Stanley R. Matthews

“ Uncle Archie is my father's brother, while Uncle Jim is my mother's brother."
"Then your name ought to be Townsend instead of Harris."
"Ho, ho!" laughed Captain Sixty. "He's a keen one, girl, and no mistake!"
"Of course he's a keen one, Uncle Jim," replied the girl, "or Uncle Archie wouldn't have had him take a hand in this work. You see, Motor Matt," and here she turned to the youth, "Uncle Archie Townsend's real name is Harris, while my mother's maiden name was Sixty. So, you see——"
"Softly, girl, softly," breathed Captain Sixty. ”

“ The captain rolled away.
"The way to talk with him," said Dick resentfully, "is with a belaying pin. He looks like an old shellback, and I'll bet he's a bucko. But what's the message, mate?"
"A man in Boston wants to buy the Hawk," answered Matt, "and asks us to name our price. He says he knows Archibald Townsend, and refers us to him as to his financial standing."
"I could have kissed the book on that, Matt," said Dick soberly. "Keelhaul me if I don't wish we had that blessed little flying machine this minute." ”

“ At sixty feet down the Grampus lay as easily under the enormous water pressure as a man in a hammock. At the captain's suggestion, Matt stretched himself out on a blanket on the floor of the periscope room and, in spite of his worry, was soon asleep.
When he was aroused by Cassidy a gleam of day was shining down the conning-tower hatch.
"Speake is getting breakfast, Matt," said Cassidy, "and we're up at the surface again. The storm is over, and the cap'n is on deck, calling for you. Better go up." ”

“ Throwing the receiver back on the hooks, he left the hotel and ran toward the Fruit Company's dock. The warning bell of the Santa Maria was ringing, and deck hands were preparing to haul in the gang plank as he rushed across it.
"Py chiminy, aber dot vas some glose connections!" cried Carl, who, with Dick, was waiting and watching for Matt.
"A miss is as good as a mile," Matt replied. "Have you seen Miss Harris?"
"She's forward, matey," said Dick.
"We'll stow the luggage somewhere," went on Matt, "and then go forward ourselves and see the boat get away." ”

“ When Carl stepped off the ladder he came within one of stepping into the sea. Dick grabbed him, however, and heaved him over the gunwale and to a midship thwart by main force.
"Hi, there!" shouted the officer, coming back and leaning over the rail. "You can't go—it's not safe. We're going to catch it good and plenty in a minute."
"Bosh!" shouted Dick. "We can make it all right if you hurry."
Although Dick spoke confidently, for he was eager to join Matt on the Grampus even if it was necessary to take a chance or two, yet his practiced eye told him that fierce weather was imminent. ”

“ But, if any one on the schooner heard, they made no response. The craft kept to her course, hauling up every stitch of canvas possible.
"We've got her scared," remarked Captain Nemo, Jr., "for her skipper knows that if we could sink you with a torpedo we could also sink her."
"What d'you want?" demanded Sixty.
"We want you and your men as prisoners," replied the captain. "If Motor Matt's friend on the deck, there, is badly hurt, you'll all be held to answer for it. Not only that, but we want to examine the brig's cargo——"
"No need of that, captain," sung out Dick. ”

“ The captain showed signs of suppressed excitement.
"What was the latitude and longitude?" he asked. "Can you remember it?"
"No," said Matt. "I knew it did not concern me, so I failed to charge my mind with it."
"It concerned you more than you know. I am positive that Sixty lured you aboard the steamer because he feared you had learned something from the telegram which you could use to his disadvantage. What was your message—the one that Sixty got and read?" ”

“ There were many excited questions from the passengers as the boat was held alongside by one of the davit ropes and a sea ladder was dropped over. Sixty and his daughter, alone of all those aboard, showed little interest in the submarine.
The sailors in the boat called out to the officer on the deck that Dick and Carl were to be returned to the submarine, and the officer, with a look at the threatening sky, grumbled at the delay.
"One of the lads is enough to get their luggage," he called down. ”

