While Carl and Dick were busy with their prisoner, Matt made his way forward along the passage to the torpedo room. When he opened the door and stepped into the place he found that the scrimmage was all over. Cassidy, Burke and Harris had captured the two men and were busy making them secure. Leaving the work to Burke and Harris, Cassidy arose to his feet and stepped close to Matt.
"Your hand, youngster!" said he, cordially, reaching out one of his paws. "You've turned a big thing—I don't know how big, nor how you done it, but I reckon all that'll come out afore long. These fellers," and here Cassidy waved an angry hand toward the two prisoners, "was two of the three that breezed up to me on the wharf at the Inlet an' flashed a letter that claimed to be from Nemo, Jr. The letter informed me that the three men had been hired for part o' the crew o' the Grampus, an' that they was to come aboard and I was to show 'em the ropes. Well, they got me. I ain't overly good at reading writin', but I managed to make out what that letter said an' didn't have sense enough to know it wasn't writ by the cap'n's hand.
"Them three Injuns come aboard. I took one of 'em to show him the ropes, Burke took another, and Harris took the third. The same thing that happened to Harris an' Burke likewise happened to me. When I wasn't lookin', the gent I was conductin' around an' explainin' things to rapped me over the skull from behind. When I come to I was in the torpedo room, along with Burke an' Harris. Bymby we was took out o' here into the periscope room, an' from there into the foc'sle, which ain't a foc'sle at all in the original meanin' o' the word, but which we calls that on account o' it's bein' sleepin' quarters fer the hands.
"A little later the Grampus got under headway, an' then I was waited on by Whistler an' conducted to the motor at the p'int of a gun an' told to keep the motor goin' and obey orders. There wasn't anything else for me to do. The boat was in the hands of the enemy. Jurgens had got the best of the old man, an' I knowed what Jurgens' game was.
"One of Jurgens' men watched me handlin' the motor, an' finally made out to take it hisself. Then, when that happened, I was taken back to the foc'sle an' the lashings was put onto me again. Bymby, Harris and Burke was brought in an' treated in the same way. Like me, they had learned some o' Jurgens' men how to do the work on the Grampus, an' we was sidetracked because we wasn't needed an' couldn't be trusted."
"How did Jurgens come to stop at this island?" Matt asked.
"He seen the white flag an' got curious."
"How did he see the flag if the Grampus was under water?"
"Through the periscope."
"Is that red ball on top of the staff the periscope?"