The wreck, which must have lain for centuries there on the bottom, was covered with marine growth, yet, nevertheless, seemed wonderfully well preserved. The high bow and poop, covered with serpentlike lianes and creeping weeds, were erect in the water, for the galleon lay on an even keel. The ship’s two masts and steep bowsprit had been broken off, and the decks were a litter of weeds, shells, and sand.
The Grampus, cleaving the heavy submarine growth, had flung her sharp prow into the galleon’s side and was embedded almost to the flagstaff.
The captain and Bob descended silently into the periscope room.
“We jammed into an old wreck, did we?” queried Cassidy, calmly but with a look on his face which reflected the perturbation of his mind.
“Yes,” answered Bob. “Some Spanish ship went down here—perhaps loaded with treasure for across the sea.”
“Hardly loaded with treasure, Bob,” spoke up the captain. “This is the Spanish Main, and the reefs off Honduras offered shelter for many a pirate in the old days. This galleon, I am inclined to think, was stripped of her treasure by some buccaneer, and sunk. It is too bad that she was sunk in the course we happened to be taking.”
The rack of the useless motor ceased on an order13 from Bob; in the deep, deathlike silence that intervened, a wail came up from the tank room.
“Vat’s der madder mit us, Bob? Dit ve run indo a cave in der ocean? If ve can’t ged oudt, vat vill pecome of us?”
“We ran into an old Spanish ship, Carl,” answered Bob, “and we are so jammed in the side of the hulk that we haven’t been able, so far, to back out.”
“Meppy ve von’t nefer be aple to pack oudt! Meppy ve vas down here for keeps, hey? Nexdt dime I go down in some supmarines, you bed your life I make a vill before I shtart.”
Carl, white as a sheet and scared, came rolling into the periscope room. Dick likewise showed up from forward.
“Well, here we are!” said he; “I hadn’t any notion this was to be our last cruise.”
“It’s not,” answered Bob. “We’ll get out of this.”
He turned to Captain Nemo, junior, who was again seated quietly, his calm eyes on Steele.
“The power of the screw, unaided, will not serve to get us clear of the wreck,” said the captain. “What are you going to do, Bob?”
Bob thought for a moment. “Am I to have my way, captain?” he asked.
“Certainly. I want to see what you can do.”
“Speake! Gaines! Clackett!” called Bob. “Come up here, at once.”
From the engine room, the torpedo room, and the ballast room came the rest of the submarine’s crew. Their faces were gray with anxiety, but they were men of pluck and determination, and could be depended on to fight for life until the very last.
“Men,” said Bob, “we have rammed an old hulk that has been lying for centuries in the bottom of St. George’s Bay. The nose of the Grampus is caught and14 held in the wreck’s side, and the full power of the engine is not sufficient to pull us out. We shall have to try something else—something that will put a great strain on the steel shell of the submarine, considering the pressure the boat is under at this enormous depth. I am going to give some orders, and on the swiftness with which they are carried out our lives may depend. You will all go back to your stations, Carl with Clackett and Dick with Gaines; and when I shout the word ‘Ready!’ the engine will be started with all power astern. At the same instant, Clackett and Carl will open the pipes and admit air into the ballast tanks, and open the valves that let out the water. We may have to do all this several times, if necessary, but you fellows have got to be prompt in doing what you are told.”
Admiration was again reflected in Captain Nemo’s pale face. Leaning back against the steel wall of the periscope room, he settled himself quietly to await developments.
“Count on me,” said Clackett, as he and Carl disappeared.
“And on us,” said Gaines, leaving the periscope room with Dick.
Cassidy merely gave a nod and turned to his steering wheel. Bob went up into the tower and placed himself at one of the lunettes. His heart was beating against his ribs with trip-hammer blows, but his brain was cool and clear. When he had given the crew sufficient time to gain their stations, he lifted his voice loudly.
“Ready!”
The word rang through the periscope room and echoed clatteringly through the steel hull.
The propeller began to whirl like mad, and the sud15den opening of the ballast tanks depressed the free rear portion of the submarine.