“ In the afternoon the boys brought the bedding from the bunks in the charthouse and spread it on the deck to dry in the sun; then they went down into the 'tween-decks again and looked over as much of the cargo as was above water. They discovered that the freight of arms and ammunition was quite extensive. Carl could not work up much interest in the rifles and cartridges, but, while Dick was prowling through the wet hold looking them over, he dug out a box of tinned beef and a cask of ship's biscuit. ”

“ A raffle of tangled rope lay near him.
"We're on a derelict," reported Dick.
"Vat iss a terelick?"
"It's a wreck that failed to go to the bottom. Having a cargo that floats, it stays on the surface, a menace to every craft that happens to be in its vicinity."
"T'anks. Iss preakfast retty, Tick?"
"We'll have to find something for breakfast before we can get it ready. It was a stroke of luck that laid us aboard the derelict. We smashed into her, in the dark, and it couldn't have happened once in a thousand times. Fortune has taken a turn with us." ”

“ If those men with you know when they're well off, they'll help Dick Ferral get his chum into one of the boats and bring him over here to us."
"They'll do nothin' o' the kind!" shouted Sixty. "If you blow us up, you're goin' to blow up Motor Matt's friends along with us."
But the nine men with Sixty were of another way of thinking. Their only hope had been the schooner, and, now that she had mysteriously taken to flight, their next best plan was to fall in with the desires of their captor—the gray-haired man in the submarine.
Together the nine swarthy sailors started toward Carl. ”

“ If we don't like the looks of things, we can have the captain of the boat put us ashore."
"What's the trouble with the outlook, old ship?" queried Dick. "So far as I'm concerned, it was a shot between wind and water when I saw Sixty there at the rail; but I don't think that the fact of the old hunks being aboard the steamer is anything to worry us. He probably has business in Honduras as well as ourselves."
"I wish this boat was equipped with a wireless telegraph apparatus," muttered Matt. "There's a wireless station at Algiers, and we could flash a message to Townsend." ”

“ It was enough to make a man like Sixty try something desperate!"
"You were watching him?" queried Matt, "and for the government?"
"Yes. Sixty has been a trader in the South Seas, but lately he has caused the government to suspect him of an attempt to smuggle arms and ammunition to Central America to help out some revolutionists there. His brig, the Dolphin, cleared from New Orleans a few weeks ago, having dropped in at that port from across the [Pg 14] ocean, and has since mysteriously vanished. It has been something like a week since Sixty showed up in New Orleans again. ”

“ Gaines' room was aft, Clackett's was nearer the waist of the boat, and Speake was forward in the torpedo room.
There being no use for the torpedo room during peaceable cruising, it was transformed into a galley, and here Speake prepared the meals on an electric range.
During breakfast Speake relieved Gaines at the motor, and Cassidy took the lookout. Gaines, Clackett, Captain Nemo, Jr., and Matt crowded into the little messroom, dropped down on low stools and drank their hot coffee and ate their crackers and boiled eggs. ”

“ Cassidy descended, closing the hatch behind him. His face was long and ominous.
"This ends it till mornin', cap'n," said he.
"Exactly so, Cassidy," replied the captain; "but the case isn't hopeless, by any means." He whirled to a speaking tube. "Fill the tanks, Clackett," he ordered, "and descend to twenty yards. Shut off your engine, Gaines," he added through another tube; "we'll pass the night where we are, sixty feet down."
The orders were repeated back, and the Grampus began to sink. When the periscope ball was submerged an automatic valve closed the hollow mast against an inrush of water. ”

“ The question is, do you boys want to go along? You all, especially Motor Matt, will be of invaluable assistance, but I would not want that to influence you one way or the other."
There was a moment of silence.
"If you do not think you can go," went on Captain Nemo, Jr., with an under-note of disappointment in his voice, "I am to lay alongside the cruiser and put you aboard of her. She will be busy with the brig for the rest of the day."
"How long is the cruise to be, captain?" queried Matt.
"That is something I cannot tell," was the reply.
"To Central America?" asked Dick. ”

