GALLANT WORK.

The southern horizon had become almost a continuous glare of lightning. This was a help to the rescuers, otherwise the deep gloom that prevailed would have rendered it impossible for them to do anything. The thunder rolled heavily, and this, united with the splash and roar of the sea, lent an accompaniment to the scene well calculated to try the strongest nerves.

At times, Matt, Glennie, and Dick seemed to be adrift in the waste of waters with no substantial foothold under them. Rounded deck, and even the conning tower, were covered with the creaming waves. When they were not completely deluged, the stinging spray was hurled into their faces, temporarily blinding them.

Glennie, however, kept his wits about him. Dick and Carl had never liked the ensign, principally because his naval rank and his family pride seemed to have gone to his head, enlarging it. But the way Glennie hung to the conning tower, keeping his eyes in the direction of the overturned boat and his hands on the steering and signaling devices in the inner side of the tower, made a good deal of a hit with Dick.

By dexterous manoeuvring, Glennie brought the Grampus to windward of the five men. He did not dare halt the submarine, for to try and hold her powerless in that rolling tumult would have invited disaster. Matt and Dick, understanding this, prepared to hurl their ropes as they came close to the other boat.

In some manner the five men had contrived to lash themselves to the keel of their boat. They saw how gallantly the king of the motor boys and his friends were trying to rescue them, and waved their arms encouragingly. They must have shouted, too, although their voices were lost in the bedlam of sounds that surrounded them.

Matt, being forward of the conning tower, came near the overturned boat first. He had his weighted rope coiled in his hand, but did not cast it immediately. He was holding back until the next wave should lift the submarine. At that time the five men would be in the trough, and this would give him a "downhill" cast.

Dick preferred not to wait. His line flew out, but was caught by the fierce wind and twisted from the hands that were stretched to grasp it.

The next moment the Grampus was lifted high, and Matt swung the wrench. The rope uncoiled in his hand, was caught by one of the men on the forward part of the wreck, and there was a cable stretched between the two boats. But what happened during the next minute was hardly expected.

As the submarine poised on the crest of the wave, her propeller was out of the water, and racing; then, as the wave rushed on, the Grampus fell away in the trough, rolling her deck plates under. The wreck was lifted, and the pull of the line and the motion of the sea threw it over almost on top of the submarine.

The wooden hulk struck the iron plates a tremendous blow. All three of the boys had a narrow escape. Had the Grampus delayed two seconds in taking the windward roll, they would have been crushed under the impact of the two grinding hulls.

The submarine, however, righted just in the nick of time. Two of the men on the wreck were thrown off. Glennie managed to catch one of them, and Dick laid hold of the other.

This left three still on the boat's bottom, with only Matt to deal with the situation. Quick to think, the king of the motor boys flung the second of the two ropes he had brought with him. It was caught, and two of the men fastened themselves to it. The other man had already lashed the first line about his waist.

As the Grampus plowed her way onward, placing a rapidly widening distance between herself and the wreck, the three men flung themselves into the water.

Glennie, although busy with his steering, with his signals to the engine room, and with his work of holding the man he had grabbed from the wreck, contrived to let Carl and Speake know that they were to haul in on Matt's two lines.

While those in the periscope room were engaged in this, Glennie was passing his man down the hatch, and Dick was getting the other one forward.

By the time Dick's man had followed Glennie's, Carl and Speake had dragged the other three close to the submarine. A wave threw them with crushing force against the plates. One was rendered unconscious—Matt could not tell, in the lightning glare, but that he was killed. As his limp body slipped downward over the rounded deck plates, Matt jumped for it, and wrapped it in his arms.

A smother of water engulfed the Grampus. When she shook herself free, Glennie and Dick had the two men on the other line, and Matt was still clinging to the one he had rescued.

Glennie and Dick passed their half-drowned charges to the safe regions below, and Dick helped Matt with the last of the five unfortunates.

In some manner, the boys could never tell just how, they succeeded in getting the man below deck and in following him themselves. Matt, who was the last to leave, was so nearly fagged that he had not the strength to close the hatch. Carl bounded up the iron ladder, got the hatch in place, and slid down again.

Matt, Dick, and Glennie, utterly exhausted, were lying on the floor among those whom they had rescued. Water, which had entered the open hatch, was churning back and forth and splashing through scuppers into the tank room. Clackett had set a pump to work, and was ejecting the water as rapidly as possible.

"Were any of the port plates sprung by that collision with the wreck, Carl?" inquired Matt, rousing himself. "Did all this water come down the hatchway?"

"Efery pit oof id, Matt," declared Carl. "Clackett looked ofer der blates, und he say dot dey vas all righdt."

"Then submerge until the periscope ball is awash," went on Matt. "These poor fellows can't stand this knocking around."

The violent rolling and pitching of the boat was throwing the five men in every direction.

Carl communicated at once with Clackett, in the tank room, and the Grampus was soon riding easier, some ten feet under the surface.

"We're off Cape Virgins," announced Speake, once more at the steering wheel and with his eyes on the periscope.

Matt crawled to the locker and pulled out one of the charts. After a few moments' study of it he gave Speake the course.

"As soon as we get into Possession Bay," said Matt, "we'll be out of this gale. Be careful, Speake."

"It's hard to be careful, Matt, when you ain't able to see the surface more'n a third of the time," was the answer, "but I'll do the best I can. I think you fellows are entitled to a little rest after what you done on deck. Je-ru-sa-lem! but that was a plucky fight you made. I wouldn't have given the fag end o' nothin' for your chances of savin' those fellows—and not much more for your chances o' gettin' back yourselves."

One by one the rescued men began to recover. Carl had been working over the unconscious man, and when he opened his eyes he began to groan.

"He's hurt," announced Carl. "He vouldn't make a noise like dot oof he vasn't hurt."

"I'll see if I can tell what's the matter with him," said Glennie.

Picking his way to the man's side, he and Carl lifted him and laid him on the locker. The man's groans redoubled as he was raised.

"It's his arm," announced Glennie, after a brief examination. "There's a fracture."

"Do you know anything about surgery?" queried Matt.

Glennie shook his head.

"Then it's up to me," said Matt, leaving the periscope chamber.

There was a chest in the torpedo room well stocked with everything necessary in the medicine line, also with lint, bandages, and splints. Selecting a set of splints and bandages, Matt returned to the periscope room.

Glennie and Carl had already stripped the water-soaked flannel shirt from the injured man, and Matt, Dick, and Glennie at once got busy.

It was a painful piece of work. While Glennie held the man down on the locker by the shoulders, Dick pulled at the arm, Matt pressing his hands about the fracture so that he might know when the bones got into place.

The patient groaned and yelled, for the pain must have been terrific.

"There you are, Dick," said Matt suddenly. "Now hold it that way until I get it bound up."

Adjusting the splints, Matt wound them rapidly with bandages, and presently had the arm rigidly in the cast.

The work had required some time, and when it was finished, Speake turned from the periscope table.

"Here we are in Possession Bay, Matt," said he. "The chart shows twenty feet of water under us."

"All right," answered Matt. "Drop to the bottom, Speake, and then get busy and make us a little hot coffee. We all feel the need of a bracer, I guess."

Clackett could be heard opening the tanks, and the downward movement of the submarine became perceptible. The motor was stopped, and in a few minutes the boat touched bottom gently and came to a rest in undisturbed waters.

Speake went below to attend to getting the supper, and Clackett and Gaines, all agog with curiosity, came into the periscope room.

Matt was just preparing to give his attention to the rescued men, and to learn how they had come to be in their desperate plight. Glennie, in a few words, explained to Clackett and Gaines how the rescue had been effected.