"All the senses Heaven endowed him with are on duty."
"How does he think we could cause the torpedo to act in that manner?"
"He lays it to our friends on the Grampus, but is gloriously indefinite concerning the way they worked the trick."
Matt walked up the steps and faced Captain Pons. "We had nothing to do with the disappearance of the torpedo!" he cried. "Why, the very idea is preposterous! How could any of our men cause the Whitehead to disappear in that fashion?"
"You want ze torpedo," insisted Captain Pons doggedly. "You make ze dispute wiz me. Zen, w'en I say non, ze torpedo belong wiz me, pouf! away he go lak a streak. You haf stole heem, and you will answer to ze French government for zat, by gar!"
"That is foolish talk, Captain Pons, for a man of your age and experience."
"Hein! I am not so foolish as w'at you zink."
"It was the other boat that stole the torpedo—the submarine the Japs stole from you."
"Zat could not be ze Pom. Ze Jap zey would not dar-r-r-e bring ze Pom back in ze bay."
"You don't know those Japs as well as we do, captain. They are enemies of ours, and have followed us clear from Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. They want to destroy the Grampus, to keep her out of the hands of the United States Navy. If I don't go down there, and warn my friends and do something to protect our submarine, this Pom of yours may make an attack."