CHAPTER VI.
FACE TO FACE.
The hissing sound stopped. Instead, under a pressure of nearly two and a half atmospheres, the water rushed into the disconnected valve. In five seconds it had risen to the sub's knees. Then the inrush was checked.
It was useless to struggle, but with an uncontrollable longing to wrench himself away from his captors, rather than be drowned like a rat, Hythe persisted in his efforts, till he realized that he was in no immediate danger of being suffocated. In the place of the air pumped in from above--air that was anything but fresh--came a cool, invigorating vapour strongly charged with oxygen.
He no longer appealed for aid. He knew that with the air-tube and life-line the telephone wire had been severed. He was cut off from all intercourse from above. Even his air supply was self-contained.
Instinctively he felt certain that he would be carried off to the mysterious submarine. Curiosity prompted him to accept the situation with equanimity, his inborn fighting disposition urged him to resist. If he were to be made a prisoner he would let his captors know that the liberty of a British officer is not lightly lost.
It was a strange procession on the sandy floor of Cawsand Bay, for others of the submarine's crew had come upon the scene, and surrounded and held by five weirdly-garbed and helmeted men Hythe was frog-marched towards the huge submerged vessel.
A dull patch in the side of the craft indicated that a portion of her plating had been swung back, revealing on closer inspection a door about five feet in height and thirty inches wide.
Here the sub saw his chance. With outstretched arms and legs he defied the crowd of captors to pass his resisting body through the narrow aperture. Twice he almost freed himself from their clutches. The oxygen-charged vapour he was breathing accentuated his fighting instincts, and mainly through sheer delight at being able to thwart his antagonists he lashed out right and left.
Still retaining their hold the men began to lose patience. One of them turned and looked at another who was standing by. The look was understood. Drawing a small instrument resembling a two-pronged fork, from a sheath attached to his belt, the fellow advanced towards the young officer.