Passing through the open door in which the man had appeared so suddenly, Matt found himself in the passage along which he and Holcomb had been led to the torpedo room in the bow. Matt was not going to the torpedo room just then, for he had begun to wonder whether Cassidy, Burke, and Harris might not be confined in the steel chamber where he and Holcomb had been placed on being brought aboard the Grampus.
Whirling to the left, he made in the direction of the chamber.
[CHAPTER XIV.]
MOTOR MATT'S SUCCESS.
The door to the steel chamber, as Matt remembered it, opened directly off the end of the narrow passage. The corridor was lighted with a couple of incandescent lamps so that Matt had no trouble in seeing what he was about.
Just as he laid his hand on the door Carl came into the passage. Matt turned to his chum, laid a finger on his lips in token of silence, and beckoned him to come close.
Just as Carl drew near Matt pushed open the door. Instantly there was a rush of feet and the young motorist was thrown heavily back against the Dutch boy. They both went down together on the steel floor; and, at the same moment, the electric lights faded out, leaving the corridor in darkness.
Only one man had rushed from the room at the end of the passage—of that Matt was positive. Where he had gone Matt did not know, but as soon as he could extricate himself from his entanglement with his Dutch pard the young motorist pushed on through the darkness and entered the chamber.
"Vere you vas, Matt?" called Carl, stumbling along the corridor. "It vas so tark I don'd peen aple to see my handt pehind my pack. Vich vay dit you go?"