Chapter XIV: Motor Matt's Success

The door to the steel chamber, as Matt remembered it, opened directly off the end of the narrow passage. The corridor was lighted with a couple of incandescent lamps so that Matt had no trouble in seeing what he was about.

Just as he laid his hand on the door Carl came into the passage. Matt turned to his chum, laid a finger on his lips in token of silence, and beckoned him to come close.

Just as Carl drew near Matt pushed open the door. Instantly there was a rush of feet and the young motorist was thrown heavily back against the Dutch boy. They both went down together on the steel floor; and, at the same moment, the electric lights faded out, leaving the corridor in darkness.

Only one man had rushed from the room at the end of the passage--of that Matt was positive. Where he had gone Matt did not know, but as soon as he could extricate himself from his entanglement with his Dutch pard the young motorist pushed on through the darkness and entered the chamber.

"Vere you vas, Matt?" called Carl, stumbling along the corridor. "It vas so tark I don'd peen aple to see my handt pehind my pack. Vich vay dit you go?"

"This way, Carl," shouted Matt.

"Vere iss der feller vat knocked us down?"

"I don't know, but it's a cinch that he's somewhere in the boat. He can't get away without passing through the room where Dick is, and, if he tries that----"

Matt broke off his words with an exclamation. He had stumbled over something on the floor.

Going down on his knees he groped over the object with his hands and discovered that it was the form of a man, as helplessly bound and gagged as were Jurgens and Whistler, in the tent on the island, at that moment.

With his hands Matt twisted the gag from the man's lips.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Cassidy's my name," was the breathless answer; "and who are you?"

"Motor Matt."

"Great hullaballoo!" muttered Cassidy. "How'd you get here?"

"There's too much of it to tell, just now. Where are Burke and Harris, Cassidy?"

"Right here alongside o' me. We've been trussed up like this for a day an 'two nights, an' my legs an' arms feel like they was paralyzed. Is Nemo, Jr., with you, Motor Matt?"

"No--only my two pards, Dick Ferral and Carl Pretzel. Jurgens and Whistler are captured, and we left them tied up, on the island."

"You never!" gasped Cassidy.

"That's the way of it," answered Matt. "How----"

"Well, if I ain't clean beat I don't want a cent. How'd you ever manage to do it?"

"How am I to get the lights turned on, Cassidy? I'd like to see what I'm doing."

"I could tell you how to turn on the lights, Motor Matt, but you'd be somethin' of a spell finding the place in the dark. Better cut me loose and leave that part of it to me. I'll snap on the lights while you're freein' Burke and Harris."

This advice seemed sound, and Matt used his knife carefully on the ropes that secured Cassidy's wrists and ankles.

He could hear Cassidy getting up, and his exclamation of relief was loud and hearty.

"Now, by thunder," growled Cassidy, "we're havin' our innings. I reckon Jurgens'll find that his high-handed game o' his ain't all one-sided. I'll go turn on the lights, Motor Matt," and Cassidy could be heard leaving the room and passing into the corridor.

Matt and Carl groped about until they had found the other two prisoners, and while they were freeing them the lights were suddenly turned on.

"I'm Burke," said one of the men.

"Harris, that's me," said the other.

"How many men did Jurgens have on the submarine with him?" asked Matt.

"The' was four of 'em," replied Harris, standing erect and rubbing his cramped limbs. "The three that come first an' pulled the wool over Cassidy's eyes with that letter, an' then Whistler. That's all of 'em, Motor Matt."

"Jurgens and Whistler have been captured," went on Matt, "and one of my friends has another in the room below the conning tower. That leaves two more. Have you any idea where they are?"

This question was answered by a terrific clamor from some point in the forward part of the ship. Above the noise broke the sudden report of a revolver, echoing loudly between the steel decks and bulkheads.

"Here they are, men!" came the voice of Cassidy, husky and breathless as though he was fighting. "Here's t'other two of 'em in the torpedo room, tryin' ter get out the bow port."

"The torpedo room!" shouted Burke.

"Hike for the torpedo room!" roared Harris.

The two men flung past Matt and Carl and raced along the corridor.

"I guess there are enough of them to capture the two remaining members of the gang, Carl," said Matt. "Pick up some of those ropes and we'll go and put them on the fellow Dick is standing guard over."

