Harry uttered a sharp cry as he stumbled forward along the steep incline of the floor. It seemed as if some huge power had grasped the stern of the craft, raising it until the vessel tilted forward at an angle which rendered walking impossible.
All the boys were thrown toward the forward end of the vessel, where Jimmie was located. Ned and Jack lost their footing. They rolled awkwardly to the forward bulkhead. Harry and Frank managed to remain upright by hurriedly grasping at parts of the machinery or at stanchions. Their progress was undignified as well as sudden.
“What’s up?” sharply questioned Jimmie, regaining his feet.
“The stern’s up!” facetiously replied Jack, also struggling to a standing position. “Is anybody hurt?” the boy continued.
A brief examination disclosed the fact that beyond a few minor bruises none of the boys had been seriously injured. Their first care was for each other. All were glad to find no one badly hurt.
“What on earth can have happened to us?” asked Ned, peering from a port light on the starboard side. “Did we collide with something?”
“I don’t believe we did,” returned Harry. “There wasn’t any bump as if we’d run into another object. We just stopped!”
“And then the stern went up into the air and stayed there!” put in Jack. “Something’s got us by the stern and won’t let go!”
“I think I know what it is!” announced Frank. “What is it they call these fishermen with a big net dragging around?”
“Fishermen!” answered Jimmie, with a grin.
“Stop your nonsense!” ordered Frank, administering a friendly punch to his red-headed comrade. “I mean the fellows with a big drag net!”
“Trawlers is the word you want, Frank!” said Jimmie.
“That’s it!” agreed Frank. “I’ll bet we’re tangled in one of their nets. Maybe we can’t get loose again, either,” he added.
“Don’t you believe it!” scorned Jimmie. “If it was a fisherman had hold of us, we’d be yanked around pretty lively. I think it is that rope we saw hanging in front of the port light!”
“I believe you’re right, Jimmie!” Ned put in as he gazed through the heavy glass on the port side. “I can see that we’re swinging close to the mainmast. There is no motion to the boat, so that makes me think your solution is about right. Now to get loose!”
“Yes, I agree with you!” stated Harry. “But how? If your assumption is correct, we’ve got a big piece of line wound around the outboard end of the shaft. It is probably more or less tangled up in the propeller also. We can’t turn the engines over!”
“Maybe we could throw out the clutch and turn the shaft backwards enough to unwind the line!” suggested Frank.
“I’m in favor of rising to the surface if the slack of line will permit,” offered Jack. “We could then open the hatchway. It would be easy enough from there to clear the line from the screw.”
“That’s probably the best way out of it,” commented Ned. “Suppose we try that. Harry, can we rise as Jack suggests?”
“I don’t know,” came Harry’s hesitating reply. “I’ll try!”
Accordingly the boy clambered from his position near the forward bulkhead to the compartment amidships, where the pumps were located. A shift of valves followed by a touch on the levers connecting the storage batteries with the electric pumps started the process of emptying the ballast tanks.
Almost instantly the forward end of the craft began to rise. Very shortly the deck was in a level position. Then, as Harry continued to empty the water ballast, Frank and Ned, assisted by Jimmie and Jack, threw the clutch on the propeller shaft out of contact in order to permit the tail shaft to turn without moving the engines.
They then endeavored to turn the portion of the shaft which projected through the stern bearing in the back up motion to free the propeller. They hoped thus to release the rope which they believed to be wound around the outboard portion of the shaft.
Strive as they might, however, the shaft stubbornly refused to move. Their utmost efforts were unavailing.
At length, out of breath and exhausted, Ned sank back upon a locker. He looked at his companions with a curious expression.
“What’s the matter, Ned?” inquired Jack anxiously. “Are you ill?”
“I feel badly, boys,” replied Ned. “Unless we can devise some means to free that line from the shaft, we are in a pretty tight fix!”
“How near the surface can you bring the boat, Harry?” asked Frank.
