“How will you keep a good lookout if you don’t go to the surface?”
“Well, what the eye can’t see, the ear will have to tell us. The hollow ball and the hollow periscope mast will bring the chug of the motor boat’s engine into the submarine. The craft ought to be heard a good distance away. One man will have to be at the periscope all the time, and all the rest of you must be at your stations, ready to carry out orders at a second’s notice. You go down to the motor room, Gaines, and Clackett, you go to the tank room. I will stay on the lookout. At midnight, I will have Carl and Dick relieve both of you, but all hands must be on the alert to turn out at a moment’s warning. Carl will get some supper for us, and pass it around.”
Bob, as usual, had made no arrangement whereby he could secure any rest for himself. But he felt that he could not rest, even if he had the chance.
The rescue of Coleman meant much to Captain Nemo, junior, for on the performance of the Grampus might depend the sale of the submarine to the United States government. While the failure to rescue Coleman, and even the loss of Jordan, Speake, and the pilot had nothing to do with the boat’s capabilities, yet failure, nevertheless, would spoil a sale and fill the authorities in Washington with distrust.
The Grampus was not a passenger boat, and she had now a lady passenger to take care of. Bob finally solved the difficulty by having Ysabel conducted to a small steel room abaft the periscope chamber. This was set aside entirely for the girl’s use, and she arranged a fairly comfortable bed on the floor.
After supper had been eaten, Ysabel retired to her cabin, and Carl and Dick nodded drowsily on the locker in the periscope room. Bob, wide awake as a hawk, kept his eyes on the periscope table and his ears attuned for the first sound of the launch’s motor.
Night, however, closed in without bringing any sign of the boat. The gloom, of course, put the periscope out of commission as it deepened, but still Bob watched the table top, looking for possible lights and listening for the clank of machinery.
Dick took Bob’s place for an hour or two, while Bob lay down and tried to sleep. Although he had had only three hours’ sleep in two days, yet the young motorist found it impossible to lose himself in slumber. He was keyed up to too high a pitch, and was too worried.
At midnight he sent Dick and Carl to relieve Gaines and Clackett, and was alone with his vigils in the periscope room.
From midnight on, the night seemed an eternity; and the gloomy hours passed without anything happening. Bob had believed with Gaines that night would be the time the captors would choose for coming down the river with their captives. Inasmuch as they had not come, did this mean that they were not coming at all? that General Pitou had changed his plans?