CHAPTER X.
THE FRAUDULENT MESSAGE.
Four days later found the Holland lying snugly concealed in the waters of Cape Cod harbor.
The run to Boston had been made without a sight of the hostile fleet.
Andy had gone ashore on a little business, and soon he came back from Provincetown wild with excitement.
"Captain, this beats the Dutch!" he cried, as he entered the tiny cabin of the submarine craft.
"What is it now, Andy? Another fleet in sight?"
"Worse than that. The enemy is in Washington."
"Washington!" roared the young captain, and leaped from his seat. "Do you mean they have gotten soldiers into the country——"
"Hold on; I said the enemy was in Washington," interposed the young lieutenant. "I don't know how many of them are there, but enough to do a mean piece of work."
"And what? Have they blown up the Capitol, or the White House?"
"No; but they've robbed the White House of its loveliest inmate."
"You mean President Adams' daughter——"
"Has been kidnaped—carried off—last night—and nobody knows where to. The whole country is wild with the news, and there is a reward up of a hundred thousand dollars for anybody who will bring her back safe and sound."
"She's worth the money, too," added Captain Oscar, promptly. "Martha Adams is one of the sweetest girls in this country. How in the world was the deed accomplished?"
"Last night she was left home alone, the President being at a Cabinet meeting, and Mrs. Adams being at a meeting for the benefit of disabled soldiers. Two of the servants in charge of the President's apartments were drugged and one stabbed in the back and killed. That is as much as is known now, excepting that two men were seen to hurry somebody in a coach and drive off with her."
"And in what direction did the coach go?"
"Straight for the Potomac—and a boat was seen to leave and go down the river an hour later."
"Then she has been carried off to sea, beyond a doubt."
"So I'm thinking, and more than likely she is now a prisoner on one of the foreign warships."
The captain of the new Holland scratched his head thoughtfully.
"If she is on a warship, it must be either a Japanese or a Chinese craft," he muttered.
"Why so?"
"Because I don't think England, France or Germany would stand for any such thing as that. It's heathens' work, and nothing less—or private spite."
"And why private spite?"
"Oh, easily. Somebody may be mad because he didn't get a fat position from the President, or something like that. You know how much wire-pulling there is at Washington," concluded Oscar.
The news interested everybody, and when the papers came on board each read the reports on the case closely. But nothing new had been learned, excepting that it was practically certain Martha Adams had been carried off to some foreign warship lying off Chesapeake Bay.
"I'd like to catch the rascals who abducted her," sighed Captain Oscar, after finishing the reading of the newspapers.
"After the reward, eh?" laughed Andy.
"Humph! I wasn't thinking of the reward. Martha Adams is the sweetest girl I ever——" He broke off short, and as Andy looked at him closely he blushed in spite of himself.
Oscar had seen Martha Adams three times while the girl was at the shipyard with her father and others.
"Oho! so that is how the wind blows," cried the lieutenant. "Well, it's a long step to a President's daughter, captain, but who knows what you'll be when this war is over—if the Holland XI. keeps on as she has begun?"
"Andy, you get on deck," came quickly, and the lieutenant did so, but with a broad grin on his face. He knew that Oscar had met Martha Adams and had "gone sweet" on the President's only child in those days.
Late on the following night a special messenger came on board of the Holland with orders for the submarine boat to move out to the east coast of Cape Cod, the locality being mentioned in detail.
Captain Oscar was much puzzled by the order, for it was entirely unexpected.
Yet there was nothing to do but to obey, and soon the new Holland was on her way out of Cape Cod Bay and heading first northeast and then southeast, outside of the cape.
"This is strange," he said to the lieutenant. "I don't understand it."
"Perhaps the navy department is afraid some foreign ship will crawl along Cape Cod in the dark," suggested Andy.
"Perhaps."
There the conversation ended, but still Captain Oscar was doubtful, he knew not why.
His experience with Raxtell, who had been put ashore at Boston, made him extremely cautious.
"I didn't like the looks of that messenger," he mused. "He had a bad eye."
The outside of the cape gained, it was a run of two miles to the spot mentioned in the order.
"Put on the searchlight and see that our way is perfectly clear," he said to the man who attended to the lights.
"Aye, aye, cap'n!" was the answer, and the powerful searchlight was made to do duty under the sea, bringing within its rays thousands of fish who knew not what to make of the unexpected glare.
Soon Oscar found his way to the lookout.
The way seemed to be perfectly clear, and he was on the point of having the speed of the submarine craft increased when something caught his eye which made him pause.
The Holland had glided into a fine netting made of copper wire.
The netting was shaped like a funnel, running down to a hole at the end not quite as large in diameter as the width of the ship.
Here was located a hidden mine, ready to go off the instant any moving body of large size should strike it.
Had the Holland kept on running the huge copper netting would have led the submarine craft directly into the hole, the mine would have exploded, and that would have been the end of the craft and all on board.
"Back, quick!" cried Captain Oscar, and touched the button which connected with the engine.
The screws were reversed, and the Holland XI. gave a shiver from stem to stern as her rapid head-way was checked.
Still she went on, however, until the end of the hole was almost gained.
"A mine!" shrieked the lookout. "We shall be blown up!"
"All power backward!" cried Oscar to George Dross through a speaking tube. "Quick! It means life or death to us!"
The backward power was increased. Yet the Holland drifted closer and closer, until her sharp prow was less than two feet away from the butt of the mine. Oscar held his breath. Another instant and they might all be blown to pieces.
But then the forward motion ceased, the Holland gathered power in the opposite direction, and soon they had backed out of the huge copper net and were free!
"What does this mean?" demanded Andy Greggs, as he crowded into the lookout.
"It means two things," answered Oscar, drawing a long sigh of relief. "In the first place we have had a close shave from death, and in the second place it means that the order to come here was fraudulent."
"Then this was a trap set for us?"
"Beyond a doubt. And I would just like to lay hands on that messenger." And Oscar grated his teeth.
"Perhaps he is somewhere around, in a boat. Undoubtedly he was a foreign sympathizer."
"We will go to the surface and see if any craft is in sight."
Going to the surface did not consume long, and the waters were swept by the powerful searchlight.
Far out from land was an English despatch boat.
"I'll wager that is the messenger's ship," cried Oscar. "We'll run closer and make sure."
Again they went down, and now the light was put out, and they swept up to the despatch boat as silently as a black ghost.
When within a hundred yards of the craft they came up and the light was turned directly upon the despatch boat's deck.
Every man on the deck could be seen distinctly, and looking through his night glass, Oscar made out a form he had seen before.
"That messenger—and in the uniform of a lieutenant!" he cried.
He ordered the Holland below, but not before the despatch boat fired two four-pounders at the submarine craft.
The four-pounders were powerless to hurt the Holland, further than to make a dent in her starboard side.
"Now for a quick revenge!" muttered the young captain. "Close those front windows!"
Those on board knew what that meant, and the order was quickly obeyed.
Then the new Holland went forward at full speed.
Bang! crash; The despatch boat was hit fairly and squarely in the side and began to sink immediately.
The Holland withdrew, and Captain Oscar watched the result of the ramming.
Down went the English vessel and the most of her crew with her.
A few tried to swim away, but the swell of the ocean was too strong for them, and one after another sank to rise no more.
The new Holland had added another to her list of triumphs over her enemies.