“The gauges show that we’re about two and a half fathoms down at present,” replied Harry. “I have pumped a lot more water out than would ordinarily be required to bring us to the surface.”
“Then we must be held by that line!” declared Ned.
“Let’s try some other maneuver with the ship before we give up!” put in Jack. “We’re not half though our experiments yet!”
“All right, what’ll you try?” asked Ned in a despairing tone.
“I don’t know,” was the answer. “But we’re going to do something to help get us out of this fix. How would it do to fill the tanks to sink us as far as we can go? Then we could empty them in a hurry, which would make the boat rise swiftly. The jounce would perhaps break the line and let us up so we could get some fresh air.”
“If we don’t get some fresh air pretty soon, we’ll have to do something desperate. The reserve tank is nearly exhausted!”
In compliance with Jack’s suggestion, the ballast tanks were again filled. Gradually the “U-13” descended to the bottom. As the deck began to tilt forward, as it had done when the craft was first stopped, Harry threw into operation every pump that could be used to empty the water from the ballast tanks. The boat rose rapidly.
With a jerk that nearly threw the boys off their feet, the “U-13” came to a rest. The gauges still showed the same depth as before.
Ned’s face turned ashen as he sank upon a locker. The others gathered around him, expressing sympathy. The boy was clearly distressed.
“Never mind, Ned!” spoke up Frank. “We’re coming out all right! The only trouble is that we haven’t tried the right thing yet!”
“But I can’t seem to think of a thing to do in this case,” protested the other. “I’m all out of ideas! I’m sorry that we tried to follow that other submarine. I wish we had taken Jimmie’s advice!”
“Never mind that now, Ned. We’re close to the surface. If it becomes necessary, I will volunteer to be shot out of the torpedo tube. I can rise to the surface, swim about until I get my wind again, and then dive and cut the rope. That will release the whole ship!”
“Jimmie, that’s awfully good of you to offer that, but I feel that I should be the one to do it,” was Ned’s reply.
“No, sir!” declared Jimmie promptly. “You’re in no condition to attempt anything like that. You’re worried, and your heart action is not right just now. My mind is a blank, and my heart is as sound as a bullet! I’m just the one for the job!”
As if the matter were understood, Jimmie began divesting himself of his clothing. He deposited his jacket on the locker beside Ned.
“Harry,” he said, turning to his chum, “will you see that the torpedo tube is connected up and in working order? You might try a discharge for practice. We can spare a little of this air!”
By the time Jimmie had stripped and secured a knife to a belt about his waist, Harry pronounced the tube ready for operation.
“Now, fellows,” said Jimmie, shaking hands with his chums, “there’s about one chance in a million that I won’t get through this all right. If you are not up to the surface in five minutes, you may know that I’ve failed. Then you’d better send out another lad!”
“Me next!” shouted Jack, beginning to remove his shoes.
Harry was peering from the heavy glass protecting the forward porthole. As Jimmie stepped forward to enter the torpedo tube, Harry held up a warning hand. He turned an anxious face to his friends.
“There’s something outside here!” he announced in an anxious tone. “I saw it once, but didn’t get a clear view!”
“What did it look like?” asked Jimmie. “Is it alive?”
“I’m not sure, but I think it’s another submarine!”
“Probably the real ‘U-13’ come up to look us over. Never mind those fellows. I’m going ahead and cut this wagon loose!”
“Wait a minute!” cried Ned. “I see the craft over here to starboard. It’s a peculiar vessel, too! I think I see a man!”
“I see him, too!” declared Frank from a porthole a short distance aft. “Do you suppose he’s trying to get us to descend again?”
“Maybe that’s it! Let’s try it, anyway!” offered Harry.
“Go ahead!” agreed Ned in a tone that showed he was again taking heart. “Let’s act on the suggestion. We can try our scheme later!”
Harry’s hand had already found the levers. In a moment the ballast tanks were being filled with water. Gradually the vessel sank.
As the light grew more dim at the increased depth, Jimmie declared he could see the other vessel descending at about the same speed.
