"Yes, it's the nearest," agreed the Commander, "but we'll sink that sub first. She's a menace to navigation."
A moment later the gun roared again and once again. Fragments of steel plates and twisted iron mingled with the upflung water as the bursting shells struck true and the shattered submarine sank to her last resting place to form the tomb of those who had come to their death within her. Now that the submarine had been destroyed there was no chance of hearing the truth of the plans which had been made to rescue Robinson and his fellow plotters from the destroyer and all possible speed was made for Trinidad.
But Rawlins was still skeptical. "I've a hunch that old boy with the monocle didn't go down with that sub," he declared as the blue waters changed to a dull muddy brown from the mouth of the Orinoco nearly one hundred miles distant. "I'll bet he and Red Whiskers and some others got away and saved their hides. They may have been picked up or they might even have made land. And I'd like to know what became of that blamed seaplane."
"If they were picked up they'll be reported," declared Mr. Pauling. "When we reach Trinidad, we can send out a general alarm to hold them wherever they arrive; but personally I believe they're dead. If the sub was in collision, she must have been run down at night and in that case all below were probably suffocated. The fact that there were only a few bodies visible proves nothing, for there may have been many more in the rooms or out of sight. Of course, the plane is unaccounted for, but I imagine they left her somewhere and all took to the sub long before it was disabled. You see, we have no proof that it was used after leaving Aves--now that we know Robinson's story was pure falsehood."
"Maybe," was the diver's comment. "But I'm still from Missouri."
When the boys came on deck the following morning, the lofty mountains of Venezuela loomed above the yellow-brown water ahead with blue-green hills stretching far to east and west.
"Gosh! it doesn't seem possible we're looking at South America," exclaimed Frank. "Where's Trinidad, Mr. Rawlins?"
"There to the east," replied the diver. "Those mountains to the west are at the tip of Venezuela, those lower green hills dead ahead are the islands at the Bocas, and only the northern end of Trinidad and those faint misty mountains in the distance are visible from here."