"Dot's me!" boomed Carl, gathering up the ropes and hurrying after Matt.

They found that Dick still had his prisoner safely in hand.

"He nearly slipped his hawse, though," said Dick, "when the lights went out, but I hung to him until the lights were turned on again. Did you find Cassidy, Burke and Harris, Matt?"

"Yes," answered Matt. "They were in the same room where Holcomb and I were put when Jurgens brought us aboard the _Grampus_. We've released the three of them and they are now making prisoners of the two last members of Jurgens' gang. They're fighting in the torpedo room."

"Glory!" cried Ferral. "If any one had told me we could have done this, I wouldn't have believed it. It's the biggest thing we've yet passed to our credit, matey."

"Well, before we congratulate ourselves too much, suppose we make sure of the prisoners we have? Get the ropes on that fellow, Dick, and then you and Carl drag him to the room from which we just took Cassidy, Burke and Harris. I'm going to the torpedo room and see how matters are progressing."

While Carl and Dick were busy with their prisoner, Matt made his way forward along the passage to the torpedo room. When he opened the door and stepped into the place he found that the scrimmage was all over. Cassidy, Burke and Harris had captured the two men and were busy making them secure. Leaving the work to Burke and Harris, Cassidy arose to his feet and stepped close to Matt.

"Your hand, youngster!" said he, cordially, reaching out one of his paws. "You've turned a big thing--I don't know how big, nor how you done it, but I reckon all that'll come out afore long. These fellers," and here Cassidy waved an angry hand toward the two prisoners, "was two of the three that breezed up to me on the wharf at the Inlet an' flashed a letter that claimed to be from Nemo, Jr. The letter informed me that the three men had been hired for part o' the crew o' the _Grampus_, an' that they was to come aboard and I was to show 'em the ropes. Well, they got me. I ain't overly good at reading writin', but I managed to make out what that letter said an' didn't have sense enough to know it wasn't writ by the cap'n's hand.

"Them three Injuns come aboard. I took one of 'em to show him the ropes, Burke took another, and Harris took the third. The same thing that happened to Harris an' Burke likewise happened to me. When I wasn't lookin', the gent I was conductin' around an' explainin' things to rapped me over the skull from behind. When I come to I was in the torpedo room, along with Burke an' Harris. Bymby we was took out o' here into the periscope room, an' from there into the foc'sle, which ain't a foc'sle at all in the original meanin' o' the word, but which we calls that on account o' it's bein' sleepin' quarters fer the hands.

"A little later the _Grampus_ got under headway, an' then I was waited on by Whistler an' conducted to the motor at the p'int of a gun an' told to keep the motor goin' and obey orders. There wasn't anything else for me to do. The boat was in the hands of the enemy. Jurgens had got the best of the old man, an' I knowed what Jurgens' game was.

"One of Jurgens' men watched me handlin' the motor, an' finally made out to take it hisself. Then, when that happened, I was taken back to the foc'sle an' the lashings was put onto me again. Bymby, Harris and Burke was brought in an' treated in the same way. Like me, they had learned some o' Jurgens' men how to do the work on the _Grampus_, an' we was sidetracked because we wasn't needed an' couldn't be trusted."

"How did Jurgens come to stop at this island?" Matt asked.

"He seen the white flag an' got curious."

"How did he see the flag if the _Grampus_ was under water?"

"Through the periscope."

"Is that red ball on top of the staff the periscope?"

"It's part of it. Jurgens seen the flag through that, an' bein' of a cur'ous disposition he put in to investigate. Three of the gang was left to look after Burke, Harris an' me, an' Jurgens an' Whistler went ashore. Now, son, you can open up an' explain how you happened to be on the island, an' how you managed to capture Jurgens an' Whistler, so----"

"I think you'd better go ashore and get Jurgens and Whistler, Cassidy," interrupted Matt. "If we left them there too long they might succeed in getting away. You'll find them in a makeshift tent, by the three palm trees."

"We'll get 'em, Matt, but fust off we'll carry these two fellers to the foc'sle. Drag 'em along, Burke, you an' Harris," Cassidy added to his mates.

The men were dragged to the steel chamber and thrown into it to keep Ferral's prisoner company. This done, Cassidy, Burke and Harris climbed out of the conning tower, descended the ladder and went ashore.