Presently the two craft were at the limit of their travel. The visitor rested on the deck of the Wanderer, while the ‘U-13’, in which the boys were imprisoned, hung again at an angle from the line.
Directly the lads saw the figure that had formerly attracted their attention. It was climbing the main shrouds of the wrecked ship. When the man reached a position level with their craft he began making signs and motions. In his hand he flourished a knife.
“Looks rather bad for us!” commented Jack.
“Don’t you get him?” asked Jimmie impatiently. “He understands our predicament and intends to help us! He motioned out that he is going to climb the rigging until he can find the rope. Then he’ll slide down it until he lands on our stern. If we’ll agree not to start the engines while he’s there, he’ll cut the rope. But we must be ready at the ballast tanks to let the vessel settle slowly to the deck of the ship, so he can get off and clear the line from the propeller!”
“I don’t believe it!” stated Jack. “I think he meant to cut the line as soon as he gets to it and let us settle down slowly. What would be the sense of his riding around the ocean seated on the stern of a disabled submarine? He’s got too much sense for that!”
“Maybe you’re right!” admitted Jimmie. “Let’s float the boat on an even keel and see. I’m going to dress again!”
Even as the lad hastened to put on his clothes the boys felt a sudden dip made by the submarine. Gradually they descended.
“Hurrah, he did it!” exultantly cried Ned. “Now, where has he gone? I do hope he’ll free the propeller wheel at once!”
“We could rise to the surface even if the propeller is stuck!” declared Harry. “I can pump the ballast all out of the tanks!”
“But if we do that we’ll have to dive overboard to clear the wheel!” protested Frank. “I know that water is good and cold!”
“Wait a minute, boys, and see what the fellow does,” cautioned Ned. “Maybe he wants to help us, so it wouldn’t be nice to run away!”
“Here he is, now!” cried Jack from his position near a porthole. “He’s looking through the glass, and making motions again!”
“I know what he wants!” declared Harry. “He’s making motions for us to unscrew a pipe! He wants us to let in a lot of the ocean!”
“Wait a minute, Harry!” put in Ned. “He’s walking toward his own boat. Let’s see what he’s going to do!”
In a short time their rescuer had reached the side of his own vessel. He stepped into an open door in the side and disappeared.
“An air lock!” cried Ned. “Did you see that, boys?”
“Just like the little old Sea Lion we used in the China Sea!”
“Here he comes again with a line!” announced Harry. “Now what?”
The boys heard a hammering and thumping near one of the sea cocks.
Even as the five boys glanced at each other with startled and wondering looks, the thumping ceased abruptly. In a short space it was resumed. Instinctively the boys gathered near the spot.
While they stood there trying to determine the cause for the strange procedure, the noise ceased. They heard a tapping at one of the portholes. Jimmie rushed across the compartment to investigate.
“Hey, fellows, come over here a minute!” he called out.
“What have you found now?” questioned Ned, obeying the request.
“Here’s this chap, and he’s making all sorts of signals!”
“That’s funny!” puzzled Ned. “Can you make out what he wants?”
“He’s making his hands go in the strangest way! I’m sure I can’t interpret such motions unless he wants us to turn around while he places a bomb or something close enough to blow us out of the water.”
“I know what he wants!” shouted Harry, who had been closely observing the stranger’s repetition of the strange motions. “He wants us to open the valve leading from that sea cock where he has been working!”
“Fine business!” scorned Jimmie. “Open up the sea cock and let the ocean come running all over our nice carpets! I guess not!”
“I’m going to try it, anyway!” declared Harry. “If a little water does come in, the pumps will take care of it before it becomes dangerous. At least, it’s well worth trying!”
“Go ahead, then, but don’t blame me if anything happens!”
Harry moved to the vicinity of the spot where the stranger had been occupied but a few moments before. Jimmie was at the porthole.
A turn of the valve resulted in a sudden short inrush of water.
