"Why, Gaines," laughed Matt, "our last motor troubles came in bunches of a dozen! Every part of the motor seemed to have developed a weakness."
"They all came at the same time," continued Gaines, with superstitious firmness. "There'll be something else, you mark what I'm saying."
The following morning there was another early start. Everything went swimmingly for several hours; then, on rounding a particularly bold headland, Speake, who was in the conning tower, steering, saw something which nearly caused him to fall off the ladder.
"Oh, Christopher!" he called down the hatch. "Look, Matt!"
Matt and Glennie both sprang to the periscope, drawn there by a quick jump on account of the wild alarm that throbbed in Speake's voice.
English Reach lay ahead of the Grampus, and there, out across the surface of the water, quietly and expectantly waiting, was the Jap steamer!
Speake had been on the lookout, on the crest of the hill at Gallego Bay, at the time the steamer had been raised the other time. He recognized her on the instant.
There was a Chilian flag flying, and from a swift movement of men over the steamer's decks it was certain that the Grampus had been seen.
"They see us now," said Matt, "but they won't in a minute. Clackett," he called through the tank-room tube, "we'll go down the usual depth for periscope work."
Matt's voice was calm and steady, in spite of the fact that the thing for which he had planned in Gallegos Bay—namely, the avoiding of the steamer—had failed.