Motor Matt appreciated to the full Captain Nemo, Jr.'s trust and confidence. He had vowed to himself over and over again that he would prove to the captain he was worthy of the trust reposed in him. Matt was thinking of all this on the deck of the _Grampus_, after Dick and Carl had left him; and, in the midst of his reflection, he fancied he heard a muffled sound from somewhere in the submarine's wake.
Instantly alarmed, he passed the conning tower, without exchanging any words with Speake, and took up a position not far from the churning propeller. But he heard nothing further, and could see nothing either to increase or diminish his fears. He was just turning about to make his way forward, when a coil struck about his throat, drawing taut on the instant and preventing any outcry. At the same instant there came an irresistible pull backward.
Matt, astounded by this unexpected attack, reaching him from some point away from the boat and darting silently and suddenly out of the thick gloom, flung up his hands in an attempt to clutch one of the wire guys of the periscope mast.
He missed the guy by a fraction of an inch, slipped downward over the rounded deck and rolled into the water. He made little noise, so little that Speake could not hear it above the swirl of waves thrown up by the rounded plates of the _Grampus_.
Another moment and Matt was in the water and swimming. The deadly compression at his throat continued, and he was unable to voice a sound. He could see the little search light of the submarine moving rapidly onward into the darkness, and could see the half of Speake's form, like a blot of shadow, rearing out of the tower hatch.
All this time Matt felt the pull of the rope about his neck, drawing him steadily and remorselessly away into the foggy night. No one spoke behind him, and there was not the slightest sound to tell him who his captors were, or where they were, or how they had succeeded in making him a victim in that mysterious fashion.
A minute, two minutes, passed. At the end of that time Matt felt his strength leaving him because of the strangling grip about his throat. Then, suddenly, the rearward "pull" relaxed and the constriction at his throat ceased. With one hand he reached upward and pulled the strangling coil loose and gulped down a deep draught of air.