Howard nodded affirmatively in answer to the officer’s question. “Yes,” he answered. “We are the castaways—we and three others who escaped with us in this submarine from the little king of the Sargasso Sea. I suppose you know the story that I sent by wireless?”
The boat scraped along. “Know it! I should say so,” exclaimed the startled officer. “The whole country knows it. I suppose you are——”
“Frank Howard. Come, Dorothy,” Howard climbed to the deck, and helped the girl to follow him. “This is, or, rather, was—Miss Fairfax,” he explained. “And you——”
The officer suppressed a whistle of admiration at sight of Dorothy’s flower-like face. “I’m McCully!” he answered, as he stood up and took off his cap. “I say! This is awfully lucky. Colonel Fairfax will be wild with delight.”
“My father! Where is he?”
“On board the Duluth, yonder. The navy department ordered us to look for you, and he came along. There are a dozen searching for you.”
Dorothy’s head swam. The month of stress was over, and the revulsion of feeling was too great not to affect her. Tears started to her eyes as she turned to Howard. “Oh! Frank!” she cried. “Father is here.”
“Yes. He’s here, sure,” interjected Mr. McCully, “and if you’ll get into this boat we’ll take you to him in a jiffy.”
Dorothy looked at Howard inquiringly, and he nodded. “Yes, you’d better go,” he assented. “You and Mrs. Joyce and Willoughby, perhaps. The rest of us will stay here for the present. Mr. McCully, will you kindly ask your captain if he cannot come alongside us? The Seashark, though damaged by your torpedo, is still valuable, and, besides, we have about two million dollars in gold bars on board of her.”
The lieutenant looked his astonishment. What manner of man was this who carried two millions of gold about in a submarine. “Two millions?” he gasped.