CHAPTER XCaught with the Goods
IT was morning. Captain Austin, won over by the arguments of Jay Thacker, one of his crack divers, had decided to postpone the return trip to Bridgeford twenty-four hours in order to give the Brighton lad a chance to work out a plan he had hatched while exploring the wreck of the submerged U-boat.
"You say you want us to anchor directly over the submarine and play you out a hundred feet of hydraulic hose?" asked the captain of theNemoas he greeted Jay and Dick on deck after morning mess.
"Right you are," chirped Jay, "and I want the hose attached to the air pump just the same as you hitch up my own air lines—only I want all the pressure of air you can put behind this new hose line."
"You shall have it, my boy," replied the captain, and gave orders to various members of his crew to rig out the apparatus for which Jay had called.
"What's all this hose line?" chortled Larry Seymour as he watched Jay preparing again to go over the side of theNemo. "Looks as though you are going down to spray the mermaids with a little hot air."
"Nothing doing, kiddo; it's a vacuum cleaner to scrub up Father Neptune's parlor," remarked Dick, who had been let in on Jay's plans.
Weddigen sauntered up like a pouter pigeon.
"Nothing new about this," said he to members of the crew standing beside him. "This bird Thacker knows his onion; he's simply taking down a line of hose and proposes to bore his way into the stranded submarine with a line of compressed air. All you got to do is turn on the air, point the nozzle of the hose into the sand, and away she goes."
Jay, getting ready to adjust his helmet, overheard the remark. How did Weddigen know it was a U-boat?
"You have it O. K., Weddigen; that's just exactly what I'm going to try and do," he replied pleasantly. At the same time he was asking himself: "Has Weddigen overheard about the plans in the U-boat?"
It was a bold plan, but quite a feasible plan after all. Taking advantage of the undertowthat snatched up every loosened particle of sand and scurried it away, Jay proposed to do a little excavating in the neighborhood of the U-boat and leave it to the currents themselves to exhume the lost ship—at least to free it far enough for the divers to get inside and salvage the plans so much wanted by the U. S. Government.
And now Jay was ready to be off. His new "vacuum cleaner" was ready and the air pump working smoothly.
"Good luck to you," called out Captain Austin as Dick prepared to clamp on his chum's helmet.
The youth smiled and in a moment shuffled to the side and was over and gone deep down into the embrace of the green sea, his air hose fastened at his belt. Pretty soon he was on bottom and groping his way along from hummock to hummock, now stumbling and now lifted by the whirling currents.
Presently he came upon the periscope pole and the mushroom anchor he had left below the previous night. But now the anchor sat deep down in a wide depression that opened out of the floor of the sea like the crater of a volcano.
"Bless my soul if that undertow hasn'tbeen working for me all night," he observed while noting that the sand had been scooped out in huge quantities in every direction radiating from the periscope pole.
Which made it that much easier for the submarine excavator. The digging, of course, but not the actual work; for the deadly currents were dragging the youth to and fro until he reeled and tottered like a drunken man. But Jay had come prepared so that he would not again be subjected to the terrific mauling he had received before. This time he had piled on lead until he was heavily weighted down. A canvas belt, slung from hips to armpits, with pockets, held close to fifty pounds of metal. In addition he had fastened around each ankle a bag containing another twenty-five pounds.
As he prepared to swing his air hose into action Jay found the sea clutching and tearing viciously at his own air and signal lines and he made sure that they were intact and working perfectly before he gave the signal for the air to be turned into the "spray" line that he carried.
At last the youth was ready for his experiment. Jay had no idea how his plan would turn out, for, while he had heard of this kindof work and knew of its practicability, he had never tried it out for himself. It was his purpose to start the sand shifting in the belief that once the movement was under way the freakish undertow and cross-currents would come to his assistance and facilitate the task of unearthing the U-boat.
"Here goes," he cried as he sat down on the sandy bottom and, holding the nozzle of the hose away from him at an oblique angle of forty degrees, turned on the air full force.
Instantly the sea began to boil up around him like a young geyser. The sand was swept and swirled in every direction by the column of compressed air that was boring relentlessly into everything it touched. The young diver could feel his feet sinking slowly into an aperture as the sea bottom was scooped up and distributed into the yellow clouds that filled all the space of water around the periscope pole.
A new danger confronted the youth. Unless he exercised extreme caution he might dig his own grave. The shifting sand might collect around his own body and imbed him quickly unless he kept it shifting away from him instead of around him. The thought ofbeing buried alive made him shudder for an instant, but he dismissed it and set himself carefully to keep the moving sand in front instead of behind him.
He resolved to keep on the move, holding the air hose ever far in front and drawing himself, as best he could shift the weights that held him down, in a wide circle around the periscope pole, throwing the sand off to the left. In this way he hoped to make an excavation that would gradually bring the conning tower of the U-boat above the level of the sea bottom. Backing steadily all the time on the circumference of his circle, he kept the sand moving ever outward; and move it did with the assistance of the undertow that aided and abetted the work of the air hose just as Jay had anticipated it would do.
