CHAPTER VII.
AN ATTACK ON THE JAPANESE TROOPS.
"Chan-cera-ree!" shouted one of the Japanese soldiers, and aimed his rifle at Oscar Pelham's head.
But another soldier—an under officer—saw the movement and stopped the shooting.
"We will make him a prisoner," he said in Japanese. "He is an American and may prove useful to us in this accursed country."
Oscar was quickly made to leave the shore.
He had discarded the diver's suit, but the Japanese soldiers took it along, considering it a great curiosity.
Because of the suit they thought Oscar was one who had planted a mine under the ocean and that the Tien-Tsin had struck upon this and been blown up.
"He is a great capture," said the Japanese commander. "Who knows but what he may be a leading American officer."
As he could not speak English, he could not question the young inventor.
Baracoa had fallen and Japanese and Chinese troops had landed to the number of six thousand.
They expected to be re-enforced by German and French soldiers, and then a land attack was to be made in Florida, the troops marching across Cuba to Havana, and there taking transports to Key West.
In the meantime England and some other nations were sending a large force, upward of a hundred thousand men—to attack the Canadian shore. England wished to reconquer Canada, no matter what the cost.
The Japanese continued to move along the northern coast of Cuba until two o'clock in the afternoon.
By that time it was so hot that the soldiers had to rest, even though the Japanese are the toughest race on the face of the globe.
Thousands of Cubans had fled before them, for the landing had been unexpected, and the people of the island were not prepared to offer resistance.
When the rest came Oscar found himself at the mouth of a small river flowing into the Atlantic Ocean.
He was secured to a tree with ropes while his captors proceeded to take it easy, lying in the grass, smoking cigarettes and drinking Japan tea.
The young inventor felt that he was in a serious situation, for he knew that in this world-wide war the Japanese would not hesitate to kill him whenever it pleased them.
He tugged at his bonds, but if there is anybody who knows how to tie knots it is a Japanese, and those which bound Oscar could neither be strained or broken.
An hour went by, when suddenly the young inventor saw something which both amazed and delighted him.
Far off in the ocean he beheld something come up to the surface. It was like the back of a turtle, about four feet in diameter.
It was only a few inches above the waves, but it shone like a plate of bluish steel—and such it was—the top-center plate of the Holland XI!
"Thank fortune, she escaped!" he muttered to himself.
Then he waited for several minutes, when the trap-door in the plate was slid aside and a form appeared—head and shoulders—the form of Andy Greggs.
Andy had a spy-glass, and with this he swept first the ocean and then the land.
On catching sight of the Japanese soldiers he was about to retire at once and sink the submarine craft, when by accident his eyes rested upon Oscar.
At first he could not believe the evidence of his senses. Then he waved his hand in recognition.
The young captain of the new Holland could not see the movement very well, but he nodded his head vigorously in the direction of the first lieutenant.
In another moment Andy disappeared and soon the Holland sank from sight. Oscar waited anxiously, wondering what his friends would do—in fact, what they could do.
The submarine craft was designed wholly for warfare on and under the ocean, not on land.
Yet Oscar knew that his friends would never desert him, now they knew he was a prisoner of the enemy.
Quarter of an hour went by. To the prisoner it seemed an age.
He was watching the water and soon saw a slight movement behind a number of bushes just where the river met the ocean.
He knew what the movement meant. The Holland XI. had come in shore as far as the depth of the water permitted.
Up came that plate again and out popped Andy Greggs, armed with a pistol and a short knife.
The young lieutenant slipped into the water like an eel and dove down almost out of sight, to come up near to Oscar's feet.
The Japanese were half asleep, thinking their prisoner secure.
With cat-like steps Andy left the water, pushed through the bushes and came up behind Oscar.
Two slashes of that sharp knife and the young captain of the new Holland was free.
He slid behind the tree, and side by side he and Andy ran for the ocean.
"Hi-cha-kling!" roared one of the Japanese soldiers, rousing suddenly, and then he aimed his rifle at Oscar.
But before he could pull the trigger Andy fired his pistol, which had been kept dry on the journey to shore, and the bullet pierced the enemy's heart.
Before the other Japanese could do anything both of the chums were swimming for the Holland. They tumbled into the trap-door one after the other and then the plate was slid shut.
"Down!" ordered Andy, and immediately the submarine craft sunk several feet. Then a swift run was made for a third of a mile away from the coast.
"Oh, how glad I am to see you alive!" cried Andy, when the pair were safe.
"And I am glad, too, cap'n," put in George Dross. "I never expected to set eyes on ye ag'in."
"But how did the Holland escape?" asked the young captain.
"The explosion set us free," answered Andy. "But we had to move out lively, or we would have been crushed as flat as a pancake when the wreckage came down a second time."
Captain Oscar was now asked to tell his own story and did so. He was very weak, but a good dinner with a strong cup of coffee soon made him feel once more like himself.
"What's orders?" asked Andy, coming in the dining-room while he was eating.
"We must attack that Japanese army," answered the young captain. "They are marching for Havana, with the intention of invading Florida."
"And how are you going to do it?"
"They are marching forward in almost a solid body. As soon as they form, we will rise to the surface and throw a couple of dynamite bombs into their midst."
Orders were at once delivered to the ammunition men and the bombs were brought forth and inspected, to see that they were ready for use.
Half an hour went by and then they saw that the Japanese were preparing to move.
The enemy did not like the manner in which Oscar had been rescued and the leader wanted to get out of the way of the submarine craft.
Soon the foreign soldiers were in columns for the march and the command came to move forward.
The drums beat and the band began to play one of the Japanese national airs in a music which to the Americans was nothing short of a hideous discord.
"Now then, up we go," commanded Captain Oscar, and in a minute the new Holland lay well out of the water.
Then the stern was sunk, so that the bow might stand well up.
The gun to fire the two bombs was carefully sighted.
"Touch off!" was the next command.
Boom! went the gun, and into the air flared the two missiles of death, straight for the Japanese column.
Zim! crash! bang!
The two bombs exploded directly in the midst of the Japanese troops, dealing death and destruction upon every hand.
The carnage was something frightful. Dozens of men were literally blown to atoms, arms, legs, heads and bodies flying in all directions!
A yell of terror went up, commingled with shrieks of pain.
When the smoke cleared away it was seen that at least fifty Japanese had been killed and as many more wounded.
Terror-stricken, the remainder of the army fled from the road along the ocean to the rocks and hills beyond.
"Give them another," ordered Captain Oscar, and it was quickly done, and this brought down several more men, including the Japanese commander, who had his head taken off just as he was about to order a rifle attack on the strange sea monster that had attacked them.
The remainder of the Japanese took to the woods and inside of three minutes not a soldier was to be seen.