"I'll not go below this night, Dick," said Matt, "and we'd better all of us stay on deck and keep our eyes peeled for Japs. Carl can go and bring me up some dry clothes, an extra pair of shoes and stockings, and an extra coat."
"Dot's me, bard," chirruped Carl, making for the conning tower.
"Get the boat on her proper course, Speake," said Matt; "we must get out of this neighborhood as soon as we can--and as quick as we can. Watch the torpedo as we come about, Dick, you and Glennie. See that the cable doesn't foul the guys or the periscope mast."
Speake signaled for a fresh start, and as the submarine described a circle and pointed the other way, Dick and Glennie kept the hawser clear. The torpedo took its scope of cable, and the drag of it was plainly felt as soon as the submarine began to pull.
"It's main lucky, mates," remarked Dick, as Carl regained the deck with Matt's dry clothing, and the young motorist began to get out of his wet togs, "that we've such a smooth sea. If the wind was blowing hard and the water was choppy, Matt would have a hard time with that torpedo of his."
"A lucky thing, too," added Glennie, "that there's a thick fog. If Matt's enemies had seen him, they'd have finished the work they set out to do with that lariat."
"On the other hand, Glennie," put in Matt, "we don't want to forget that it was the fog that enabled them to come so close. Their boat must have got within seventy-five feet of the _Grampus_ in order for any one to drop that noose over my head."
"I'll be keelhauled if I can understand how such a trick was done," said Dick. "From my experiences on the cattle ranges of Texas, I should say that a seventy-five-foot cast with a riata is a mighty big one, and liable to be successful about once in a hundred times. But here's this swab that lassoed Matt, snaring him the first crack--and throwing from a boat's deck and across water, at that!"
"Then, too," proceeded Glennie, "their boat has less noise to it than any craft I ever heard of. It shoved along within seventy-five feet of us--and none of us heard a sound!"
"I thought I heard a noise, Glennie," returned Matt, "and that was what took me aft."
"I can't understand how it was done," muttered the ensign.