“ The boys who want to learn something from what they read, as well as to be interested by it, will never find another publication that will satisfy them so well as MOTOR STORIES. "Motor Matt" is not an impossible boy character. He is simply a youth who has had considerable training in a machine shop where motors of all kinds were repaired, and who is possessed of a genius for mechanics. ”

“ We're just as much in the dark now as ever."
During the afternoon the Santa Maria slipped through the lower end of South Pass into the gulf, and began to roll and wallow in the heavier swell.
Carl became indisposed. He declared that he wasn't seasick, but the motion of the boat annoyed him. He made for his stateroom with the announced intention of lying down and getting himself accustomed to the pitch and tumble. Dick, in the hope of discovering the whereabouts of Sixty and the girl, strolled forward. Matt was left alone on the stretch of deck aft of the bridge. ”

“ Originally, the brig had cleared from San Francisco.
"Dot mixes me all oop," muttered Carl, who had seated himself in a chair while listening to Dick's reading.
"Belize seems to be the place she was going to when she left New Orleans," said Dick. "It appears, too, that she took on canned goods in addition to mill work in Boston, and that both were for British Honduras. We'd better go down in the hold and hunt for those canned goods."
Carl was immensely delighted with the proposition; anything that had a prospect of food at the end of it always made a hit with him. ”

“ No hard feelin's?"
"None at all," answered Matt.
"I used to be skipper of the brig Dolphin, a hooker as sailed from any place to any place wherever there was a cargo to be picked up and carried. That's how I got the name o' captain. I've had a master's ticket, though, ever since I was twenty. Ysabel here"—Matt caught a sharp look from the girl directed at Sixty—"which is my pet name for Sadie," continued the captain, "had as fine a father as ever walked. He married a Spanish lady in Belize, and that's how Sadie looks Spanish and talks American. ”

“ Clackett, red-faced and perspiring, was hurrying toward him. There was a troubled, ominous look on Clackett's face.
"Where are Motor Matt and his two friends, Dick Ferral and Carl Pretzel?" cried the captain. "I need them on this cruise, and they understand the importance of their being here. Will they be along later, Clackett?"
"They'll not be along later, cap'n," answered Clackett. "You can wait for 'em as long as you please, an' the boys won't be showing up. Every minute you lose, too, the Santa Maria and Jim Sixty are gettin' farther and farther away from us." ”

“ I think this is about the strangest cruise the Grampus ever made—although, quite likely, she is in for one equally as strange."
"Vat's dot?" queried Carl, pricking up his ears.
Matt and Dick were equally interested.
"I have heard something on the cruiser that makes it advisable for me to proceed to Central America. The submarine can easily go that far without returning to the nearest port for fresh supplies. I am under sealed orders, and have only a hint as to what is required of me, but I imagine that the new work has something to do with the business that has just been accomplished. ”

“ Cassidy turned on a light from the storage batteries and an incandescent bulb flooded the periscope room.
Climbing the ladder into the conning tower, Matt stole a look through the lunettes. To see under water, contrary to the usual fiction on the subject, is impossible. Only a sombre void met Matt's eyes. By means of electric light and powerful reflectors Captain Nemo, Jr., could throw a gleam several yards through the lunettes ”

“ We've got his orders."
"I'd like to have the orders confirmed," said Matt grimly. "I tried to get Townsend over the phone just before I left the hotel, but, as luck would have it, the wire was busy."
"You've been taken all aback, same as though you'd been struck by a white squall," muttered Dick perplexedly. "I don't think that old flatfoot bucko ought to put you in such a taking, Matt."
"It wasn't Sixty alone that took me aback, Dick," answered Matt. "Miss Harris had more to do with that than Sixty had."
"Dit you see der young laty, Matt?" asked Carl, brightening. ”

“ If any one could pull through that storm and bring Carl along with him, it's Dick Ferral. We may not find them while the gale is on, but afterward we can cruise about and perhaps be able to pick them up. That is my hope, at all events."
Cassidy, rope in hand, was already on his way up the ladder. When he had taken up his position, the captain turned to Matt.
"That locker is our slop chest," said he, "and in it you will find some dry clothes. ”