From that moment the Grampus began an aimless wandering through the waters of that part of the gulf. They were delayed three hours, shortly after noon, by a mishap to the gasoline motor. The trouble was too much for Gaines, and Matt was called on to locate the difficulty and repair it.
This was a good thing for Matt, inasmuch as it drew his thoughts from moody conjectures concerning his chums and gave him something important to do in the line of work that he liked best.
An hour after the motor was in working order again, and the Grampus was traveling along at a good clip, Cassidy, who was on the lookout, raised a smudge of smoke on the horizon. The steamer was coming from the south, and was evidently bound for some port to the north, either Mobile or New Orleans. With a desire to speak to her, on the possible chance of learning something about Dick and Carl, the submarine altered her course so as to intersect that of the steamer.
Matt, Nemo, Jr., and Cassidy were on the deck when the Grampus had come close enough to get the steamer in full view.
"Great guns!" exclaimed Cassidy, as his eyes traveled over the vessel's trim lines, "it's the United States cruiser Seminole. I know her pretty near as well as I do the Grampus."
"Bring up the signal flags and code book, Mr. Cassidy," ordered the captain; "also the megaphone. We'll get into communication with the captain of the cruiser. Even if he can't tell us anything about Dick and Carl, we can talk with him a little about Jim Sixty."
Cassidy was soon back with signal flags, code book and megaphone. While he gave his attention to running up the flags at the short staff of the Grampus, Matt handled the code book.
"Have you seen anything of two men who were lost in a small boat during the storm last night?"
This was the first question spelled out by the flags.
With the binoculars, Captain Nemo, Jr., read the answer.