CHAPTER XVI.
SAVING THE MERCHANTMAN.
"Held—with a whale in us for a mast!" roared old George Dross. "Hang me, ef this isn't the wust yet!"
"We must get rid of that whale!" cried Captain Oscar. "If we don't he may turn the Holland over, with that trap-door open!"
"All hands get something and shove him back!" put in Andy Greggs.
"We can't do it," answered Oscar. "Hold, I have it!"
With all speed he ran to the ammunition room and soon returned with a small shell, of the kind usually used for signaling purposes.
This he rammed into the mouth of the whale, while the huge creature strained and puffed and turned, rocking the new Holland violently.
"Run away!" he cried, and set fire to the fuse of the shell.
All got out of sight as speedily as possible, and then waited.
Fifteen seconds passed and then the shell went off, with a muffled roar.
The head of the whale was torn to shreds, fat and blood spattering all sides of the companionway and the apartment around it.
With the head torn away, the body slid from the top of the Holland XI. into the sea.
"We are free!" gasped Andy, as soon as he could speak.
"Shut the trap!" ordered Oscar, and it was done, old George Dross cleaning off the slide with a broom.
Then the order came to sink the new Holland and they went down in the very midst of the whales, who had parted for the instant after the explosion and the sight of their headless companion.
"That was an adventure I don't care to repeat," remarked Oscar, when all danger was passed. "Who would have thought of a whale trying to get into the Holland XI.?"
"Reckon he knew a good thing when he saw it," grinned Andy.
It took quite some work to clean up the mess and there was little sleep for anybody for the balance of that night.
The next day came a thunder storm.
The lightning was terrific and when the Holland XI. came up for some fresh air it seemed to play all around the steel plates of the submarine ship.
One of the men went on deck and was hurled backward by the shock, with such force that he died an hour later, having had his skull fractured.
This was the first death which had occurred on board of the new Holland, and it cast a gloom over everybody.
The trap was closed and the vessel sunk thirty feet below the surface.
Here all was silent, for the heavy storm above could not reach them at such a depth.
The body of the dead man was placed in a canvas shroud and consigned to the ocean, Oscar reading a chapter from the Bible and making a brief address and prayer.
Then they resumed the course eastward.
Twenty-four hours later the storm had passed away and the lookout announced several steamships in sight.
As they came closer they made out an American steamship loaded with merchandise for the Philippines.
The merchantman was being chased by two Japanese warships.
The warships had already sent a ball through the merchantman's upper works, but the latter still held to her course.
Those on board knew that it was to them a matter of life or death.
Should they surrender to the enemy they would most likely all be butchered on the spot.
"Here is work for us!" said Oscar, after surveying the chase through his glass. "We must get after those foreigners at once."
Down went the Holland XI. to a distance of fifteen feet.
Then a course was laid straight for the nearest of the Japanese warships.
The crafts soon came together and a torpedo was fastened to the enemy close to the stern.
Then the new Holland sped off to where the second Japanese warship was coming on.
Those on the first ship were in the act of planting a broadside into the merchantman when there came a rumble and a roar from the ocean, and the ship sailed skyward, blown up as the Holland XI. had already blown up so many others.
It was a frightful spectacle, that lurid flash, that thunderous report, and then the wreckage sailing in all directions and commingled with the torn and mutilated bodies of the Japanese sailors and officers.
The sight held those on the merchantman spell-bound.
"She has blown up her magazines!" was the cry. "Heaven be praised that it is so!"
Then all attention was placed on the second Japanese warship, which was by far the larger of the two.
She was coming on swiftly, but now she turned and fled, all on board filled with terror.
"We are saved!" cried those on the merchantman.
All were filled with wonder. Nobody could understand what had caused so speedy a turn of the dire situation.
But when the new Holland came up and Captain Oscar showed himself with an American flag in his hand a mighty cheer went up.
"It is the Holland XI.!"
"Three cheers for the boat and the men that saved us!"
Of course Captain Oscar was invited on board of the merchantman, and he went, accompanied by Andy and George Dross.
All crowded around the young commander to learn how the destruction of the Japanese vessel had been accomplished.
From those on the merchantman Oscar learned that over thirty of the foreign warships had been seen off the Golden Gate, and that San Francisco and Oakland were expecting a bombardment to begin at any moment.
"If that's the case we have no right to delay here," said the young captain.
Soon the Holland XI. was again speeding eastward.
A sharp lookout was kept for the foreign ships.
That evening they came upon half a dozen, riding close together.
Small boats were passing from one warship to another, as if an active consultation of some sort was going on.
"They are plotting something special, and I know it," said Oscar to Andy.
"What could they plot—the bombardment of San Francisco?"
"Perhaps worse. I wish I could find out."
No sooner had the thought entered the young captain's head than he resolved to act upon it.
He would come up directly in the rear of one of the ships and try to go aboard in the dark.
It was a risky thing to do, but Oscar was far from being a coward.
Indeed, nobody in the whole navy was more daring than this young inventor.
The ships comprised two Chinese cruisers, two Japanese cruisers and two English men-of-war.
The conference was being held on board one of the British ships.
As silently as a shadow the new Holland glided along under the Pacific Ocean until directly under the stern of the British ship, which was named the Corcoran.
All was dark here, for the lights from the deck could not reach the spot.
With caution the trap-door of the Holland was opened.
Oscar came up and saw a large port open in the Corcoran to admit the evening breeze.
He climbed to this and saw that the apartment beyond was empty.
From a distance came a murmur of voices and from overhead the steady tramping of feet.
"Remain here for me," he said to Andy, who was on the deck. "Be prepared to let the Holland XI. down the instant I come on board again."
Then the young captain passed into the Corcoran and out of sight of his companions.