第45章
Captain Weston leaped forward, and with a terrific blow sent Lieutenant Drascalo to the deck.
"There!" cried the sailor."I guess you won't yell 'Silenceo!' for a while now."There was a rush of Brazilians toward the group of prisoners.Tom caught one with a blow on the chin, and felled him, while Captain Weston disposed of two more, and Mr.Sharp and Mr.Damon one each.The savage fighting of the Americans was too much for the foreigners, and they drew back.
"Come on!" cried Captain Weston again."The storm is getting worse.The warship will crash into the submarine in a few minutes.Her anchors aren't holding.I didn't think they would."He made a dash for the ladder, and a glance showed him that the smallboat was in the water at the foot of it.The craft had not been hoisted on the davits.
"Luck's with us at last!" cried Tom, Seeing it also."Shall I help you, dad?""No; I think I'm all right.Go ahead."
There came such a gust of wind that the San Paula was heeled over, and the wreck of the mast, rolling about, crashed into the side of a deck house, splintering it.A crowd of sailors, led by Admiral Fanchetti, who were again rushing on the escaping prisoners, had to leap back out of the way of the rolling mast.
"Catch them! Don't let them get away!" begged the commander, but the sailors evidently had no desire to close in with the Americans.
Through the rush of wind and rain Tom and his friends staggered down the ladder.It was hard work to maintain one's footing, but they managed it.On account of the high side of the ship the water was comparatively calm under her lee, and, though the small boat was bobbing about, they got aboard.The oars were in place, and in another moment they had shoved off from the landing stage which formed the foot of the accommodation ladder.
"Now for the Advance!" murmured Captain Weston.
"Come back! Come back, dogs of Americans!" cried a voice at the rail over their heads, and looking up, Tom saw Lieutenant Drascalo.He had snatched a carbine from a marine, and was pointing it at the recent prisoners.He fired, the flash of the gun and a dazzling chain of lightning coming together.The thunder swallowed up the report of the carbine, but the bullet whistled uncomfortable close to Tom's head.The blackness that followed the lightning shut out the view of everything for a few seconds, and when the next flash came the adventurers saw that they were close to their submarine.
A fusillade of shots sounded from the deck of the warship, but as the marines were poor marksmen at best, and as the swaying of the ship disconcerted them, our friends were in little danger.
There was quite a sea once they were beyond the protection of the side of the warship, but Captain Weston, who was rowing, knew how tomanage a boat skillfully, and he soon had the craft alongside the bobbing submarine.
"Get aboard, now, quick!" he cried.
They leaped to the small deck, casting the rowboat adrift.It was the work of but a moment to open the conning tower.As they started to descend they were met by several Brazilians coming up.
"Overboard with 'em!" yelled the captain."Let them swim ashore or to their ship!"With almost superhuman strength he tossed one big sailor from the small deck.Another showed fight, but he went to join his companion in the swirling water.A man rushed at Tom, seeking the while to draw his sword, but the young inventor, with a neat left-hander, sent him to join the other two, and the remainder did not wait to try conclusions.They leaped for their lives, and soon all could be seen, in the frequent lightning flashes, swimming toward the warship which was now closer than ever to the submarine"Get inside and we'll sink below the surface!" called Tom."Then we don't care what happens."They closed the steel door of the conning tower.As they did so they heard the patter of bullets from carbines fired from the San Paulo.Then came a violent tossing of the Advance; the waves were becoming higher as they caught the full force of the hurricane.It took but an instant to sever, from within, the cable attached to the anchor, which was one belonging to the warship.The Advance began drifting.
"Open the tanks, Mr.Sharp!" cried Tom."Captain Weston and I will steer.Once below we'll start the engines."Amid a crash of thunder and dazzling flashes of lightning, the submarine began to sink.Tom, in the conning tower had a sight of the San Paulo as it drifted nearer and nearer under the influence of the mighty wind.As one bright flash came he saw Admiral Fanchetti and Lieutenant Drascalo leaning over the rail and gazing at the Advance.
A moment later the view faded from sight as the submarine sank below the surface of the troubled sea.She was tossed about for some time until deep enough to escape the surface motion.Waiting until she was farenough down so that her lights would not offer a mark for the guns of the warship, the electrics were switched on.
"We're safe now!" cried Tom, helping his father to his cabin."They've got too much to attend to themselves to follow us now, even if they could.Shall we go ahead, Captain Weston?""I think so, yes, if I may be allowed to express my opinion," was the mild reply, in strange contrast to the strenuous work in which the captain had just been engaged.
Tom signaled to Mr.Sharp in the engine-room, and in a few seconds the Advance was speeding away from the island and the hostile vessel.Nor, deep as she was now, was there any sign of the hurricane.In the peaceful depths she was once more speeding toward the sunken treasure.