Matt, Glennie, the two captains, and the negroes were stupefied. They stood as though rooted to the ground and stared across the water toward the spot where the _Grampus_ had been anchored.
"_Sacre!_" muttered Captain Pons. "Zat was a torpedo, by gar!"
"It was fired at the _Grampus_!" cried Matt, almost beside himself. "I was afraid an attack would be made--and the boys didn't know anything about that other submarine, Glennie. If our boat has been destroyed, if--if----"
Matt staggered against the post to which the painter securing the rowboat was made fast.
The negroes began talking excitedly between themselves, and Pons and Arco likewise began to air their opinions.
"Don't lose your nerve, Matt," said Glennie. "That was a torpedo, all right, and it goes without saying that the Japs discharged it from the _Pom_, under water. It hit something, and was discharged, _but it didn't hit the Grampus_."
"No," answered Matt, his moody eyes resting on the spot where the _Grampus_ had been anchored, "the torpedo didn't hit the _Grampus_, for the column of water spouted up almost a fathom from the place where she was moored; but the boat may have been destroyed by the explosion, for all that. When the geyser dropped, it covered the place where our submarine ought to have been. But you can see, Glennie, she isn't there."
Motor Matt had gone through many perils and difficulties since he and his chums had started for "around the Horn" with the _Grampus_, but he had never been so greatly cast down as he was at that moment. He was thinking of Carl, of Dick, and of the three brave men, Speake, Gaines, and Clackett, who had stood shoulder to shoulder with him through all the dangers that had met them since leaving British Honduras.
It was a good thing that Glennie, at that moment, was so hopeful.
"We haven't been able to see the _Grampus_ for several minutes, Matt," he observed. "In coming down the hill from the casa, the boat was hidden from us."
"All the same, Glennie, she was in her berth, whether we saw her or not. If she hadn't been where we left her, the Japs wouldn't have had any target, and the torpedo would not have been exploded in that spot. If it comes to that, the fact that we didn't see her goes to show that she may have changed her position a little, and have been right where the torpedo exploded."