Mr. Pauling stared at Rawlins as if he thought he might have taken leave of his senses. Then, realizing that Rawlins was in earnest, he said quietly, “All right, Rawlins. I don’t know what your scheme may be, but I’ll be glad to hear it whenever you’re ready. Call me up and we’ll hear it when you have it worked out. We owe you more than I can express to you now.”
A moment later Rawlins had gone and hardly had his footsteps died away when the telephone tinkled.
“Yes!” exclaimed Mr. Pauling as he listened. “Remarkable! Absolutely deserted! Well, I
guess that chapter’s closed. Thanks for letting me know.”
“Sorry Rawlins has gone,” declared Mr. Pauling as he hung up the receiver and wheeled about. “That was the Admiral calling. One of the destroyers has found the submarine!”
“Gosh! then they’ve caught more of the gang!” cried Tom.
“That’s the astounding part of it,” replied his father. “She was found drifting, her upper works just awash, about one hundred miles out to sea and not a living soul on board her!”
[CHAPTER XIII—RAWLINS’ PROPOSAL]
When Rawlins called on Mr. Pauling the following day the first thing that greeted him was the announcement that the submarine had been found.
So excited were the boys that for some time they could not convey an intelligible idea of the matter and before Rawlins could grasp the details of the discovery they were plying him with questions as to his opinion in regard to it.