This ceased abruptly, bringing forth an exultant cry from Harry, while the other boys crowded around, speculating on the cause.
“I’ve got it!” cried Harry, dancing about the compartment. “I know what he’s going to do. Go to the porthole, Jimmie, and see where our friend is now. Tell me just what he’s doing. I’m going to stand guard over this valve here for a while in case something happens.”
“He’s going back into his little cage!” stated Jimmie from his position. “He’s just shutting the outer door.”
“Stand by to see something happen now, boys!” announced Harry.
“What’s going to happen, Harry?” asked Jack.
Before Harry could answer, a sputter of water and air was observed at the open valve. A small quantity of water was blown out of the pipe. Following this came a rush of sweet, pure air that was very grateful to the boys after they had been using the vitiated atmosphere of their craft.
In fact, the lads were much nearer the complete exhaustion of their supply of usable atmosphere than they really comprehended.
“Um-m-m!” exclaimed Jimmie, inhaling great draughts of the incoming current. “Smell that, will you? It’s just like a posy bed!”
“That’s quite remarkable!” declared Ned, as he, too, sniffed the new atmosphere. “It does really seem to carry the odor of flowers!”
“Maybe it’s a sort of gas that he’s unloading on us to render us unconscious, so he can capture the whole outfit!” conjectured Jack.
“I don’t believe it!” protested Ned. “I’m quite convinced that this is pure air. He seems to have quite a lot of it stored up!”
“Let’s pump out some of this foul air and change with the new!”
“Go ahead!” consented Ned. “It’s a good move, I’m sure!”
In a short time the boys began to feel the effects of the inflow of vitalized atmosphere. They were livelier, with less depression.
Directly their attention was attracted to the porthole again by a tapping. The stranger was once more trying to convey some information by signs. He repeated the motions of a short time before.
“I got you!” cried Harry, holding up a hand as a sign of understanding. “He wants us to shut the valve off. Perhaps he’s given us all the nice fresh air that he feels it possible to spare!”
“Shut the valve, then,” directed Ned.
“What’s next?” spoke up Jimmie, listening to a slight hammering outside of the hull. “He’s disconnecting the pipe now!”
“Better wait a bit and see what he wants us to do,” cautioned Ned. “Maybe he’s going to cut the line out of our propeller.”
The lad’s prediction was correct. In a very few moments they could hear the stranger working away at the encumbering line which held their propeller in a vise-like grip.
Not many minutes passed before the stranger again appeared at the porthole. Making a few signals easily comprehended by all, he repaired to his own craft, entering and closing the door of the air lock.
Almost immediately the other craft began to ascend perpendicularly.
“Guess we may as well make a mooch!” stated Jimmie, as he watched the other submarine rise out of their range of vision. “We’re done here!”
“All right, let’s get going!” agreed Harry, stepping toward the levers and preparing to start the motors at the pilot’s command.
At once Jimmie sprang to the wheel. He gave a pull at the bell cord, jangling out a “go ahead” signal to Harry. As the latter touched the levers a startling crash at the stern of the craft was heard.
The motors spun the shaft around futilely without making headway.
With blanched faces the lads glanced about the craft. Harry’s hand instinctively sought the levers again to turn off the current.
“What’s the matter?” called Jimmie from his position.
“I don’t know!” declared Harry. “It sounded as if that fellow had tied a can to us and we’d set it going! What did he do?”
“Let’s pump the ballast out and rise straight to the surface,” suggested Ned. “I noticed that he did that. Maybe there’s a reason!”
Harry lost no time in acting on this suggestion. The electric pumps were not long in emptying the ballast tanks. With this weight removed, the boat quickly shot upward to the surface.
As the conning tower portholes rose above the surface, the boys noticed that the afternoon was far spent. Darkness already was gathering.
Ned was working frantically at the clamps securing the hatch cover. With a cry of delight he swung the cover out of position, admitting a cool breeze. The wind had died down, leaving the surface of the ocean comparatively smooth. Sufficient breeze was moving, however, to serve the purpose of airing out the interior of the craft without putting the great fans into commission. All the boys came to the tiny deck.
