The young naval captain
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Title: The young naval captain

The war of all nations

Author: Edward Stratemeyer

Release date: February 17, 2025 [eBook #75394]

Language: English

Original publication: United States: Thompson & Thomas, 1902

Credits: Aaron Adrignola, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOUNG NAVAL CAPTAIN ***

THE YOUNG NAVAL CAPTAIN;

OR

THE WAR OF ALL NATIONS

By Captain Ralph Bonehill

Author of "With Taylor on the Rio Grande,"
"Boys of the Fort,"
"The Tour of the Zero Club," etc.

THOMPSON & THOMAS
CHICAGO

Copyrighted 1902
By THOMPSON & THOMAS

CONTENTS.

| PREFACE
I. | The United States Against the World
II. | First Battle on the Ocean
III. | An Interview with the Secretary of the Navy
IV. | Blowing Up of the Tien-Tsin
V. | Prisoners of the Sea
VI. | Out of a Living Tomb
VII. | An Attack on the Japanese Troops
VIII. | The Act of a Madman
IX. | Another Blowing Up
X. | The Fraudulent Message
XI. | An Urgent Call for the Holland XI
XII. | Defeat Turned Into Victory
XIII. | The Central American Canal
XIV. | Cast Upon the Shore
XV. | Tidal Waves and Whales
XVI. | Saving the Merchantman
XVII. | Playing the Spy
XVIII. | The Capture of Hang Chang
XIX. | News of the President's Daughter
XX. | The Cave Under the Ocean
XXI. | Out of One Danger Into Another
XXII. | A Run Not Wanted
XXIII. | The Fight off Cape Nome
XXIV. | Sinking of the Ivan II
XXV. | In Which the Holland XI is Captured
XXVI. | Prisoners on the Holland XI
XXVII. | The Defeat of the Enemy
XXVIII. | An Underwater Earthquake
XXIX. | The Rescue of Jean Fevre
XXX. | The Last Battle—Conclusion

PREFACE.

My object in writing this imaginary tale of a war of all nations in years to come has been two-fold.

In the first place, I wished to draw the attention of my young readers to the fact that naval science, as well as science in all other branches, is making wonderful strides, and that for the future hardly anything seems impossible. In years gone by electric lights, the telephone and telegraph, not to mention wireless telegraphy, navigable balloons, and even our railroad trains would have been laughed at as impossibilities. Yet to-day we have all these things, and many others equally wonderful, and each day we look forward to something even more startling.

In the second place, I wished to draw attention to the fact that our country is growing with marvelous rapidity. From thirteen States we have multiplied to several times that number, and our flag waves from the coast of Maine in the East to the coast of Luzon in the West, and from Alaska in the North to Texas and Porto Rico in the South. What a truly great country it is, and what glorious freedom it grants to millions upon millions of people! In these days it is truly worth while to be an American, and in the days to come the honor will probably be even greater.

There is an important lesson to be learned from all this, and I would that every lad who reads these lines would take that lesson to heart. The opportunities for boys and young men were never greater than they are to-day. The future lies with you, and you can make of it, and of our grand country, what you will. The path to success is open to rich and to poor alike, and even the humble rail-splitter or the canal-boat boy can become President. Will you take hold of that opportunity or will you let it slip by?

Captain Ralph Bonehill.

THE YOUNG NAVAL CAPTAIN.

CHAPTER I.

THE UNITED STATES AGAINST THE WORLD.

"War is declared!"

"Impossible!"

"It is true. The news has just come by telephone from the cabinet chamber at Washington."

"And against whom?"

"Against the world!"

"Are you joking, Andy?"

"Oscar, I was never more serious in my life. The War Department has just sent the news to the office. The three new warships we are building must be completed without delay. The firm is offered a bonus of fifty thousand dollars if we can float them complete by the first of July."

"That is just six weeks off."

"Exactly, and it means that four months' work must be accomplished in that time. We can't do it," and Andy Greggs shook his head doubtfully.

He was a tall, well-built fellow of eighteen, with blue eyes and curly brown hair. He was a machinist, employed in the great Standard Shipyard of Bridgeport.

"We can do it and we will," answered Oscar Pelham decidedly. "We can work nights."

"It won't be enough."

"Then the firm will have to double the force."

"Where are you going to get the men?"

"Advertise for them—hunt for them—take them from other shipyards if necessary. If Uncle Sam wants those ships he is going to have them. But a war against the world! It's enough to stagger a fellow, Andy."

"So it is, Oscar, but it was bound to come, sooner or later. Foreign nations have been watching the United States with great envy since we whipped the Spaniards and gathered in Porto Rico and the Philippines, and when Cuba became a new state and Canada broke loose from England, I reckon they thought we were getting too big for our boots."

"No, the real trouble started in China," was the answer from Oscar Pelham. "England, France, Germany, Russia and Japan wanted to carve up poor China to suit themselves during the Yellow War of 1925 and Uncle Sam wouldn't allow it. Then South Africa tried for liberty again, and that put England's nose out of joint worse than ever when we helped the Boers to freedom. Then came the old quarrel about that money Turkey is owing us, and when we turned the Turkish kingdom inside out in 1928 that set all the rest of Europe in a rage."

"Well, we were justified in going for the Turks. They are the worst heathens on the face of the globe, outside of the Chinese."

"The Chinese ought to be our friends in this war, for we did so much for them when the other nations were after them. But England, Russia and the Japanese have bought her, body and soul, and now she is against us with all the rest."

"But we'll win out—we must win out!"

"Right you are! The Stars and Stripes forever!"

The conversation recorded above took place one spring morning of the year 1936.

For two years the United States—that vast territory which now embraces all of North America, from the Isthmus of Panama to Hudson Bay, and takes in all of the West Indies, Hawaii, the Philippines, and half a dozen other islands of the sea, as well as a corner of China and another corner of Japan—had been at peace with the world. We say peace. What we mean is, there was no war, but war talk was on every tongue.

In the past twenty-five years the country had prospered immensely. We now numbered over a hundred million of inhabitants, and nearly all of these were well-to-do and had money in the bank.

Jefferson McKinley Adams was President, and had been for six years, and under him were a standing army of five hundred thousand men, and a navy of five hundred of the best warships which human ingenuity could devise.

Many of the best of the warships had been turned out at the Standard Ship Yard at Bridgeport, which, up to a year before, had been under the personal supervision of Commodore David Pelham, the father of Oscar Pelham, just introduced. David Pelham had been a retired veteran of the Civil and the Spanish-American wars, and had followed his beloved wife to her grave, leaving Oscar alone in the world.

Oscar Pelham was a young man of nearly twenty, well-built and strong, with piercing black eyes and curly black hair.

At first he thought to follow his father into the navy, but he had a strong taste for electricity and mechanics generally, and he ended by entering the services of the ship building company, after spending three years at Edison's Electrical University at Llewellyn Park.

Oscar was a smart young man, and already many of his electric and other devices were beginning to attract attention. When the improved submarine torpedo-boat destroyer, Holland X., was building at Elizabethport he had gone to see her, and had come away much impressed by the novel construction of the craft.

"I'll build such a boat myself some day," he said to his boy friends, "only I'll make her better than anything afloat."

Some of his friends laughed at this, but others only smiled faintly. "Perhaps the boy is right," said one old machinist. "He had a smart father and a smart grandfather. Blood ought to tell."

And blood did tell, for, although only twenty years old, Oscar now had the whole run of the extensive shipyard and hardly any plan went through but what somebody came to him for his opinion on it.

Once Oscar disapproved of the plan of a new submarine boat, invented by an old war captain from Vermont.

"That boat will sink fast enough," he said. "But she won't come up."

The experts laughed at him and said he was mistaken. Then the boat was built. She sank on her first trial and blew up in her effort to raise herself.

