[CHAPTER IV.]
PRISONERS ON A SUBMARINE.
Motor Matt fought in vain to free himself. At least two men had laid hold of him, and the coat was kept drawn tightly over his face and head to prevent outcry. In this condition he was picked up, carried some distance along the wharf and finally laid down on his face while his hands were lashed at his back and his feet tied. Then, perfectly helpless and unable to see where he was being taken, he felt himself lifted and lowered. After a moment he was lifted and lowered again, this time, as he surmised, through a narrow hatch, for he felt the sides of the aperture striking his arms and shoulders as he went down.
Presently he landed on a hard deck, and was again carried a short distance. Here, when he was finally laid down, the coat was whisked from his face and he found himself in the blinding glare of an electric light.
Retreating footsteps came to him, followed by the slamming of a door.
As soon as his eyes had become used to the glow of the light, he discovered that he was in a small room with a curved iron deck overhead. An incandescent lamp was screwed into one of the walls, and there was a door in each bulkhead at the ends of the room.
Matt was bewildered by what had recently happened to him.
Had the crew of the Crescent resorted to violence in order to save Jurgens from capture? The law would take hold of the men good and hard for resisting an officer.
As Matt figured it, he had been brought aboard the sailboat. But what would his captors have to gain by a move of that kind? McMillan knew what the men on the Crescent had done for Jurgens, and it was a fair inference that the officer would soon pay the craft a visit, himself.