Lying but a few fathoms from their port side they discerned the other submarine. Clearly distinguishable on the sides were the great letters “U-13” painted in almost exact duplicate of those on their own boat.
“What do you know about that?” was Jimmie’s surprised exclamation. “If that fellow isn’t a dead ringer for this ship, I’m a Dutchman!”
“He surely does look a whole lot like us!” agreed Ned.
“I say, Frank,” put in Harry eagerly, “is that the fellow that sank the ship you were on? Can you identify it now?”
Frank shook his head hesitatingly before he answered slowly: “Boys, I hate to say it, but it looks as like the other as two peas. I would not like to make an affidavit, but I’m willing to say that it bears a most remarkable resemblance to that other one, if it is ‘other’!”
“Then, I guess we’re done for!” despaired Jack. “If that’s a German craft, we may as well hoist the white flag now and surrender!”
“Think they’ll take us back to Germany?” asked Ned quizzically.
“I’m sure of it!” declared the boy. “And we won’t stand much show, either, when they find that we’ve stolen this ship away from Helgoland!”
“Goodness!” exclaimed Ned suddenly. “I declare I’d actually forgotten that we were on board a stolen submarine. That does make it look rather dubious for us. We are in a pretty mess!” he added.
“Here comes someone now!” announced Jimmie. “Watch the hatch!”
A movement of the hatch cover on the other vessel indicated that someone was about to appear on deck. Slowly a figure stepped forth.
The stranger was of medium build, and wore a suit of blue with a round hat to match. He was carefully dressed. After taking a long survey of the group on the deck of the false “U-13,” he waved a hand in welcome.
“He wants us to come over and pay him a visit!” stated Jimmie.
“Why don’t you accept, then?” inquired Ned. “We’re into it now and may as well be sociable. Being balky won’t help matters any!”
“I would if we had a boat,” announced the other.
“Maybe the real ‘U-13’ there has a boat they’d spare,” suggested Jack. “Why don’t you hail and ask him if he won’t send a boat?”
“Hail him yourself if you want to! Maybe he don’t talk English!”
“Try him on United States then!” laughed Jack. “I would!”
“Help yourself!” said Jimmie, leaning back against the rail.
“Ahoy the submarine!” shouted Jack in response to this suggestion. “We haven’t a boat or we’d come over. Can you send a boat to us?”
Waving an arm as if comprehending the lad’s statement and inquiry the figure on the other vessel clambered quickly to the after deck. After a moment’s fumbling at what appeared to be a lock, he lifted a cover. In a short time the boys saw him drag from its place a small, light, steel boat.
This was at once launched over the side. Running out upon a light iron ladder the man dropped into the rowboat. He sculled the small craft quickly over the intervening distance and was soon alongside.
“Come aboard, sir,” invited Ned, reaching out a hand to assist.
“Good night!” ejaculated Jimmie. “How did you ever get here so quickly, Mackinder? We thought you were aboard that warship!”
“I’ve been here a long time!” laughed the other, looking at the lad.
“You’ve made a quick trip, all right!” returned Jimmie.
The others crowded forward with eager, questioning looks. Upon the face of each was to be seen amazement, wonder and perplexity.
“Come aboard, Mackinder,” invited Ned. “We’d like to hear an explanation of the strange goings on hereabouts. Can you help us?”
“First, I’d like to hear your explanations,” stated the newcomer. “But before you start your story, please tell me why you call me Mackinder.”
“Isn’t that your name?” asked Jimmie. “Tell us that!”
“Yes, that’s my name, you know!” replied the stranger, smilingly. “But how did you happen to know it? I’m rather puzzled, you know!”
“Why, you told us yourself on the train running into Amsterdam!” stated Jimmie, with rising indignation. “Then we called you by that name while you were trying to delay our start. Also Captain von Kluck used that name when he referred to you. I guess it’s your name all right!”
