Chapter XV: A Few Surprises

There were a few surprises in store for Motor Matt and his friends. The first one was sprung when Cassidy, shouting loudly from the beach, called Matt to the top of the conning tower and reported that there was no one in the makeshift tent.

Matt was dumbfounded for a moment.

"Jurgens and Whistler were there," he asserted. "We left them tied hand and foot and gagged when we came out to the _Grampus_. If they're not in the tent, Cassidy, then they must have freed themselves and gone off somewhere on the island. The island isn't so big but what you can find them."

"They're not on the island," asserted Cassidy. "We've combed it from end to end, an' we're ready to swear there ain't a livin' soul on the island but us three."

"It couldn't be that a boat has put in and taken them off, Cassidy," went on Matt. "No boat would have had time to do that. You'll certainly find them on the island if you look sharp."

Cassidy and his mates took another turn about the island, but with no better success. Jurgens and Whistler had mysteriously disappeared.

Giving up trying to locate the missing scoundrels, Matt had Cassidy, Burke and Harris tote the various parts of the air ship out to the _Grampus_. Some of the parts were loaded inside the boat, and the rest--too large to come down the hatch in the conning tower--were roped to the rounded deck.

This method of loading made it necessary for the _Grampus_ to keep on the surface of the water all the way to Palm Beach. Matt, however, had another plan in mind before going to Palm Beach, and as soon as the Hawk had been safely loaded he had a talk with Cassidy in the periscope room and led up to his plan. The result was another surprise for the three chums--one that was well-nigh overwhelming.

"I suppose you know, Cassidy," observed Matt, "why Jurgens stole the _Grampus_?"

Cassidy cocked up his eyes shrewdly at Matt.

"I know," said he, "but I don't reckon any one else does, exceptin' Cap'n Nemo, Jr., hisself."

"That's where you're mistaken, Cassidy," returned Matt. "Captain Nemo, Jr., or Mr. Townsend, as we have come to call him, told me and my pards all about it."

"Then I reckon that's the fust time he ever let the thing out."

"He had to tell us," went on Matt, "because he wanted to use our air ship in order to get to Turtle Key. With the Hawk, Townsend thought he could reach the Key before the _Grampus_ got there, and that we could then lie in wait for Jurgens and his men."

From this point, Matt rehearsed the adventures that had overtaken him and his chums and Townsend, bringing the recital down to the point where Jurgens and Whistler had been captured, and the attack made on the submarine.

Cassidy, Burke and Harris listened to the story with intense interest. When Matt was through, exclamations of wonder and surprise went up from the three men.

"Never heard of anythin' like that, dashed if I have!" averred Harris.

"Sounds like a fish story," asserted Burke, "only it has the facts to bear it out."

"You lads have gone through a lot for Cap'n Nemo, Jr.," said Cassidy, "an' you've not only done a lot for him, but you've likewise done a little somethin' for us fellers."

"How's that?" asked Matt.

"I'm purty sure Jurgens was plannin' to maroon us on the island, here. He an' his men had found out from us all they wanted to know about runnin' the ship, an' so, havin' no use for us, they wouldn't bother to keep us around. Yes, I'm sartain they was goin' to turn us adrift on the island; but you an' your mates, Motor Matt, saved us from that."

"Of course," said Matt, "we've got to go back to Palm Beach."

"Nacherly," agreed Cassidy, "if the old man is there. We'll take him, busted ankle an' all, into the _Grampus_ an' snatch him back to Philadelphy, or wherever else he wants to go."

"Before we do that," said Matt, "why can't we finish up this work for him?"

"I don't savvy what you mean," said Cassidy. "Ain't the work about all finished? You've got the boat back for him, an'----"

"But why not find Turtle Key, look into that cave and then go back able to report to him that there's no iron chest on the island."

The eyes of all three of the men grew wide as they surveyed Matt.

"Great sandpipers!" exclaimed Cassidy, "didn't you hear about that? I supposed you knowed."

"Supposed I knew what?" demanded Matt.

"Why, about that iron chest."

"What about it?"

"You come with me, son," and Cassidy reached for Matt's arm and led him out of the periscope room and into the corridor.

Halfway along the passage was a door leading off to the right. Cassidy opened this door, revealing a closet-like room with a box in its centre. On the box rested an ancient appearing iron chest, some twelve inches long and twelve inches square.

"What's that?" asked Matt.