Despite the perils of the undertaking Jay persisted and soon had worked himself completely around to the starting-point, a complete circle having the periscope pole of the U-boat as the hub of the imaginative wheel. By the feel of it under his feet and by thrusting his right foot out into the hole that he had dug Jay could tell his efforts had not been in vain. Considerable sand must have been shifted.
He decided to turn off the compressed air and await the clearing of the water so that he could see what he had accomplished. He had by now been down for considerable time and was commencing to feel the effects of his hard toil, the wear and tear of the sea, and the weight of his added incumbrances. Nevertheless, since his breathing was still free and easy he decided he could risk a few more minutes anyway to view the results of his handiwork.
By and by the sand clouds began to settle and the yellow sedimentation to subside. Imagine his joy when he found that he had successfully dug a great excavation right over the deck of the U-boat amidships, with the conning tower standing out entirely freed of all sand investiture.
"Good enough," he told himself gleefully. "And now to get inside the U-boat before the sands shift back again."
Reluctantly he gave the signal to be raised away after lashing the air hose with which he had successfully accomplished the task fast to the conning tower of the U-boat.
By now he could feel his heart pounding fiercely while a fitful darkness obscured his sight. Well he knew these symptoms—hehad stayed down longer than he should have. But with his signal for a lift he felt the cables tighten and then he was swept along through the water toward the surface. Soon they were hauling him over the side of theNemojust when his senses were reeling.
"Boy, you stayed too long," he heard Captain Austin saying as the helmet was lifted and he breathed again the pure air of the surface.
He could only nod a reply. But within a few minutes he was himself again and able to talk.
"What success, lad?" Captain Austin was eager to know how he had gotten along.
Jay told him the story; how he had utilized the air hose in excavating the U-boat and how it now lay all exposed in its hastily improvised crater.
"Some one had better go down right away and see if they can pry into that conning tower," he counseled. "No telling when those sands will commence to shift back again with the undertow."
Immediately Dick Monaghan and Carl Weddigen stepped forward.
"Please, sir, I'd like to take a shot at it," offered Dick.
"Give me a chance, Captain; remember how I got along with theDominion," pleaded Weddigen.
Other members of the crew who were divers offered to take Jay's place and the captain for a moment was in a quandary.
"Guess you better go down, Weddigen, and see what you can do by way of prodding that conning tower open," theNemo'sexecutive decided. "You have big powerful arms and good lungs." At the same time, Austin winked at Jay, thinking Weddigen knew nothing of the plans in the U-boat.
Turning to Dick the captain said:
"I'll send you down after Weddigen works awhile, and we'll see what the two of you can do."
So Weddigen hastily climbed into his diving suit and made ready to go. Weddigen went equipped with tools that he hoped to use in forcing an entrance into the submarine. He took along with him also the extra air hose since it was possible the sand was shifting again and he might find it necessary to do some more digging.
After he had gone Jay and Dick engaged in earnest conversation.
"That fellow's not to be trusted," remarked Jay tartly.
"He may undo all that you've done," added Dick.
"Yes, or get into that U-boat and make away with those navy plans." Jay had seen enough of Weddigen to give him the idea that the big fellow had ulterior motives behind his activities with the Bridgeford Salvage Company.
After half an hour's wait Captain Austin told Dick to go ahead and get ready for a descent to the U-boat.
"See how Weddigen's getting along. Maybe you can recover those plans yourself."
The captain had confided to the two divers, Jay and Dick, that the coveted plans were contained in a stout steel box that would be found in a locker in the submarine's wireless chamber just forward of the main turret.
Dick was glad of the chance to get the assignment. So far he had not had an opportunity to prove his ability as a diver to Captain Austin and he was anxious to make good. What a fine thing if he could be instrumental in reclaiming for the United States Government the long lost plans and scientific formulas! It had been hinted that among other things, the stolen plans included the formula for manufacture of the deadly gasthat U. S. chemists had discovered just before the close of the war.
"I'll certainly do my level best," soliloquized Dick as he floundered along on the sea bottom in the direction of the U-boat.
Very soon he came in sight of it. The sun, shining strong on the surface of the sea, lit up the whole area of clear water so that he was able to see quite a distance in front of him.
Through the green haze of the sea he discerned suddenly the figure of another diver. He was dragging after him a long rectangular box of some kind. Undoubtedly it was Weddigen! But what was he doing and what was the chest that he dragged with so much effort?
"The plans!" gasped Dick. In an instant it was clearly revealed to him. Weddigen had succeeded in getting into the submarine and had salvaged the stolen plans!
What was Weddigen doing now? Dick stopped short in his tracks to watch the maneuvers of the other diver.