“I don’t deny that!” stated the newcomer. “What puzzles me is how you chaps know it so quickly, don’t you know.”
“It don’t make much difference how we know the name so quickly,” went on Jimmie. “We’d know you anywhere we saw you. We’d especially recognize that hand with the scar! That’s a dead giveaway!”
The newcomer glanced quickly at his right hand, which Jimmie had indicated. As he brought it up to view, the boys could see a jagged scar running clear across the back. They had seen such a scar before.
With an accusing finger pointing at the disfigurement, Jimmie snapped out in crisp accents that indicated plainly his excitement:
“That’s the same hand that tied and gagged me in the warehouse in Amsterdam, and the same hand that I saw shoved into the window of the frontier hut to get the ‘U-13’ package. Deny it if you can!”
“I am not going to deny anything, you know!” returned the other coolly. “You seem so positive about it there’s little use denying!”
“You bet there’s no use denying anything like that!” declared Jimmie with some heat. “You can’t deny that you tried to sic the German torpedo boat destroyer onto us, either. You can’t deny that you sneaked away from this very submarine when I was painting the name on the bow. You’d better not try to deny that you showed us to the British gunboat a while ago and got them to fire at us. If you start denying anything,” the boy went on, “I’m going to deny that I’m neutral!”
With a laugh the newcomer threw back his head in amused fashion.
“Have your own way about it, you know,” he replied, “but I’m going to tell you one thing. I’m not Mackinder!”
The surprise of the lads at this declaration of their visitor was profound. They stared at the stranger who bore such a striking resemblance to Mackinder and who had just declared that he was not that person. Speechless at the apparent untruth, they could only stare.
Seeing their looks of astonishment at his declaration, the man laughed loudly, apparently enjoying hugely the joke that the boys could not see. Supporting himself against the rail, he gave vent to peals of merriment at the expense of the five young lads.
“So you don’t believe me, eh?” he inquired at length, controlling himself with an effort. “I can’t blame you, don’t you know!”
“Say, Mackinder, you ought to be in vaudeville!” declared Jimmie in reply. “For a lightning change artist, you’re decidedly it!”
“Thank you!” acknowledged Mackinder, choosing to accept the boy’s words as a compliment. “You’re almost too kind, don’t you know!”
“And then,” the boy went on, “as a monologue artist, you’d certainly have them all backed off the boards. I know a place in New York where you could draw down your two fifty per without half trying!”
“An engagement, do you mean?” queried the man, with interest.
“Just that!” stated Jimmie. “And then, there’s another place up the Hudson a ways where you ought to be making little ones out of big ones. They give a fellow a long engagement there and supply costumes!”
“All of which means that you’re spoofing me a bit, don’t you know!” returned their visitor without resentment. He was apparently enjoying the situation hugely, and meant to make the most of it.
Seeing that his words failed to arouse or draw out the other, Jimmie turned disgustedly away to lean over the rail.
Ned began to question their guest, but was interrupted by Jimmie, who announced that he saw a steamer’s smoke on the horizon.
“This water is quite thickly sprinkled with vessels of all sorts,” said the alleged Mackinder. “Perhaps we’d better get out, you know!”
“What do you make that vessel out to be?” asked Ned.
“It doesn’t make any difference what it is,” replied the other, “we shall be better off if they don’t find us! We don’t need them!”
“Very well,” put in Jimmie, “then we’ll get up steam on this wagon and slide along. I’m going to say this to you, though, that Mackinder or no Mackinder, we’re very grateful for your help. If we get an opportunity to reciprocate, we’ll be only too glad to do it!”
With this, the boy turned and offered his hand to the man. It was grasped with a hearty grip that conveyed a sense of friendliness.
“You can help me right now,” was the response. “Come aboard my vessel and give me a hand on a little project I have under way.”
“I don’t think we’d better do that right now,” stated Jimmie. “You see, we’re neutral, and we don’t want to take sides either way!”