After that Oscar Pelham's opinion counted for a good deal in all matters under consideration, so far as ship structure and the use of electricity went.

"Can't git around him," said George Dross, the oldest engineer in the yard. "He's got it all down on his finger tips. Him as tries ter corner him will git bit sure!"

The visit to the Holland X. had never left Oscar's mind. He remembered exactly how the submarine destroyer had been built and just how she was worked.

Once, when some of the naval vessels were at Newport, the Holland X. took a midnight trip among them, and Oscar was allowed on board.

The destroyer sank almost out of sight, and unknown to those on the big warships, passed completely around and under, first one vessel and then another.

"We could have blown every warship sky high!" said the inventor, but of this Oscar was doubtful. Yet he realized that the Holland X. was a grand boat and one calculated to do some terrific damage in a naval contest.

"But I'll build a better—wait and see," he said, over and over again, and when he was nineteen years of age he began to perfect the plans which had rested so long in his brain.

His boat was to be built of aluminum and steel—aluminum on account of its lightness and steel because of its strength. The craft was to be one hundred and fifteen feet long, sixteen feet wide, and eight to eleven feet six inches high. She was to be shaped like a stubby cigar and have three windows of glass on each side and one in front, and another in the stern. She was to have two small but exceedingly powerful screws, operated by an electric engine. She was to carry both natural and manufactured air, and had ample space for provisions and water, as well as ammunition, the latter to consist principally of torpedo tubes and dynamite bombs. She was to attain, under favorable circumstances, a speed of twenty-three knots an hour, and must work absolutely without noise, both while under water and while sailing over the surface.

Luckily for Oscar Pelham, his father had been rich, and upon the commodore's death, all the wealth went to the young inventor, to do with exactly as the young man saw fit. Several thousands of dollars were immediately spent upon a model of the Holland XI., as Oscar christened his craft, and this model was, one dark night, taken out on Long Island Sound for a trial.

No one was in the secret but Oscar and his particular friend, Andy Greggs, and it must be confessed that Andy was almost as anxious for success as the young inventor himself.

"If she runs all right, she'll be the biggest thing on the water," he declared.

"You ought to say, under the water," said Oscar.

The trial took the best part of the night and when it proved a perfect success Oscar Pelham could hardly contain himself.

"She'll be the submarine terror," he observed. "No warship, no matter how big she is, will be able to stand up against her secret attacks."

CHAPTER II.

FIRST BATTLE ON THE OCEAN.

The news that war had been declared against practically the whole civilized world was correct.

In a thousand ways Uncle Sam tried to settle the many existing troubles without an appeal to arms, and had failed in each and every instance.

Other nations looked with keen envy upon our growth and development.

"We must cut that nation down," they said. "If we do not it will, sooner or later, rule us all, commercially and otherwise."

Yet the United States had no intention of ruling any nation without the people's consent.

Freedom had been given to Cuba and the Philippines, and some years later these islands had begged to be admitted, first as territories and then as states.

They saw how much it would be to their advantage to form part of our glorious Union. They saw that the United States was destined to become the one great world power.

Even when this great war broke out—the like of which the world had never before witnessed—several large countries of South America, as well as several smaller countries of Central America, were knocking for admission into the Union. Brazil, Chili, Peru and Honduras were among those who wished to enter.

Mexico had come in through the solicitation of the people of Texas, and after her admission the bitter Mexican war of 1848 was forgotten.

And nothing was now heard of the contest against the Filipinos. Aguinaldo was dead, yet in the main square of Manila an imposing monument had been erected to this remarkable military personage who had done so much and yet so little for his countrymen.

The appeal to arms created a tremendous excitement, both in the cities and in the country places.

In New York the whole population went wild, and a grand "war march," as it was termed, took place. The city at that time was built up solid as far as Yonkers, and the marchers proceeded as far as that, while some of the columns went over the four bridges uniting New York and Brooklyn and the two bridges reaching from Manhattan Island to the New Jersey shore.

The decorations were magnificent, and Oscar Pelham and Andy Greggs came down from Bridgeport to see them. Banners were flung from the tops of all the big buildings, including the Empire, which was fifty-six stories high, and balloons were anchored a mile in the air, each ablaze with electric lights, turning night into day.

It was felt that the war would be carried on principally on the ocean, or rather, on the oceans, and for that purpose every available warship was put into service with all possible speed.

Enlistments in the navy were followed by enlistments in the army, until our soldiers and sailors numbered over a million men.

The soldiers were armed with the Miles-Gilford electric repeating rifles, which were known to shoot with great accuracy up to two thousand yards.

The rifles of the sharpshooters were fitted with telescopes, and many of the sharpshooters could pick off an enemy at a mile distance with ease.

It was felt that the combined navies of the world would come first to our Eastern seacoast, and the coast defenses were put in the best possible condition without delay.

The forts at Sandy Hook and on Long Island were armed with the latest improved Hotchkiss bomb guns, which could carry projectiles weighing a thousand pounds a distance of sixteen to eighteen miles.

But it was felt that these fortifications were not sufficient, and others were speedily projected, taking in the whole coast from Nova Scotia to Florida, as well as Cuba, Porto Rico and other islands in that vicinity.

Our naval vessels, as said before, were as good as any on the face of the globe, and included the submarine boat, Holland, the one first accepted by the government in 1900, and also the Hollands III., V., VI., IX. and X., the II., IV., VII. and VIII. having been destroyed or condemned.

Much was expected of the Holland boats, especially in night work, when they might run out to any foreign warship and wreck her with one or more powerful torpedoes attached to her hull.

Those who managed the submarine vessels were enthusiastic about them, and had good reason to be.

One day Andy Greggs came into the shipyard wild with excitement.

"Something awful has happened!" he cried, as soon as he met Oscar.

"What is it?" demanded the young inventor.

"The Holland I. has been blown up into a million pieces!"

"Andy, you can't mean it."

"It's true."

"Who did it, some of the foreign warships?"

"No, one mean, miserable skunk of a man did it all."

"And who was he?"

"An Italian named Gabretti. He was employed on the boat as an engineer. The foreign governments bought him up, it's said, for a hundred thousand dollars, and he blew her up by connecting an electric battery with the torpedoes she was carrying."

"And were the crew killed?"

"To a man. Gabretti had just time enough to get into a steam launch when the Holland sailed skyward. The steam launch was followed by the cruiser Massachusetts, but escaped in the darkness, and it is surmised that the Italian went on board one of the foreign warships cruising around the Atlantic Ocean."

This news, startling as it was, was true.

Bitter was the denunciation of the Italian engineer, who was a naturalized citizen, and who had thus proved a traitor to his country, and the government immediately offered a reward of fifty thousand dollars for his capture, dead or alive.

"I'd like to earn that reward," said Andy Greggs.

"I would like to capture him," returned Oscar Pelham. "The traitor! He ought to be tortured to death!" Oscar came from a long line of true-blue patriots, and to his mind a traitor was the worst thing to be imagined.

The loss of the Holland I was a sore one for the United States, for during the past year England, Germany and France had constructed submarine boats of more or less efficacy, and it was now felt that we were at a disadvantage so far as this class of vessel was concerned.

But worse news followed. In two days came word that all the other submarine craft were either blown up or seriously damaged.

Soon came the news that a great fleet of foreign warships had been sighted off the coast of Nova Scotia. The guns at the forts in this vicinity had tried to reach the flotilla, but failed, for the foreign vessels had kept well out to sea.

The foreigners were headed southward, and it was felt that they would probably attack Boston or New York.

The foreign vessels numbered at least fifteen and to combat them the United States sent out twelve of their best warships, including the new Columbia, an armored cruiser of eighteen thousand tons displacement and carrying a battery of twelve twenty-pounders and sixteen twenty-inch guns.

