Quickly as possible the ballast tanks were emptied and the boat brought to the surface. Bob, turning the wheel over to Speake, rushed into the conning tower, threw open the hatch, and made a survey of the situation.
There were no boats of any kind in the vicinity of the Grampus, and consequently no hope of being towed into safe quarters while repairs were being made. Bob, when he broke out of the hatch, was confidently expecting to find the submarine being whirled out to sea by the swift current, but, to his surprise, the boat was setting in toward a small cove of the island. He got out on the deck for the purpose of making further observations. Dick and Glennie followed him.
“What do you make out, mate?” queried Dick. “From the looks of things, we’re floating upstream.”
“We’re in a back-set of the current,” Bob answered, studying the river in the neighborhood of the island. “That uplift of rocks parts the stream, sends the current around the upper part at sharp angles, and below, where we are, the current sucks back inshore.”
“A dangerous coast to run into,” remarked Glennie.
“That cove looks like a quiet place for shipping a new propeller,” said Bob.
“You ought to have a dry dock for that, hadn’t you?”
“That would be fine—but we haven’t got it. The next best thing is to shift all the weight forward and throw the propeller out of water. We can do that if our forward anchor can find holding ground on the bottom of the cove.”
Bob stepped back to the conning tower. “Speake!” he called. “Send Clackett to the torpedo room, and tell him to let go the forward anchor as soon as I give the word. Carl might go down and help. When I give the word, I want the anchor dropped at once!”
Speake could be heard talking through the tank-room tube. Bob, standing by the tower, watched sharply while the submarine drifted closer and closer to the rocks. The cove did not measure more than fifty feet across at its mouth, and was semicircular in shape, and not more than fifty feet wide, measuring from a line drawn between the rocky headlands at the entrance. The shore was buttressed by high bowlders.