“So am I neutral! I care nothing for this awful war except to see it stop. I shall do nothing for either side, so rest easy on that score. But your propellor is broken by having that line jammed in it. You cannot navigate your vessel, and would better come aboard mine!”
Doubting this statement, Jimmie clambered into the small boat and sculled toward the stern of the false “U-13”. There he could look into the water to a depth sufficient to confirm the other’s statement.
“It’s no use, boys,” he declared, returning to the conning tower. “The blades of the propellor are damaged beyond use. We might as well go!”
Securing a line to the bow of the false “U-13” the man proposed to tow it to a safe place where it could be anchored to await repairs. Two trips were necessary to transfer the boys to the craft which had been of such signal service in their hour of extreme need.
Led by their recent guest, who was now their host, the lads descended into the interior of the vessel. Here a strange sight met their gaze. In cages canaries were twittering gaily while all about the bulkheads had been fastened pots of plants, some of which were in bloom.
“Now I understand why the air you so kindly pumped into our vessel had the odor of flowers and growing things!” declared Ned as he turned to their host. “You have things fixed pretty cozy here!”
“Just a touch now and again to make it look home-like!” said the man. “I prefer the sight of a flower to that of a cold steel bulkhead. Besides, it’s more healthful to have a few plants about.”
Harry was lost in admiration of the machinery which he declared to be far superior to that of the vessel they had lately abandoned.
With a touch their strange host sent the craft forward at a good speed. He explained to the lads a gyroscope arrangement by which he controlled the steering gear that kept the vessel on any chosen course and at any desired depth after once being adjusted.
“And now, if you please, Mr. Mackinder,” questioned Jimmie at length, “will you be so good as to tell us what your mission may be?”
“Certainly!” replied the other frankly. “I see the steamer is not following us so I will take plenty of time to give you details.”
“Thanks!” drily responded the lad. “We’ll appreciate it!”
With a laugh the man seated himself on a locker and motioned the lads to do likewise. They listened intently as he proceeded:
“You perhaps all realize that the possession of wealth is the desire of almost every human being. I am not different from the rest in that respect at least. Owing to some family trouble which I shall not at this time detail, I was not given the advantages that accrue ordinarily to heirs. I think you will understand what I mean?”
“You were left out in the cold when they passed the dough?” asked Jimmie with a knowing look. “Just shoved one side?”
“That’s about it!” replied the man. “But I resolved to get some money, nevertheless. I had a fertile imagination, some education and a very small amount of money. I did not want to take so cheap a way as to rob or cheat my fellow men. I was not shrewd enough to enter the business world. Therefore, I turned my attention to lost or buried treasure.”
Jimmie delivered a broad wink toward Ned. It was not lost by their observant entertainer, who laughed much to the boy’s confusion.
“Amongst other inventions that were in my brain was an instrument for detecting the presence of gold similar to the instrument called a compass. In this instance electricity had nothing to do with its action.
“To make a long story short, you know, I finally succeeded in perfecting the arrangement. It was an amusing circumstance that I had a very hard struggle preserving my last gold piece with which to test the device,” he went on with a laugh at the recollection of his trials.
“At last, I thought I had my instrument perfected. I next needed only something on which to practice. With my precious treasure carefully guarded I succeeded in reaching the Gulf of Mexico, where it is said so much pirate gold has been buried. Wonderful to relate, I actually located and recovered a small amount. It was not large but helped me to fit out a vessel in which to make other cruises.”
“And it really worked?” inquired Jimmie in a tone of unbelief.
“How well I shall presently demonstrate, you know,” was the reply. “But I found that the crew was tricky. They helped me get a treasure aboard then calmly turned pirates themselves and ran away with the treasure. For nearly a year I had hard luck. Then I succeeded in locating a large sum of gold that had been buried by a man’s grandfather.
“My past experiences had taught me that I could not trust anyone. Therefore I determined to prosecute my search in other channels.