The foreign fleet was sighted off Montauk Point and it was seen to head directly for New York Harbor.

It was on a rainy Saturday that the two fleets met, twenty miles off Sandy Hook.

The foreign ships had tried to enter New York Harbor under cover of the darkness the night before, but the powerful searchlights at Sandy Hook had exposed them, and one ship had been sunk by the guns from the forts and another had struck a submerged mine and been literally split in twain.

It was thirteen vessels to twelve, and the fight opened with a terrific bombardment from both sides which lasted for nearly an hour. The din could be plainly heard in New York, where it sounded like rolling thunder, and the top of every tall building was covered with spectators, with first-class telescopes, watching the magnificent contest.

At the end of an hour it looked as if the Americans had the better of the fight and those on shore were jubilant in consequence.

"We'll lick 'em out of their boots!" shouted more than one old veteran. "It's America against the world, and we are bound to come out on top!"

At this time but one American vessel, the Chicago, had sunk. Of the foreigners, a German and a French vessel were blown up, while a large Russian man-of-war and an Italian cruiser were in flames from stem to stern.

But now the fortunes of war turned swiftly.

For some unknown reason, the French and the German submarine boats which had accompanied the expedition had been delayed in getting to the battle ground, having run foul of some wreckage off the coast of Long Island.

Now they came up, and after some minute directions from the admiral in command of the Allies, as the foreigners were termed, both boats sank promptly out of sight.

It was afterward learned that the French submarine vessel could do next to nothing. She tried to sink the Indiana, but was promptly discovered and two fifteen-inch shells soon put her out of existence forever.

Not so, however, with the German craft, a boat fully the equal of any of the ill-fated Hollands. She came up silently under three of the American warships, and half an hour later every one of those gallant cruisers was wrecked and hundreds of those on board were killed.

The shock was so unexpected that the Americans for the moment knew not what to do. Then another ship was blown up, and the few which remained had to withdraw to New York Harbor, where they were under the protection of the guns of the numerous forts.

CHAPTER III.

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.

"Andy, I am going to see the Secretary of the Navy, and at once."

"About your submarine boat, Oscar?"

"Yes."

"I thought you had written to him about it."

"So I have, but the Old Harry knows what has become of the letter."

"More than likely they thought your scheme that of a wild-brained inventor and cast the letter aside."

"So I've been thinking. I start for Washington to-morrow."

"Want me to go along?"

"No, I want you to remain here and take charge of that model, which is in the storeroom at my boarding-house. If I telegraph to you, you come on with the model, at once."

So it was agreed, and that night saw Oscar Pelham whirling toward the capital at the rate of eighty-five miles an hour, on what was known as the Congressional Limited.

This train was a great favorite with politicians and on the cars Oscar met many men who had known his father.

One in particular, Senator Forbish, from New York, became interested in the young inventor, and asked him why he was making the trip.

"Going to try for a position in the navy, to follow in the footsteps of your father?" he questioned.

"Yes and no," answered Oscar. "I will enter the navy if they will allow me to do so in my own way."

"Then you are particular. Perhaps you wish the command of a ship." And the senator smiled pleasantly.

"I do wish the command of a ship—but the ship must be of my own designing."

Senator Forbish could readily see that Oscar was not joking, and he asked the young man to explain himself, which Oscar did readily, for he knew the senator was a power, both in military and in naval circles.

"And you say this boat will really work?" he questioned.

"Yes. The model worked perfectly when we tried her in Long Island Sound."

"Such a submarine boat would be far in advance of the others which we have lost."

"She would be, and that would mean that she would also be superior to the submarine boats owned by our foreign foes."

"Then you must press this matter upon Secretary Short by all means."

"I shall do my best. But he may not be willing to listen to me. I understand he is very busy."

"He is busy, but I will give you a letter to him which will insure you an audience."

The senator was as good as his word. There was a stenographer and typewriter on the train and he dictated a letter and signed it without delay.

When Oscar reached Washington he found the entire city in a state of suppressed excitement. The destruction of the American warships off New York Harbor was on everybody's lips, and many predicted that the United States would soon be at the mercy of her foreign foes.

"And they will show us no mercy," they declared. "They are too anxious to see us broken to pieces. England will retake Canada, Mexico will go to Spain, Russia will cry for Alaska, with its gold, while France and Germany will want a slice of the Eastern coast and China and Japan a slice of the Western."

When Oscar arrived at the office of the Secretary of the Navy he found the cabinet officials busy in the extreme. Naval officers, politicians and citizens looking after contracts filled the rooms and corridors, and clerks and messengers were coming and going constantly.

"What is it you want?" demanded a clerk, as he met the young inventor at the inquiry desk.

"I wish to see Secretary Short," was the answer.

"On what business?"

"That is a private matter."

"The secretary is very busy to-day; better call to-morrow."

"I think he will see me." And Oscar handed out his card.

"Hum! Does he know you?"

"No."

"Then I think you are mistaken. Nearly all strangers must first go and see one or the other of his assistants."

"Here is a letter of introduction from Senator Forbish," continued Oscar, with a quiet smile.

The face of the clerk immediately changed color.

"Oh—er—of course that makes a difference, Mr. Pelham. I will take your card and the letter to the secretary at once."

The clerk dove through a swinging door and was gone the best part of ten minutes.

"Secretary Short will see you at half-past three," he announced. "Be on time if you want to make sure of your interview, and boil your business down."

"I'll be on time, never fear."

Promptly at half-past three Oscar was admitted to the private office of the Secretary of the United States navy.

It was a large apartment, handsomely fitted up, and on the walls hung numerous charts of our coast defenses and pictures of war vessels. In one corner rested several models of ships, including one of the ill-fated Holland X.

"Well, young man, what can I do for you?" asked the secretary, as he motioned the young inventor to a chair.

"Secretary Short, you can give me the opportunity to destroy some of the foreign warships which are battling against us," answered Oscar.

"Eh? Er—what's that?" said the secretary, who feared he had not heard aright.

"To be brief, sir, I am the son of the late Commodore David Pelham, whom you, I think, knew fairly well. I am a practical electrician and inventor. I have worked around shipyards for a number of years. I have invented a submarine torpedo-boat, somewhat on the lines of the late Holland, but with numerous changes, which I know will be beneficial. I want to build this ship for the government and I want to be placed in command of her when she is built."

The Secretary of the Navy stared at Oscar in amazement. "What, you! Why, really you are—a very young man to talk in this fashion."

"That is true, sir. But if I prove that I have a boat superior to any of the Hollands, will you take me up?"

"Certainly; we want the best ships, submarine and otherwise, that money can buy. Expense is no object. But I have no time to waste now on experiments. The war is on; we have already suffered a tremendous loss, as you must know."

"I have a working model. At this time to-morrow, if you'll say the word, I'll have that model at the government experimental station and I will show you how perfectly it works."

"You are positive you have a good thing?" And the secretary looked sharply at the young inventor, as if to read his innermost thoughts.

"I am, sir."

"Then I will be at the station to see your model work, at five o'clock, to-morrow."

CHAPTER IV.

BLOWING UP OF THE TIEN-TSIN.

The Secretary of the Navy was as good as his word. He was on hand five minutes before five, and Oscar arrived ten minutes earlier, accompanied by Andy Greggs, who had had the model shipped on by express, in a stout coffin-like box.

The government experiment station boasted of a large pond of water, where all sorts of models were tried and experiments made.

In the presence of the secretary and two of his assistants the model was produced.

At this moment the President of the United States, Jefferson McKinley Adams, a descendant of John Adams, the second President, came in to see what was going on, having heard that something unusual was in the air.

"We need such a boat, if it will work, now the Hollands are no more," he murmured to the Secretary of the Navy.

"Wait—we will see if this is all right or a humbug," answered Secretary Short.

