn't change a muscle of his face, though he knew every eyeon ship but that of the helmsman was on him. He spat over the side,ruminatively, and then pointed the gun, once more.
By this time Bellman and his companion had seen there was mischiefbehind and had ducked through the slide of their craft and screwed itdown. The lieutenant rightly interpreted this as a signal that in a fewminutes the submarine would dive. If once she did so the chances againsttheir getting her again would be remote in the extreme.
"Get her this time, Adams," he beseeched.
"I'll do my best, sir;" said the old salt as the gun cracked once more.
This time a cheer went up. The submarine had been hit.
"Again! Let her have it!" yelled Lieutenant Selby, carried away byexcitement.
Again and again the Hotchkiss viciously cracked and spat fire and everytime brought the _Tarantula_ nearer to the crippled diver. It wasevident that the submarine could not last much longer. Already her speedwas a mere crawl. One of Adams' projectiles must have penetrated to herengine-room or else,--as was more likely,--her crew had mutinied.
Suddenly the slide on her back opened and through it poured a crowd ofthe little brown men who had been employed at Bellman's Island. Theycried, they screamed appeals of aid to the pursuing ship, which had ofcourse ceased firing as human figures appeared.
"They want us to take 'em aboard, sir," said old Adams, who had servedin the far East and understood their appeals. "They say they are sinkingand that their engineer is killed."
"Lower the boats," ordered Selby, "we'll get them off. I won't see mendrown if I can help it."
A coatless man suddenly appeared among the searchlight illumined crowdon the back of the submarine. It was Bellman. By his side was Foyashi,also coatless and desperate.
"Back, you yellow dogs. Get back below!" yelled Bellman, flourishing arevolver.
A beseeching cry went up.
"We'll go to the bottom together," shouted Bellman, apparently besidehimself. The next instant his revolver cracked and two of the littlebrown men fell across the steel plates. What happened then was like anightmare to the boys who stood watching in horrified amazement. Thewhole swarming crowd of panic-stricken men seized Bellman and Foyashiand paying no attention to their despairing cries hurled them overboard.
In vain the wretches tried to clasp the sides of the wounded submarineand haul themselves back on deck. They were knocked off each time bytheir crazed followers. Before the boats from the _Tarantula_ couldreach them they both had disappeared. In the submarine's engine-room JobScudder, too, lay dead--killed beside his engines at Adams' firstsuccessful shot.
The _Tarantula_ anchored there for the night and the boats rowed aboutseeking for the lost men but their bodies did not reappear and doubtlessthe swift current swept them out to sea. Early the next day the boys andthe officers rowed over to the submarine, whose crew was now installedon board the _Tarantula_ and searched her thoroughly. She had settled inshallow water and access to her was easy through the top plate.
Their diligence was rewarded by the discovery in a steel bound chest,that evidently had belonged to Bellman, of the long missing formula ofChapinite. They found, too, unmistakable proofs that the governmentwhich the authorities had suspected all along had really been the man'semployer. How he drifted into their service, was, of course, onlysurmise. The submarine was laden with four gross of straw-wrapped boxescontaining enough of the explosive to have blown up the navies of theworld, if mixed with the right quantity of gunpowder. At LieutenantSelby's suggestion the boxes were weighted and sunk to the bottom of theGulf of Mexico the next day where they still lie. It was too dangerous acargo to carry in the form the daring Bellman had packed it.
As for Pork Chops and Quatty, before the _Tarantula_ sailed their heartswere made glad by presents of rifles, revolvers and ammunition andpermission to take possession of the canoes and all the duffle the boyshad left at Camp Walrus. Pork Chops had been so fascinated by Quatty'stales of life among the Seminoles that he had decided to cast in his lotwith him and, on condition that Quatty gave him a proper introduction tothe tribe, to go shares on the _Carrier Dove_ with him after theyfetched her from her anchorage.
Ben Stubbs and the boys, in the _Tarantula's_ launch, early the next daywent back to the sand-spit where the _Golden Eagle II_ had been beachedand dismantled her, as soon as the inspection of the submarine wascompleted. Packed in sections she was placed aboard the destroyertogether with the field wireless which was fetched from Camp Walrus, byLathrop and the negroes.
That evening just as the group of herons, to which the boys had grown soaccustomed, were circling above their roosting-places, the _Tarantula_with a long blast of her siren, swung out of the channel into theshimmering gold of the Gulf. Behind them lay the black outlines of thehalf-submerged submarine. Forward on deck, squatted the little brown menwho were to be set ashore at the first convenient port, as they all hadplenty of money to get back to their own country.
The _Tarantula's_ destination was Hampton Roads, from where the boys andLieutenant Chapin were to hurry to Washington and relate the wholestory. As for Billy Barnes, he was already busy writing out what hecalled "The biggest beat of the ages, the recovery of Lieutenant Chapinand the Loss of the Mysterious Submarine."
"It's good for a whole front page," he declared, "with pictures of allof us and 'by William Barnes,' at the top."
"What ar
e you thinking of, Frank, old boy?" asked Harry as the destroyerplunged steadily forward through the night,--homeward bound.
Frank laughed, although his thoughts had been grave.
"That we have earned a holiday," he said, "let's go on a hunting trip,some place."
"Where?" inquired Harry.
"Oh, anywhere--what's the matter with Africa?"
"Great! hunting by aeroplane!" exclaimed Harry, "and we'll take thebunch along. Hurray! for the BOY AVIATORS IN AFRICA; or, ON AN AERIALIVORY TRAIL."
THE END.
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THE BOY INVENTORS' WIRELESS TELEGRAPH.
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