“Piece by piece in different shops I had this vessel constructed after my own designs. The pieces were assembled in a part of the Gulf of Mexico little frequented. There I tried out the undersea boat, named it the ‘U-13’—the ‘U’ standing for Undersea and the ‘13’ in defiance of the popular superstition. But I found a new difficulty.
“The instrument, although working perfectly on land, was not reliable under the ocean, for as you know there is a large amount of suspended gold in sea water. That made the instrument unreliable.”
“What did you want to go under water for, anyway?” asked Ned.
“Gold!” was the curt reply. “So I had to construct another device that would neutralize the local attraction of the sea water just on the same principle that the mariner has the two iron balls near his compass to overcome the local attraction on his vessel.
“Then I was prepared to pursue my quest for treasure undisturbed. My first venture was the recovery of a large sum from a sunken ship in Havana harbor. This provided me sufficient funds so that I put stores aboard and came across to seek for the vessels of the Spanish Armada.”
“How did you get across the Atlantic?” asked Jimmie incredulously.
“In this vessel!” was the reply. “And most of the way under water, too, you know! I didn’t want anyone to see me!”
“But you had to come up once in a while to get air!”
“Oh, no! Here is a contrivance,” indicating a huge box-like affair, “with which I separate the oxygen from the hydrogen by electricity. Water, as you know, is composed of two gases—oxygen and hydrogen. Two atoms of hydrogen combined with one atom of oxygen and make a tiny bit of water. By the aid of this special device I segregate the two gases, use the oxygen and discharge the hydrogen overboard.”
“I’m going to take my hat off to you!” declared Jimmie. “But you had to have some means to prevent discomfort from the storage batteries!”
“Not with these!” smiled the other. “I’m using, without permission, of course, a new storage battery that does away with the lead-sulphuric acid type of battery. The inventor is a man whose name is familiar to you all. He uses a nickel, iron oxide and steel combination in a solution of potash. This battery, instead of causing inflammation or even proving deadly as is the case with the old type, is actually a benefit to a person. It is exactly opposite in its effect to the old style.”
“And you manage to make a cruise of days and days under water?”
“Surely!” smiled their host. “There’s nothing to prevent it!”
“That’s going some!” declared Jimmie. “But I don’t believe you managed to dig up a lot of gold from the bottom of the ocean!”
“What is there to hinder?” questioned the other.
“Everything!” declared Jimmie. “In the first place there is all the water about. Then, too, it would be easier to take this instrument into the regions where gold is usually discovered on land. You could prospect with it in almost the positive knowledge that you would locate a vein. Digging then would be easy.”
“Yes, but I don’t like to dig!” laughed the other. “Perhaps I’m too lazy to do that sort of thing!”
“There’s something queer here that I don’t quite get,” stated Jimmie. “Can’t you explain a little more in detail?”
“Why, certainly, I’ll be glad to elucidate!” was the answer. “You have in mind the securing of free gold in nuggets and dust. I go about it in quite another way. My purpose is to recover the minted coins that have been placed aboard ships. When the ships sink, no diver yet has been able to reach those in deep water. Therefore, most of the gold that has been carried to the bottom in sunken vessels is forever lost. I intend to recover a great deal of it!”
“Then when you know approximately where the vessel was wrecked or sunk,” put in Ned, “you go to that neighborhood. Your instrument indicates the presence of gold and you follow its directions until the exact spot is reached. Then you step out and carry the money aboard your own craft. Is that the correct explanation?”
“You have it exactly. And I have done pretty well so far!”
“I don’t believe it!” declared Jimmie flatly. “The whole thing sounds mighty fishy—not meaning any disrespect,” he added addressing the man who sat leaning back against a bulkhead.
“But I assure you that what I have said is absolutely true!”
“I’m from Missouri!” stated Jimmie in a tone of doubt.
Their host stepped to a locker which he opened.
“Great Frozen Hot Boxes!” cried Jimmie.