The model was placed on a stand and Oscar gave a little lecture concerning the working parts and what the craft was designed to do.

The model went to the bottom of the basin and arose without an effort. Then it went down as far as desired, ran forward, backward, and then turned in circles right and left. The screws were next shifted slightly and the model went forward in saw-tooth fashion, first up and then down, but all under water.

"Wonderful!" murmured the President. "The old Hollands could not do that."

"He has certainly solved the science of under-water navigation," answered the Secretary of the Navy.

A model of a warship was now placed in the basin, at one end. Then the model of the submarine craft was set in motion to place a torpedo under the warship's keel. The work was performed with great accuracy and it was shown how easily the warship could be destroyed and how quickly the other boat could get away without being discovered.

"Good! It is perfect!" cried the Secretary of the Navy. "But how about air for your crew while under water?"

Oscar then went into the details of his scheme for storing air and for manufacturing it as well. Everybody listened with close attention.

"How much will your craft cost to build?" was the next question asked.

"Two hundred thousand dollars," was the answer. "For into that construction must go the best of everything."

Those who had witnessed the exhibition consulted together for a few minutes.

"How long will she take to build?"

"Give me that sum and I will build her in three months; give me a hundred thousand dollars more and I will have her ready for service in two months."

"You shall have your answer to-morrow noon," said the Secretary of the Navy.

The night to follow was an anxious one, both for Oscar Pelham and his faithful friend, Andy Greggs.

Would the government accept the offer?

At ten the next morning came a telephone message from the Navy Department.

"We are willing to appropriate half a million dollars if that submarine boat, to be called the new Holland, can be built inside of one month."

Even Oscar was staggered at this.

"A month!" he gasped. "But I'll do it if I have to set every shipyard and every steel plant at work to push it through."

For thirty days Oscar Pelham hardly ate, drank or slept.

He was here, there and everywhere, now inspecting this work done, now that work done, and anon sending telegrams and telephone messages in every direction.

Some refused to do any work for him, thinking him mad. But when his orders were indorsed by the Navy Department, owners of shipyards and steel plants quickly changed their minds.

Work went on night and day, without interruption, and on the afternoon of the twenty-ninth day the new Holland was slid into the waters of New York bay and a telegram was sent to Secretary Short that the vessel was ready for service.

In the meantime the war had gone on and another naval battle had been fought in Cuban waters. Here an Italian cruiser had been sunk by the gunboat Yankee Doodle, but the Americans had lost four of their old-fashioned types of war vessel.

It was reported that a flotilla of sixteen foreign warships was in the vicinity of Cuba, and that soon there would be an active bombardment of the whole Cuban coast.

"If they capture Cuba they will use the island as a base of supplies," said the Secretary of the Navy, "and they will be able to land millions of soldiers there. We must stop this movement."

Ten first-class warships had been dispatched to the seat of trouble, and now the new Holland was ordered thither, after a trial off the New Jersey coast to see that the new vessel worked perfectly.

The crew of the new Holland, or Holland XI., as she was officially registered, consisted of ten all told. Oscar was placed in supreme command, with a rank in the navy as captain. Next to him came Andy Greggs, as first lieutenant. The head engineer was George Dross, the old shipbuilder, who had stood by Oscar when he was building his model at Bridgeport.

The Holland was stored with provisions and fresh air and a number of powerful torpedoes, along with a large amount of other explosives.

"Good-bye to land," said Oscar, as he stepped on board. "We are running a great risk, Andy. Perhaps we will never see home again."

"I don't care. Hurrah for Uncle Sam!" responded the first lieutenant, recklessly.

Soon the Holland—we shall at all times call her by her simple name—was moving southward at a lively rate of speed.

As there was no need to draw on the air in the reservoirs the boat was kept on the surface of the ocean, skimming along like some monster sea-fowl.

Four days later Captain Oscar Pelham was able to report to Commodore Garrison, in command of the fleet in Cuban waters.

Another great naval battle was expected daily and Commodore Garrison was glad to see the Holland put in an appearance.

"I have heard that there is one monster Chinese armored cruiser coming up here from the coast of Brazil," said the commodore. "She is one of the swiftest and most dangerous craft in the world. She is named the Tien-Tsin. If you can blow her up it will be a great work accomplished."

"We shall do our best," replied Captain Oscar promptly.

He passed the word around and the Holland ran along the Eastern coast of Cuba, on the lookout for the Tien-Tsin.

Soon several warships were sighted and two days later the Tien-Tsin hove in sight and began to bombard the Cuban city of Baracoa.

It was the intention of the Chinese commander to make the city surrender and then land an army of three thousand Celestials in Cuba, as the beginning of a great command of invasion.

"The Tien-Tsin is in sight," cried Andy, who was the first to sight the craft.

Captain Oscar waited long enough to confirm the news, then gave orders that the Holland XI. be sunk immediately.

Down went the torpedo-boat destroyer until fully twenty-five feet of water floated over her.

The Chinese cruiser had stopped her powerful engines and lay motionless on the ocean, while she poured shot and shell into the city, four miles away, to the terror of the Cubans, who were fleeing in all directions.

Swiftly but silently the new Holland crept up until almost under the keel of the Celestials' warship.

Then a large torpedo was sent forth and fastened to the warship's broad bottom.

To the torpedo was attached a clock-like arrangement, and this was set at the five-minute limit.

"Now, away!" cried Captain Oscar, when the work was done. "Dross, crowd on all speed!"

And, like a thing of life, the Holland darted off in the direction where the American fleet lay, miles off.

One minute passed—two—three—four—and those on the Holland watched their watches anxiously.

"We will ascend!" cried Captain Oscar, and up shot the boat to the surface.

Four minutes and a half—three-quarters—fifty seconds—fifty-five seconds—six—seven—eight—nine——

Crash! Bang! Boom!

It was as if heaven and earth were split in twain. First there came a flash as of lightning out of the depths of the ocean, followed by a grinding, ripping, sucking noise, and then up went the monster Chinese cruiser, blown into millions of fragments. With the wreckage went soldiers and sailors, guns, ammunition, spars, everything, straight into the sky! It was a sight as awful as it was amusing.

"She's gone forever!" cried Captain Oscar, hoarsely. "Our work has proved a perfect success. The new Holland is the most dangerous warship ever constructed."

"You are right," answered his first lieutenant. "Those Chinese——"

He got no further, for he had glanced up in the sky, and now saw something strange and uncanny approaching. It was a gigantic dynamite shell, thrown by a French cruiser, which had crept up behind them unawares.

The shell was aimed straight for the Holland, and if it struck the submarine boat it would blow her up as effectively as she had blown up the Tien-Tsin!

CHAPTER V.

PRISONERS OF THE SEA.

"We are lost!"

"That shell will blow us to atoms!"

Such were some of the cries which arose from those on the new Holland when they saw the shell thrown by the French cruiser whirling swiftly toward them.

In an instant all was wild excitement and the face of Andy Greggs grew pale as death.

But one person on the submarine craft was cool, and that was Oscar Pelham.

As he saw the shell approaching he stepped to the rear end of the tiny enclosed deck of which the Holland boasted.

Here was a hidden keyboard, connected by electricity with the moving power of the strange craft.

He touched one of the tiny steel buttons.

"Hold fast!" he cried, and as everybody clutched the railing or threw himself flat, the Holland fairly jerked forward, rising two feet higher than she had been lying, by the action of the sudden spurt. Then she continued to go ahead.

Zip! Bang!

Down came the shell from the French cruiser in the exact spot where the Holland had been lying. It sent the water flying in all directions, while the noise of the explosion was deafening.

The submarine torpedo-boat destroyer had gotten away a distance of a hundred yards, and some of the fragments of the shell rained down upon the deck like hail.

The forward rush had made the Holland ship considerable water, and for the instant it looked as if the submarine craft would be swamped.