"Can't ye tell by lookin' at it?" cried Cassidy. "Why, that's the iron chest that all this pother has been about."

"I knowed dot!" breathed Carl, from behind Matt, "I hat some feelings in my pones dot dere vas a chest like vat der baper say."

"Where did the chest come from?" continued Matt.

"From the cave on Turtle Key," explained Cassidy. "Jurgens went there an' got it. We was on our way north ag'in when Jurgens sighted that white flag o' your'n through the periscope an' put in at the island to investigate."

Cassidy laughed.

"Ye can see what that investigation cost him," he finished. "He lost the _Grampus_, and the iron chest. Motor Matt and his mates, by recapturin' the _Grampus_, got the hull bag o' tricks for the old man. Mebby he won't be tickled!"

"Wished I was Motor Matt," sighed Burke. "The old man's rich, an' he's allers full o' gratitude when any one does anythin' fer him."

"He can't do anything more for me than what he's agreed to," declared Matt, "and that is to pay my pards and me five thousand for the use of the Hawk."

"Well," said Cassidy, "if that's how you stand we'll let it go at that; but hadn't we better be thinkin' of gettin' back to Palm Beach? Cap'n Nemo, Jr., 'll be lookin' fer ye, an' if you don't show up he'll be worryin'."

"We'll start at once," answered Matt. "All I was delaying for was to get you to go to Turtle Key after the iron chest. Now that it isn't necessary to go there, the quicker we get to Palm Beach, the better."

"Go to your stations, men," said Cassidy to Burke and Harris. "By the same token, I'll go to mine."

Cassidy dropped down below into a small room which contained the gasoline motor, Burke went away to some other part of the ship and Harris climbed into the conning tower. The top of the tower was lowered, and Harris, peering through the lunettes, began communicating the outlook to Cassidy by means of push-buttons.

The fabric of the submarine began to shake and quiver under the spur of the engine. Slowly she backed off the shallow bar where she had grounded, gained deep water, turned and started out into the open sea.

"The trip back to Palm Beach," Harris called down to Matt and his chums, "is to be made with the deck awash. If we was to submerge the _Grampus_, I'd have to give Cassidy his orders by means of the periscope. There's push-buttons along the edge of the table, an' I can communicate with the engine room from there just as well as from up here."

Matt pushed his head under the black hood of the periscope. The top of the table he found to be a mirror, and upon it was reflected the surface of the sea from the _Grampus_ as a focal point clear out to the horizon's edge.

"This is a fine craft," spoke up Ferral, who had been strolling through the submarine. "That Captain Nemo, Jr., has surely got a head on him to be able to get up such a boat."

"I'm hoping, Dick," said Matt, "that we'll become better acquainted with the _Grampus_. Just now, though, I'd like to see if we can't get a little information out of the three men in the strong room."

Matt led the way to what Cassidy had called the "foc'sle," and the three boys were soon looking down on the scowling faces of the prisoners.

"You're the men who captured the _Grampus_ in the Inlet at Atlantic City, are you?" queried Matt.

"Don't talk with him, men," said one of the prisoners sharply to the others. "Whatever you say he'll use against you. Jest remember that and keep mum."

"Did you go to Atlantic City with Jurgens' moving-picture outfit?" Matt went on.

"Mebby we did an' mebby we didn't," answered the fellow who had arrogated to himself the post of spokesman. "We ain't tellin' anything we know an' you ain't findin' anything out, see? Take a sneak and leave us alone. You've raised hob with us and that ought to satisfy you."

"Have you any idea what became of Jurgens and Whistler?" Matt went on. "We captured them and left them on the island, but they vanished mysteriously, leaving you three men to bear the consequences of the lawless work Jurgens set on foot."

"We don't know anything about where Jurgens an' Whistler have gone," replied the prisoner. "If they've fooled you, I'm mighty glad of it."

That was all the satisfaction Matt could get. The escape of Jurgens and Whistler was bothering him not a little, and it was past his comprehension how the two men could have made such a complete get-away from the island.

As they themselves were the only ones who could explain it, the manner in which the _coup_ had been accomplished seemed likely to always remain a mystery.

The _Grampus_ was five hours making the trip across Florida Straits. When she tied up off Palm Beach it was midnight, and Matt, Dick and Carl bunked aboard the craft and went ashore in the morning with Cassidy to pay their respects to Townsend.