“I’m ready for you two lads,” he presently called.
Bob and Glennie returned to the chairs they had previously occupied. They were surprised at the change that had come over Mr. Brigham’s face. On their arrival, it had been bright and smiling, while now it was dark and foreboding.
“I guess you lads know how it feels to be in the jaws of death, and just slip out before they close,” said he, “but you don’t know the whole of it, not by a jugful. Of all the high-handed proceedings I ever heard of, this certainly grabs the banner. Now, listen.”
CHAPTER XLVIII.
A DESPERATE RISK.
“Did you know, Bob Steele,” asked the consul, by way of preface, “that Captain Nemo, junior, right there in Belize, had been approached by an agent of the Japanese government and offered two hundred thousand for something he’s selling to our government for just half that?”
“No, sir,” answered Bob. “But I know the captain well enough to feel sure that he wouldn’t sell the Grampus to any other country but the United States, not if he was offered a million. He has invented a submarine that is better than any other craft of its kind that was ever launched, and the captain is patriotic enough to want his own country to reap the benefit.”
“Exactly. Captain Nemo, junior, is a man after my own heart, by gad! Well, he refused the offer, and two days later he received a warning signed simply, ‘The Sons of the Rising Sun,’ saying that if he did not reconsider the Grampus would be sunk in the bottom of the ocean. How was that for audacity? But the captain thought it was all bluff—the Japs have learned a lot from us, my lads, and bluff is not the least of their acquirements.
“The captain said nothing to you, Bob Steele, about this warning from the Sons of the Rising Sun. He treated it with silent contempt, well knowing that you would do everything possible to safeguard the submarine without any unnecessary talk from him.
“Now, from what you lads have told me, we must change our minds about that warning being a bluff. If it was a bluff, then the Japs are trying to make good. But the Japanese government knows nothing about this. If the high boys among the Japs in Tokio knew, they would be the first ones to send a warship after these precious Sons of the Rising Sun. The Young Samurai are going it on their own hook; they’re going to help their beloved country whether the country wants them to or not.