The French cruiser was coming closer, and now another shell was hurled forth, but this flew wide of the mark.

"We must go down," said Captain Oscar, and at once those on deck tumbled into the interior of the submarine boat. Then the steel hatch was closed, the railing sank out of sight, and the new Holland sunk beneath the surface of the ocean.

By examination it was found that the boat contained six inches of water, and this was immediately forced out by the electric pump. Then Oscar entered the engine room and held a consultation with George Dross.

"Are we safe in descending twenty-five feet in these waters?" he asked.

A chart was examined and it was found that they might descend forty feet without danger of running aground, providing they kept in the old channel.

"Then put on all speed, descend thirty feet, and bring up behind that French cruiser," was the young captain's order.

"You will sink her?" questioned Andy.

"If we can."

"But the commodore's orders——"

"Orders from the Secretary of the Navy are to sink any foreign vessel that opens fire on us. The government has half a million dollars locked up in this vessel, and Uncle Sam doesn't intend to lose her."

No more was said, and soon the new Holland was gliding through the ocean with the rapidity and silence of some monstrous sea serpent.

While she was thus moving Oscar had the crew arrange another torpedo, similar to that which had blown up the Tien-Tsin.

He remained at the side window nearest to the front of the submarine boat, watching for anything unusual which might occur.

As they moved on in a large semi-circle a sight met his gaze which was truly horrible.

They passed through the wreckage of the big Chinese cruiser, and on every side he saw the torn and mutilated bodies of the Chinese sailors and soldiers, some dead and some drowning, sinking slowly to the bottom of the ocean.

One poor wretch made a mad clutch at the glass window as it passed him and glared fiercely into Oscar's face.

The sight made Oscar shudder and brought to him a sense of how horrible this fearful war was to be.

But now was no time to think of these things.

The French cruiser had noted the disappearance of the submarine boat and her commander was doing his best to get out of danger.

He had crowded on all steam and felt that it would be impossible for any submarine boat to catch the Republique, as his craft was named.

He did not know that the new Holland was one of the fastest ships afloat—much faster, in fact, than any submarine craft built up to that time.

Although it was daylight, he kept a powerful searchlight at work, trying in vain to locate the Holland XI. under that rolling cover of greenish-blue waves.

But here he again failed, for the Holland kept too far below the surface to be thus located.

At last Captain Oscar saw that they were less than fifty yards behind the Republique.

Both vessels were going at their topmost speed, and thus the pursuit was a highly dangerous one.

The new Holland was up on a level with the Frenchman's keel, and should the speed of the cruiser slacken suddenly the submarine craft would surely crash into her with disastrous effect.

"Get ready to throw out that torpedo," ordered the young captain of the submarine destroyer, and his crew obeyed without delay.

In a few seconds more they were directly under the Frenchman's keel, and then the torpedo was brought out, ready to be adjusted.

At that moment something unlooked for occurred, something which nearly brought the new Holland to an end then and there.

In her anxiety to get away from the torpedo destroyer those on the Republique had run close to a stretch of land on the Cuban coast which hid from view a bay half a mile in diameter.

In this bay were located three American men-of-war, of the old style, but fitted up with modern dynamite guns.

As the Republique came in sight of the Yankee warships, all three opened fire on her.

The aim of the American gunners was perfect, and five ten-inch shells crashed through the side of the French cruiser.

Three of the shots went below the water-mark, while a fourth struck into the magazine.

There was a deafening explosion, which tore away the middle deck of the cruiser, and then the huge mass of iron and steel began to sink like one vast lump of lead.

She came down directly on top of the new Holland, at the very moment that the time fuse had been set in motion by which the torpedo was to be blown up.

"By ginger! Something's wrong!" came from old George Dross. "She's a-comin' down on top o' us!"

"Back her!" ordered Captain Oscar. "Back, quick!"

But it was too late to back. Down came that monstrous weight, settling directly on top of the new Holland and quickly burying the submarine craft in several feet of sand!

Luckily the French cruiser rested, fore and aft, upon two slight hills, forming something of a hollow in the middle, otherwise the Holland XI. must have been totally crushed.

As the submarine craft was pinned fast, Andy Greggs clutched Oscar by the arm.

"We are lost, Oscar!" he gasped. "That fuse—it is ready to go off!"

The young captain nodded, for words failed him. The fuse was set for three minutes. Two minutes had already passed. A minute more—and then?

One of the crew—ordinarily a brave man—fell upon his knees, the tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Nothing can save us!" he moaned. "That torpedo will crush us into a million pieces!"

Thirty seconds passed—forty-five. Everybody on board held his breath. Captain Oscar felt as if his head was on the block and the axe of the executioner ready to fall.

And then the full minute passed—swiftly, silently—and then another minute. One and another straightened up and each looked at his comrades as if doubting that he was not dreaming.

The torpedo had failed to explode!

"The shock of the wreck must have torn the fuse from its place," said Captain Oscar.

"Pray heaven such is a fact!" murmured his lieutenant.

The wrecked Republique was still settling, and through one of the windows which was not buried in the sand they saw numerous dark objects floating about, including the bodies of some French sailors.

But now was no time to look upon such sights.

"We must get out of this," said the young captain. "The longer we remain here the deeper we will be buried in the sand and the harder it will be for us to get away."

"Right you are," answered his lieutenant. "But how shall we move?"

That was a difficult question to answer just then, for nothing could be seen excepting out of one window on the left side and out of one window in the rear.

"I think we had better try to back first," said Captain Oscar. "Dross, put on all power."

"Aye! aye!" responded the old engineer, and soon the dynamos on board were working as never before. But though the screws revolved with lightning-like rapidity, the new Holland scarcely budged. The screws whirled the sand in every direction, sending it against the rear window like, a sheet of hail.

"We don't move," said Andy Greggs.

"Try to go ahead," suggested Captain Oscar, "Have we reached the limit of our power?"

"We have," answered the old engineer.

Again the screws were set in motion. The submarine boat strained and quivered, as if to pull in twain every bolt that held her together. But move from her resting place she did not.

They were prisoners at the bottom of the ocean.

CHAPTER VI.

OUT OF A LIVING TOMB.

Everybody on board looked to the young captain regarding what move was to be attempted next.

"We are stuck," muttered Andy Greggs.

"We must get out," returned Captain Oscar. He turned to one of the men. "How much air in the reservoir, Marney?"

"Two hundred and fifteen feet, captain."

"Humph! Enough for two hours."

"And after that?" put in Andy Greggs.

Oscar shrugged his shoulders. "We must get out before that time, old chum."

And this meant that if they did not they would all die of suffocation!

Truly their peril was extreme.

The weight of the wrecked French cruiser was so great that she was slowly but surely sinking deeper and deeper, sending down the Holland under her.

In another hour the windows would be buried in the sand so that nothing of the outer world could be seen.

"We'll be in a living tomb," muttered old George Dross.

"If I could get outside I would inspect the situation," said the young captain.

"If we could get out we might all save ourselves," muttered one of the men.

"And leave the Holland XI.?" returned the inventor. "Never! I'll never desert her!" Oscar would no more have thought of leaving his treasure than would a young mother her child.

"The torpedo hole," suggested Andy Greggs.

"Right!" ejaculated Oscar Pelham. "I'll do it, if it costs me my life."

With all speed he donned one of the diver's suits with which the submarine craft was provided.

What he intended to do, or rather try to do, was indeed perilous.

This was nothing more than to leave the Holland through the chamber in which were stored the torpedoes the craft carried.

He would have to pass through two trap-doors, and then to the outer sea, providing he could get out.

His preparations were carefully made and he went out provided with several instruments by which he might measure the hollow and figure out how best to start the submarine craft.

It was with great difficulty that he squeezed himself out into the water, which here represented a pressure of many pounds to the square inch.