For a full minute the wild struggle went on, and so shaken was the boat that it seemed as though she must fly in pieces. Then, abruptly, the Grampus leaped backward and upward, clearing the forestlike growth of seaweed at a gigantic bound.
The upward motion was felt by every one in the boat, and cries of exultation came to Bob’s ears in clamoring echoes.
Slipping like lightning down the ladder, he shouted to Gaines to stop the madly working engine and reverse it at a more leisurely speed.
Like a huge air bubble, the Grampus swung up and up, and when she emerged above the surface, and Bob could see sunlight through the dripping lunettes, he turned off the electric projector, opened the hatch and threw it back, and gulped down deep breaths of the warm, fresh air.
Once more slipping down the ladder, he saluted the captain.
“I turn the ship over to you, sir,” said he, and collapsed on a stool, mopping the perspiration from his face.
“You’re a brick!” grunted Cassidy, picking up the course for Belize.
“Hooray for Bob!” came a thrilling shout from somewhere in the bowels of the craft. For an instant, the steel walls echoed with the jubilant yells of Carl, Dick, Gaines, Speake, and Clackett.
“It came near to taking the ginger all out of me, captain,” breathed Bob. “The novelty of the thing was mighty trying.”
Captain Nemo, junior, still strangely pale, was regarding the youth fixedly. For some moments after the cheering ceased he said nothing; then, leaning16 abruptly forward, he caught Bob’s hand. The captain’s own hand was as cold as ice.
“Captain!” the young fellow exclaimed, starting up, “there’s something wrong with you! Do you feel faint or——”
The captain waved his hand deprecatingly, and the calm, inscrutable smile hovered about his thin lips.
“Let that pass for a moment, my lad,” said he. “I was testing the Grampus, but, more than that, I was likewise testing you. Since we picked up Carl and Dick, off the Dolphin, and before that, while we were cruising about trying to find them, you have been serving your apprenticeship on the submarine. I have always had the utmost confidence in you, Bob Steele, and I have now, I think, tested your knowledge of the Grampus in a manner which leaves no room for doubt. You are able to run the boat, and to extricate her from any difficulties in which she might become entangled, as well, if not better, than I could do myself.”
Bob, from the captain’s manner, had suspected that the gray-haired inventor of the craft had tried to bring out all that was in him. Captain Nemo, junior, of course, had not been able to forecast the trouble that was to overtake the submarine in the bottom of the bay, but this dangerous experience had served only to show Bob’s resourcefulness to better advantage.
“You are cool-headed in time of danger,” proceeded the captain, “and, no matter what goes wrong, your ability is always on tap and can be brought to bear instantly upon anything you desire to accomplish.”
The red ran into Bob’s face, and he waved a hand deprecatingly.
“I’m not a particle better than a lot of other fellows,” said he, “who try to use their eyes and hands and brains.”
“I expected you to say that, Bob,” continued the17 captain. “The test, in your case, was hardly necessary, for I have watched your work in a lot of trying situations—and it has always been the same, steady, resourceful, reliable. Just now, we are going to Belize, British Honduras, to carry out some work for our government. As I have already told you, I don’t know what that work is. Two sealed envelopes were given me by Captain Wynekoop of the U. S. cruiser Seminole. The first one told us to proceed to Belize. The next one, which I have here in my pocket, will instruct you relative to the work in prospect, and——”
“Instruct me?” broke in Bob startled.
The captain nodded.
“I have not recovered from the strange illness which overtook me in New Orleans, as a result of inhaling the poisonous odor given off by the head of that idol. I feel that another attack is coming upon me—I have felt it for several hours—and, inasmuch as the government is watching the work of the Grampus with the intention of buying her at a good round price if she makes good, our sealed orders must be carried out. For this work, Bob, you are my choice; you are to command the Grampus, do everything that you think—that you think——”
Captain Nemo, junior, paused, struggled with the words for a space, then drooped slowly forward and fell from his seat to the floor of the room. There he lay, unconscious, and breathing heavily.