"Courage, my lad," said he, kindly. "Don't give up, yet."
"What else is there to hope for?" asked Matt. "Dick and Carl were in that boat, and they were not able to keep it from filling and turning turtle. If that is what happened, then——"
Matt could not finish. For a moment all the courage was taken out of him.
"If the worst has happened to your friends, Matt," said the captain, gravely, "then this man Sixty is directly, or indirectly, responsible for it. But cheer up. We both know what a resourceful fellow Ferral is, and that Carl is full of pluck and energy. I can't believe that they went down in that storm, even with the evidence of the overturned whaleboat to make us think to the contrary. I'll have Cassidy up and we'll draw closer to the boat and get a better look at her."
With Cassidy on deck, armed with a boathook, the Grampus was driven close alongside the boat. With the boathook, the mate was able to turn the boat partly over, giving those on the submarine a glimpse of her broken bulwarks.
"Ah!" cried Captain Nemo, Jr. "The whaleboat was struck by something—perhaps by some ship. In that event, the boys may have been taken out of the boat, and be as safe, now, as we are."
"What's to be done, captain?" asked Matt. "I don't feel like leaving these waters until I learn something more definite regarding Dick and Carl, but I hardly see how we're going to learn anything by cruising around in this vicinity. If the whaleboat was stove by a ship, and Carl and Dick were taken aboard, then by now they must be a good way from this part of the gulf."
"It won't do any harm to cruise around here for a day or two, anyhow," replied the captain.
"Meanwhile," said Matt, "Captain Sixty is getting away on the Santa Maria."
"Then he'll have to get away," returned the captain. "He's only suspected of filibustering, and my orders were simply to keep track of him and discover what he was doing. We'll forget about Sixty and think only of Dick and Carl."