The first thing that his eyes rested upon was the torpedo which had failed to go off.

The clockwork was still in position, and what had caused it to cease moving was a mystery.

"But it's a good thing it didn't go off," he mused, as he began his inspection of the situation.

He soon found out why the Holland could not move from her position.

In coming down the keel of the French cruiser had split into two parts, and these now held the top of the Holland fast, as a pair of ice tongs holds fast a cake of ice.

Had the ends of the cruiser been allowed to settle a foot more, the two grips of the keel must have crushed in the sides of the Holland like the shell of an egg.

Oscar examined the ends of the keel with interest and soon felt certain that the Holland could be moved only after great labor to liberate her.

"And that will take time," he muttered sadly. "And time is what we cannot afford."

Slowly and painfully he made his way back to the hole through which he had emerged into the ocean.

The bow of the submarine craft was just gained, when suddenly a concussion occurred which hurled him flat on his back and for some time to come deprived him of all sense of hearing.

One of the powder magazines which had not been touched by water on the Republique had blown up, creating something like an earthquake under the sea.

Sand and wreckage flew in all directions, and when Captain Oscar recovered he found his body covered with a mass of stuff difficult to remove.

As soon as able he stared about him, and to his utter amazement saw that the Holland had disappeared!

"What can it mean?" he asked himself. "Is it possible she has been blown up?"

The vicinity of the wreck was now dangerous, with so much loose matter still floating about, and as soon as able he left the spot, mounting a sand hill several hundred feet away.

The Holland was nowhere to be seen, nor was any wreckage belonging to her about. This gave him a little comfort, for he concluded that she must have escaped.

But he must now pay attention to his own safety, for his supply of fresh air was limited, and with the weight of the diver's outfit it was impossible to ascend to the surface of the ocean.

What should he do?

He knew the coast of Cuba was near, but in what direction?

"I must move," he told himself. "Anything is better than staying here."

He moved on, slowly and painfully, to where he thought the bottom of the ocean ascended gradually. Soon it grew lighter, telling him that he was getting closer to the surface.

But now the fresh air was almost gone and a sleepy sensation stole over him. But he must not sleep, or it would be the slumber of death!

On and on he went, now climbing a rugged hill, covered with sand, rocks and moss, the home of innumerable fish and strange looking crabs.

The fish rushed past him, hitting him often with their tails, while the crabs spit at them spitefully, their beady eyes bulging from their heads.

He was almost to the top now, but his air was gone, and with it his strength. There was a strange flicker before his eyes and a roaring in his head.

Once he stumbled headlong, but quickly picked himself up again.

Half a dozen steps more and his head came out of the water. Then he dragged himself to a higher point and with nervous hands unscrewed his air-and-water-tight helmet.

Oh, how good the fresh air tasted! It was fairly intoxicating, and he filled his lungs repeatedly.

He was saved!

Looking around, he found a small jut of land not a dozen yards distant, fringed with a series of overhanging bushes and trees.

It was on the Cuban coast, two miles west of the city which the Tien-Tsin had been bombarding.

He dragged himself to the shore, and finding a safe place in the bushes, threw himself down to rest.

From a distance he heard the booming of cannon, telling that the Cuban city was being bombarded still by other vessels of the foreign foe.

But to this booming he gave no attention, for he was dead tired.

Soon he dropped into a doze in spite of himself, from which he did not awaken until early the next morning.

He awoke with a start, and then a noise in the bushes beside him caused him to leap to his feet.

He gave a cry of dismay, for, looking inland, he beheld at least a thousand Japanese troops marching in his direction!

The advance guard was on him and in a moment more he was discovered and surrounded!

CHAPTER VII.

AN ATTACK ON THE JAPANESE TROOPS.

"Chan-cera-ree!" shouted one of the Japanese soldiers, and aimed his rifle at Oscar Pelham's head.

But another soldier—an under officer—saw the movement and stopped the shooting.

"We will make him a prisoner," he said in Japanese. "He is an American and may prove useful to us in this accursed country."

Oscar was quickly made to leave the shore.

He had discarded the diver's suit, but the Japanese soldiers took it along, considering it a great curiosity.

Because of the suit they thought Oscar was one who had planted a mine under the ocean and that the Tien-Tsin had struck upon this and been blown up.

"He is a great capture," said the Japanese commander. "Who knows but what he may be a leading American officer."

As he could not speak English, he could not question the young inventor.

Baracoa had fallen and Japanese and Chinese troops had landed to the number of six thousand.

They expected to be re-enforced by German and French soldiers, and then a land attack was to be made in Florida, the troops marching across Cuba to Havana, and there taking transports to Key West.

In the meantime England and some other nations were sending a large force, upward of a hundred thousand men—to attack the Canadian shore. England wished to reconquer Canada, no matter what the cost.

The Japanese continued to move along the northern coast of Cuba until two o'clock in the afternoon.

By that time it was so hot that the soldiers had to rest, even though the Japanese are the toughest race on the face of the globe.

Thousands of Cubans had fled before them, for the landing had been unexpected, and the people of the island were not prepared to offer resistance.

When the rest came Oscar found himself at the mouth of a small river flowing into the Atlantic Ocean.

He was secured to a tree with ropes while his captors proceeded to take it easy, lying in the grass, smoking cigarettes and drinking Japan tea.

The young inventor felt that he was in a serious situation, for he knew that in this world-wide war the Japanese would not hesitate to kill him whenever it pleased them.

He tugged at his bonds, but if there is anybody who knows how to tie knots it is a Japanese, and those which bound Oscar could neither be strained or broken.

An hour went by, when suddenly the young inventor saw something which both amazed and delighted him.

Far off in the ocean he beheld something come up to the surface. It was like the back of a turtle, about four feet in diameter.

It was only a few inches above the waves, but it shone like a plate of bluish steel—and such it was—the top-center plate of the Holland XI!

"Thank fortune, she escaped!" he muttered to himself.

Then he waited for several minutes, when the trap-door in the plate was slid aside and a form appeared—head and shoulders—the form of Andy Greggs.

Andy had a spy-glass, and with this he swept first the ocean and then the land.

On catching sight of the Japanese soldiers he was about to retire at once and sink the submarine craft, when by accident his eyes rested upon Oscar.

At first he could not believe the evidence of his senses. Then he waved his hand in recognition.

The young captain of the new Holland could not see the movement very well, but he nodded his head vigorously in the direction of the first lieutenant.

In another moment Andy disappeared and soon the Holland sank from sight. Oscar waited anxiously, wondering what his friends would do—in fact, what they could do.

The submarine craft was designed wholly for warfare on and under the ocean, not on land.

Yet Oscar knew that his friends would never desert him, now they knew he was a prisoner of the enemy.

Quarter of an hour went by. To the prisoner it seemed an age.

He was watching the water and soon saw a slight movement behind a number of bushes just where the river met the ocean.

He knew what the movement meant. The Holland XI. had come in shore as far as the depth of the water permitted.

Up came that plate again and out popped Andy Greggs, armed with a pistol and a short knife.

The young lieutenant slipped into the water like an eel and dove down almost out of sight, to come up near to Oscar's feet.

The Japanese were half asleep, thinking their prisoner secure.

With cat-like steps Andy left the water, pushed through the bushes and came up behind Oscar.

Two slashes of that sharp knife and the young captain of the new Holland was free.

He slid behind the tree, and side by side he and Andy ran for the ocean.

"Hi-cha-kling!" roared one of the Japanese soldiers, rousing suddenly, and then he aimed his rifle at Oscar.

But before he could pull the trigger Andy fired his pistol, which had been kept dry on the journey to shore, and the bullet pierced the enemy's heart.

Before the other Japanese could do anything both of the chums were swimming for the Holland. They tumbled into the trap-door one after the other and then the plate was slid shut.

