The injured man was still lying on the locker, while his mates were sitting up around the sides of the periscope chamber and leaning back against the steel walls.
"Who are you?" inquired Matt, seating himself on one of the low stools with which the room was supplied.
Four pairs of eyes were turned on him blankly, then three pairs swerved to the largest and heaviest man of the lot, who appeared to be the leader.
Matt had picked up a little Spanish while he was in Arizona, but he did not feel that it was sufficient to enable him to hold an extended conversation with the rescued men.
"Unlimber your Spanish, Glennie," said he, "and translate it as you go along. I know something of the lingo, but not enough."
Thereupon the following passed between the ensign and the spokesman for the five, all being translated as the conversation proceeded:
"We come from Valparaiso, Chili, but have been at Sandy Point (Punta Arenas) in the strait for a week."
"We worked in the quicksilver mines, but left the mines to ship on a guano boat that was going to the Falklands."
"How did you happen to be at Sandy Point?"
"The guano boat proved unseaworthy. Her seams opened in the strait, and while we were feeling our way along toward Sandy Point her boilers blew up. Some of us got ashore and made our way to Sandy Point."
"Then, after that, how did you happen to get wrecked?"
"There was no work for us in Sandy Point, so we hired a small sailboat and were going to the River Plate. The squall struck us, and our boat went over on her beam ends. The owner of the boat was swept into the sea and drowned, but we managed to get on the boat's bottom, and tied ourselves there. We had given ourselves up for lost when you came to our aid. We are grateful to all of you, señors."
There was no reason why Matt and his friends should not believe the Chilian's story, and they accepted it exactly as given.
"Tell them, Glennie," said Matt, "that we are not going into the Atlantic, but around into the Pacific. Ask them what they want to do."
Glennie gave the Chilians the substance of this, and their startled looks aroused Matt's surprise.
"They say," went on Glennie, repeating the spokesman's words, "that they do not want to go to Sandy Point or to any port in Chili. They want to know how far north we are going along the Pacific coast. If we are going as far as Peru they would like to travel with us."