THE OVERTURNED BOAT.
Matt knew why the original orders given him by Captain Nemo, Jr., carried the Grampus around the Horn. For a vessel that depended on anything but sails for motive power rounding the Horn was no difficult matter. In those southern waters bad weather prevails, but it was possible for the submarine to dive downward and escape the gales and the rough seas. Magellan Strait, on the other hand, was difficult of navigation. Captain Nemo, Jr., had specified a course around the Horn in order to expose the Grampus to as little hazard as might be. He had not known, of course, that Matt and his friends were to be beset by such relentless foes as the Sons of the Rising Sun. Matt preferred to risk the difficult passage of the strait rather than to take chances rounding the southern tip of the continent.
It would have been possible for him, of course, so to word his wireless message as to carry the mysterious steamer through the strait, leaving the Grampus free to take the course originally laid down for her. But that would have given the steamer the shortest course to the Pacific, and she could have been waiting in Smyth Channel, at the western end of the strait, when the submarine came picking her way among the islands. On the whole, it seemed to Matt better that he should send the mysterious steamer around the Horn, and so get ahead of her for the run up the Chilian coast.
The barometer had been falling rapidly all afternoon, and Matt was in a hurry to round Cape Virgins and find anchorage in Possession Bay, there to submerge to a good depth, avoid the storm, and pass the night. While in the strait they would have to do their navigating by daylight, and either sink to the bottom or tie up during the hours of darkness.
While the Grampus was still at the surface, Matt pushed through the hatch to get a look at the sky. Off to the south the heavens were black as the inside of a tar barrel, and through the heavy gloom ran vivid lines of lightning. The wind was high and constantly increasing, so that the waves were lashed furiously. But the rollers were long, and when the submarine crossed one high wave, she slid down the watery hill like a toboggan, ramming her sharp nose into the next comber, and flinging the scud high over the conning tower.
Our friends aboard the craft were hurled about at every angle, and it was necessary for those who had to remain at their posts to lash themselves securely in order to avoid being thrown against the machinery, or the steel plates of side or bulkhead.
Matt closed and secured the hatch, after which he slid down the ladder. Speake, tied to rings in the forward bulkhead of the periscope room, was watching the periscope and doing the steering. The floor underneath seemed to tumble around like the back of a rearing horse.
"We're getting it good an' proper, Matt," said Speake. "For exercise in ground an' lofty tumblin', a submarine in a seaway takes the banner."
"We'll submerge," said Matt, "but I'm in hopes we can get around Cape Virgins and into Possession Bay before the worst of it hits us."
He turned to the tank-room speaking tube.