"Down!" ordered Andy, and immediately the submarine craft sunk several feet. Then a swift run was made for a third of a mile away from the coast.

"Oh, how glad I am to see you alive!" cried Andy, when the pair were safe.

"And I am glad, too, cap'n," put in George Dross. "I never expected to set eyes on ye ag'in."

"But how did the Holland escape?" asked the young captain.

"The explosion set us free," answered Andy. "But we had to move out lively, or we would have been crushed as flat as a pancake when the wreckage came down a second time."

Captain Oscar was now asked to tell his own story and did so. He was very weak, but a good dinner with a strong cup of coffee soon made him feel once more like himself.

"What's orders?" asked Andy, coming in the dining-room while he was eating.

"We must attack that Japanese army," answered the young captain. "They are marching for Havana, with the intention of invading Florida."

"And how are you going to do it?"

"They are marching forward in almost a solid body. As soon as they form, we will rise to the surface and throw a couple of dynamite bombs into their midst."

Orders were at once delivered to the ammunition men and the bombs were brought forth and inspected, to see that they were ready for use.

Half an hour went by and then they saw that the Japanese were preparing to move.

The enemy did not like the manner in which Oscar had been rescued and the leader wanted to get out of the way of the submarine craft.

Soon the foreign soldiers were in columns for the march and the command came to move forward.

The drums beat and the band began to play one of the Japanese national airs in a music which to the Americans was nothing short of a hideous discord.

"Now then, up we go," commanded Captain Oscar, and in a minute the new Holland lay well out of the water.

Then the stern was sunk, so that the bow might stand well up.

The gun to fire the two bombs was carefully sighted.

"Touch off!" was the next command.

Boom! went the gun, and into the air flared the two missiles of death, straight for the Japanese column.

Zim! crash! bang!

The two bombs exploded directly in the midst of the Japanese troops, dealing death and destruction upon every hand.

The carnage was something frightful. Dozens of men were literally blown to atoms, arms, legs, heads and bodies flying in all directions!

A yell of terror went up, commingled with shrieks of pain.

When the smoke cleared away it was seen that at least fifty Japanese had been killed and as many more wounded.

Terror-stricken, the remainder of the army fled from the road along the ocean to the rocks and hills beyond.

"Give them another," ordered Captain Oscar, and it was quickly done, and this brought down several more men, including the Japanese commander, who had his head taken off just as he was about to order a rifle attack on the strange sea monster that had attacked them.

The remainder of the Japanese took to the woods and inside of three minutes not a soldier was to be seen.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ACT OF A MADMAN.

"I reckon we have given that army a setback," remarked Andy Greggs after the contest was over.

"Yes," answered the young captain of the new Holland.

"But they ought not to be allowed to get to Havana, much less to land in Florida."

"What do you advise?"

"Have you reported to Commodore Garrison yet?"

"No; we were trying to find out what had become of you."

"Then we will report first, and see what the commodore has to say."

It was easy to find the commodore's flagship, and they surprised the guard on deck by coming up directly at the side of the cruiser without anybody on board being aware that the new Holland was in the vicinity.

"Hello, you!" cried the officer of the deck, when Oscar hailed him.

"Yes, sir," answered the young captain, with a salute. "I could have torpedoed you nicely had I wished."

"You're the old Nick himself," growled the officer.

Captain Oscar Pelham's interview with Commodore Garrison was brief and to the point.

"The new Holland has done more than well," said the commodore. "I don't believe that Japanese army will ever reach Havana. We have already three thousand soldiers there."

"Then I presume our duty lies elsewhere."

"It does. I have just received a message by wireless telegraphy asking if I can spare your boat to go to the coast of Canada. The Secretary of the Navy was delighted to hear of the blowing up of the Tien-Tsin, and he wishes you to help the warships which will meet the British, French and German squadron off the coast of Canada. These warships are acting as an escort to some army transports carrying about a hundred thousand soldiers, who wish to land in Canada." And the commodore gave the details so far as he knew them.

"I will go to meet the American squadron in Canadian waters without delay," answered Oscar, and bowed himself out of Commodore Garrison's presence.

Once again the submarine craft was put at her best speed and she went spinning through the ocean like a thing of life.

Several days passed and they were making rapid progress northward, when one night the new Holland came to a sudden halt.

Her screws continued to revolve for a time, but soon they were clogged up and the power had to be stopped.

"Now what is up?" cried Captain Oscar, as he leaped from the couch where he had been sleeping.

His lieutenant could not tell, nor could the engineer.

According to their charters no land was within fifty-six miles of the submarine craft.

The lights were turned on full and an examination made.

It showed that the new Holland had run into the Sargasso Sea, that dense mass of seaweed which floats along the Atlantic shore near and in the Gulf Stream.

The weeds were so long and thick that the boat could not be budged. The screws were tangled up completely, and for the time being the new Holland lay helpless.

The weeds pressed against the windows of the craft and through the mass darted innumerable fish, some of the most ugly order Oscar had ever witnessed. The larger fish were continually preying upon the smaller.

"Let us try to ascend," said the young captain, and this they did, but without success. The weeds were above them as well as around them, and to try to go down under the mass only made matters worse, for many were fast to the very bottom of the ocean.

"Here's a pickle truly," sighed Andy Greggs. "How far do you suppose this Sargasso Sea extends?"

"Humph! Perhaps for miles," answered Captain Oscar.

"Well, we've got to do something."

"We will do something," was the quiet answer. "We can't stay here."

"It's only a question of expense, Andy."

"I don't follow you."

"I mean the expense of getting out."

"How is money to get us out of this confounded mess?"

"It will cost us the price of one dynamite bomb, placed just above and in front of the new Holland."

"Oh! By ginger, I never thought of that. Oscar, you have a long head."

The young captain's plan was to float a bomb above and ahead of the new Holland, using one of the water-proof variety for the purpose.

This was done, and when the bomb was set off the dense seaweed was hurled in every direction.

Meanwhile the screws were cleaned, and as soon as an opening appeared the Holland shot upward into an open space fifty yards in extent.

A searchlight was called into play, and by this they saw that the nearest open sea was to their right.

But they had to continue to fight the seaweed with long poles, and with more shells, and even then it was nearly morning before they were clear of the mess.

"That's an experience I hadn't bargained for," remarked Captain Oscar, as they sped once more on their way. "After this we must keep a better lookout." And they did.

At last they came in sight of the Canadian coast, and rounded Cape Breton into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Here Captain Oscar Pelham reported to Admiral Fielding, who was in command of the warships stationed there.

"I am glad to have you here," said the admiral. "We have a big fleet of ships to contend with. They are lying twenty miles out to sea, awaiting a favorable opportunity to attack us."

"And what do you wish the new Holland to do, admiral?" asked the young captain.

"Go out and do all the damage you can before they have a chance to get in here."

"I will do the best I can, sir."

Once more the new Holland was off on her mission of death and destruction.

With the crew went a pale-faced lieutenant from the admiral's flagship, sent on board to watch proceedings.

The lieutenant's name was Raxtell, and Oscar did not at all like his looks. Yet he said nothing and treated the lieutenant to all the courtesy due his naval rank.

But that night Oscar could not sleep. Something worried him, he could not tell what.

"Something is wrong, and I know it," he muttered to himself, and, unknown to any of the others, began a tour of inspection.

All went well until he reached the magazine room in which the explosives were stored.

Then he heard a low chant, and looking in, saw a sight that caused his very heart to stop beating.

Lieutenant Raxtell was there, with the look of a madman upon his ghost-like face.

He had attached a long fuse to all of the dynamite bombs and was in the act of firing the explosives.

HE WAS IN THE ACT OF FIRING THE EXPLOSIVE.

Should they go off the new Holland would be blown to atoms!

CHAPTER IX.

