"Here we are in Possession Bay, Matt," said he. "The chart shows twenty feet of water under us."
"All right," answered Matt. "Drop to the bottom, Speake, and then get busy and make us a little hot coffee. We all feel the need of a bracer, I guess."
Clackett could be heard opening the tanks, and the downward movement of the submarine became perceptible. The motor was stopped, and in a few minutes the boat touched bottom gently and came to a rest in undisturbed waters.
Speake went below to attend to getting the supper, and Clackett and Gaines, all agog with curiosity, came into the periscope room.
Matt was just preparing to give his attention to the rescued men, and to learn how they had come to be in their desperate plight. Glennie, in a few words, explained to Clackett and Gaines how the rescue had been effected.
[CHAPTER V.]
THE FIVE CHILIANS.
The five rescued men were swarthy and undersized. All were barefooted and bareheaded, and clad only in coarse linen shirts and dungaree trousers. They were a dejected-looking lot, and seemed hardly able to realize, as yet, that they had been saved.
The injured man was still lying on the locker, while his mates were sitting up around the sides of the periscope chamber and leaning back against the steel walls.