"Are you sure, matey," went on Dick, "that that was the Jap steamer our lookout raised from the headland?"
"We can't be sure of anything where those Japs are concerned. The steamer was of about the same size, although differently painted. But, then, paint is cheap, and it sometimes makes a big difference in a boat's appearance. The suspicious circumstance is that, while she was passing the mouth of the Gallegos, she pulled down the cross of St. George and ran up the Chilian flag."
"And she had two wireless masts!" exclaimed Dick. "These Sons of the Rising Sun are wily chaps, but, seeing that we have come from Para, all down the eastern coast of South America without any trouble, I was beginning to think the Japs had given up, and that they were going to let us finish our long cruise without paying us any more attention."
"Remember what Mr. Brigham, the American consul at Para, told us, Dick--that these fanatical young Japs never turn back once they have set their hands to a piece of work. Our business is to get the _Grampus_ around the Horn and into the hands of the commandant of the navy yard at Mare Island, and collect a hundred thousand dollars for Captain Nemo, Jr. The Sons of the Rising Sun came near winning while we were on the way from Port of Spain to Para, and the mere fact that we got the best of them isn't going to cause them to throw up their hands and haul off."[A]
[A] How Motor Matt and his chums were commissioned by Captain Nemo, Jr., to take the _Grampus_ around South America to San Francisco, how they met unexpected enemies, and how they worsted them, was set forth in No. 18 of the Motor Stories, "Motor Matt in Brazil; or, Under the Amazon."
"If there's a wireless machine on that steamer," observed Dick speculatively, "it doesn't seem to me that she can belong to the Japs."
"It was probably easier for the Japs to install a wireless apparatus than it was for us. Undoubtedly they had every part of the machine in the hold of their vessel when they left their own country. As for us, we had to pick up a second-hand instrument at Buenos Ayres. I don't know that wireless telegraphy is going to help us any; but there's a chance that it may, and we can't neglect any chance if we want to clip the claws of the dragon."