Matt was listening with intense interest.
"The crew that Captain Pons took out to the submarine wasn't the right one?" he observed.
"No. The real crew arrived in the afternoon, agreeably to schedule, and found Captain Pons without a submarine and very much up in the air. If he can't recover the submarine from the thieves, his firm may hold him responsible for the loss of the stolen boat."
"There were torpedoes in the French submarine?"
Matt began to grow excited as the situation cleared before him.
"Instead of coming from Coronel, it was discovered that they came from the south--by railroad from Valdivia, on the coast. It has also been discovered that they were Japanese--Japs who had their eyes straightened. It is supposed that they are from the mysterious steamer that escaped from Captain Sandoval, below English Reach."
Matt's astonishment almost lifted him off the stone step on which he was sitting.
"Our old enemies!" he exclaimed. "The Sons of the Rising Sun have secured a submarine boat, and that means that they can follow us wherever we go."
"Hard luck, Matt, that events should drift into this tangle! That French submarine had to be here, it seems, at just the right time to help out the Japs. The young Samurai must have known about this other craft. After dodging Captain Sandoval, they managed to reach Valdivia and came on from there by train. That is how they were able to get ahead of us."
"Every mysterious twist is taken out of the situation now, Glennie," said Matt, almost stunned by the audacity of the Japs and the marvelous way in which circumstances had aided them. "They took possesion of the French submarine and started south to meet the _Grampus_. The noiseless way in which they hung upon our flanks is easy to understand. The torpedo was launched at us while the French boat was submerged; and when that rope was hurled at me, the boat was just out of the water--there were no lights about her, and the search light of the _Grampus_ enabled those on the French craft to make that cast with the riata."
"Glennie," he continued, "the hardest job of our lives is ahead of us! The Japs have a submarine, and there's not one of them who would not willingly give his life if, by doing so, he could destroy the _Grampus_. As long as our enemies were in a steamboat, and compelled to remain on the surface, it was easy to keep away from them; but now, no matter where we go, they can follow us."