Matt's course carried him up the side of the ridge. Once at the crest he would be able to look down on the Japs and take note of their operations. He would thus be able to determine whether the bold scheme which he had at the back of his brain would be feasible or not.
The crest of the ridge was not more than fifty feet above sea level, and the king of the motor boys was not long in reaching it. There, screened by a thicket of bushes, he was able to look down on the other cove, and make a leisurely examination of the _Pom_ and the Japs.
The _Pom_, as Dick had said, was lying within a short distance of the shore. She was an odd-looking craft, being of a much smaller diameter than the _Grampus_, and having a flat deck built over the rounded plates of her hull. The conning tower was only about half the height and diameter of that of the _Grampus_, and seemed to have a solid top without any hatch opening. The hatch was forward, on the flat deck, and the cover was pushed back.
From the submarine, Matt's eyes wandered to the shelving beach.
The torpedo was there, rolled up beyond the reach of the lapping waves, and two of the Japs were busy about the conical end of the tube. Matt chuckled as he thought of how he had tampered with the firing pin. Before they could make the pin serviceable, the Japs would have to rig another of the little propellers; and, while their ingenuity was no doubt equal to the job, yet it would take time to finish it.
The two men who were at work were clad only in their trousers, and had clearly reached the shore as Matt had done, by swimming. They went about their work steadily and with an application which indicated that they had little attention for anything else.
From their manner, it seemed a fair inference that the rifle shot, or Dick's yell, from the other side of the point, had failed to reach them.
But where were the other two Japs? Had they returned to the _Pom_?
It might be that the two on the beach were in need of more tools and had sent the others out to the boat after them.
Matt, thinking of his plans, measured the distance from the end of the point to the _Pom_.
"The _Grampus_ can do it!" he muttered, with an undernote of exultation throbbing in his voice. "A quick dash, and then a hustle seaward--and the trick is done. But those other two Japs--I wish they would leave the boat and come ashore. They form the danger point in the carrying out of the scheme."