This might happen, but there was nothing Bob Steele could do to prevent it.
He had taken only a few swallows of the coffee, and to this, and to his superior powers of endurance, was due the fact that he had kept his senses and a remnant of his strength long enough to accomplish what he had.
But now a wave of darkness rolled over him. As unconscious of what was taking place around him as he was helpless to prevent further disaster, his head fell back and he lay as one dead among his silent and motionless companions.
CHAPTER XL.
A DIVE FOR SAFETY.
As Bob was the last one to lose his senses, so he was the first to recover. And here again his superior endurance must have scored in his favor. Always in the pink of physical condition, and striving constantly to keep himself so, his powers of recuperation were quick to react and reassert themselves.
He sat up, dazed and bewildered, and was some moments in picking up the chain of events where it had been dropped.
By degrees he lived over the events that immediately preceded his lapse into unconsciousness, and thoughts of the treacherous Ah Sin brought him staggering to his feet.
The Grampus was yawing and tumbling about in the waves, completely at the mercy of wind and currents. Seizing the wheel, Bob brought the submarine to her course and lashed the wheel with his twisted handkerchief.
Pausing by the foot of the ladder he looked up into the conning tower. The hatch was open.