ANOTHER BLOWING UP.

For the moment after Captain Oscar Pelham made his terrible discovery that Lieutenant Raxtell intended to blow up the new Holland he could neither move nor speak.

He clearly saw that the lieutenant was mad, but what had caused his insanity was a mystery.

His face was like chalk, and his eyes rolled in a fashion horrible in the extreme.

"We will all go to heaven!" he heard the naval officer mutter. "All go to heaven—and that will be better than going home. Home! Ha! ha! So the admiral would not give me shore leave? I will show him a trick or two! Here goes!"

"Hold!"

The cry came from Oscar, and aroused as from a dream, he hurled himself upon the madman and bore him to the floor.

Frothing at the mouth, Raxtell struggled desperately at first to free himself and then to bite Oscar as might a wolf.

But the young commander of the new Holland was fighting for life, and held him as in a vise of steel.

"Let me go!" roared the madman. "Let me go, or I will eat you up alive!"

"Be calm, lieutenant," gasped Oscar. "Be calm. You are not well. Be calm."

"What's the row here?" came from the doorway, and Walton, the ammunition man, came in.

"Quick, he is mad," answered Oscar. "Help me."

"Mad! By Jove, captain, is it possible?"

Walton hurled himself into the contest without hesitation, and between the pair they speedily made Raxtell a close prisoner, binding him hands and feet, and fitting his face with a leather mask, that he might not bite himself or others.

It afterwards came out that the lieutenant was of a nervous disposition, and that homesickness had preyed upon his mind until his reason forsook him.

Nothing could be done at present but keep him on board, and realizing that the poor fellow was not accountable for what he had tried to do, Captain Oscar treated him with every consideration.

Early in the morning of the next day the fleet of the enemy was discovered riding the ocean in a vast semi-circle.

The warships numbered thirty-four, and the transports sixty-six, and the sight was a truly imposing one.

"We can't do much against that fleet," said Andy Greggs, after the new Holland had sunk out of sight.

"We can do our share," responded the young captain.

He had his eyes on three ships of the enemy—the British cruiser Terrible, the German gunboat Wilhelm II., and the French ship-of-the-line Philippe.

"I'll sink all three, or know the reason why," he said to himself, and laid his plans with great care.

The three ships he had in view were not over a quarter of a mile apart, one from another, the Terrible being in the center.

This would necessitate a run of half a mile to reach all three warships.

The course of the new Holland was changed and they moved slowly and cautiously up to the Wilhelm II., keeping well under water all of the time.

While the run was being made Oscar held a consultation with the ammunition man and with George Dross.

It was calculated that it would take five minutes to run from one ship to another, and five minutes to adjust each of the several torpedoes.

Soon the Wilhelm II. was gained, and in absolute silence the torpedo was fastened to her keel.

Only fish watched the movement and gazed curiously at the torpedo, against which they rubbed their slimy sides.

"Set the fuse at half an hour," ordered Captain Oscar, and this was done.

Five minutes later they had gained the keel of the Terrible, and here a torpedo was set at twenty minutes.

Then a swift run was made for the Philippe, where they set a torpedo at ten minutes.

"Now run for it!" cried Captain Oscar, and the new Holland spun away, straight into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The torpedoes had been set to go off at exactly half-past eleven, and it lacked but two minutes of that time when the new Holland shot to the surface at a safe distance from the hostile fleet.

But the submarine boat was discovered and at once several torpedo-boats belonging to the British set off to give her chase.

"We are going to catch it from the little fellows," said Andy Greggs, with a grim smile.

"They won't reach us. We'll go down as soon as the explosion is over," answered Captain Oscar.

He held his chronometer in his hand and was counting off the seconds.

The time was up!

As he put the watch in his pocket a deafening roar rent the air, and the German warship was seen to rise in the air and then fall, a broken and shapeless mass upon the waters.

Then came two other roars, one directly after the other, as the English vessel and the French ship-of-the-line caught it.

The explosion under the Philippe was the most perfect, for the craft was literally split to bits, not alone by the torpedo, but by the explosions of her various magazines. Everybody on this ship was killed but a cabin boy, who leaped overboard at the first noise, and was picked up by one of the smaller warships.

With the Terrible it was different. The English cruiser was an unusually large one, and to have cut her to pieces would have taken several torpedoes.

Inside of two minutes she sank, the majority of her crew leaping overboard as she went down.

Some of the sailors were caught in the suction created and went down with the warship, never to rise again.

An explosion under the ocean added to the panic, and many were killed by this.

Over two hundred were floating around on the sea until other warships came to their assistance and picked them up.

The blowing up of the three warships created consternation among the others of the fleet, and signal after signal was displayed from the commanding officer's flagship, all reading: "Clear for sea immediately; a submarine torpedo-boat is among us. Double your watches."

Then the entire fleet began to move for the broad Atlantic, chasing the transports before them.

The torpedo-boats which had come out to do battle with the new Holland were tremendously surprised to see the strange craft slide from view, and realizing that they themselves might be blown up at any instant, they lost no time in running for their lives.

The new Holland could have given them plenty of trouble, but Captain Oscar considered his ammunition too valuable to throw away on such "small fish," as he called them.

"One of our torpedoes costs the government eight thousand six hundred dollars," he said. "Those little chaps aren't worth that to me. I am after big guns."

Considering that the new Holland had done enough for the time being, and wishing to obtain a new supply of torpedoes and dynamite bombs, the young captain now turned back to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and reported to Admiral Fielding.

The admiral had witnessed the blowing up of the three warships through a powerful field glass which was stationed in an observation tower at the top of the mainmast of the flagship, and he was highly delighted at the success of the new Holland's work.

"That craft is a marvel," he said. "The government must have more of them."

"It certainly would be a good thing," replied Oscar. "I think I've got the enemy pretty well frightened. Perhaps they think we already have more than one of these boats, having seen the work done in Cuban waters and now here."

"Perhaps; and I hope they think we have a dozen. They will then imagine their costly warships of no value against such an enemy, and consequently be glad to treat for peace."

Using the wireless telegraphy system on the admiral's flagship, Oscar sent word to Bridgeport arsenal to send him at once a large quantity of torpedoes and dynamite bombs, and also a new style of bomb called highite.

Highite was a new explosive, of which much was expected. A highite shell when it exploded sent hundreds of little shells forth in a circle, which exploded an instant later.

"That is what we ought to have had in Cuban waters," said Andy. "We could then have made those Japanese sick."

A week elapsed before the ammunition reached the new Holland and was stored on board.

In the meantime it was learned that the fleet of the enemy had turned southward, probably with the intention of landing on the New England coast.

The fastest despatch boats in our naval service were sent out to watch the enemy, and at the same time the new Holland was ordered southward, to be in readiness at any time the hostile fleet should show itself too close to our shores.

CHAPTER X.

THE FRAUDULENT MESSAGE.

Four days later found the Holland lying snugly concealed in the waters of Cape Cod harbor.

The run to Boston had been made without a sight of the hostile fleet.

Andy had gone ashore on a little business, and soon he came back from Provincetown wild with excitement.

"Captain, this beats the Dutch!" he cried, as he entered the tiny cabin of the submarine craft.

"What is it now, Andy? Another fleet in sight?"

"Worse than that. The enemy is in Washington."

"Washington!" roared the young captain, and leaped from his seat. "Do you mean they have gotten soldiers into the country——"

"Hold on; I said the enemy was in Washington," interposed the young lieutenant. "I don't know how many of them are there, but enough to do a mean piece of work."

"And what? Have they blown up the Capitol, or the White House?"

"No; but they've robbed the White House of its loveliest inmate."

"You mean President Adams' daughter——"

"Has been kidnaped—carried off—last night—and nobody knows where to. The whole country is wild with the news, and there is a reward up of a hundred thousand dollars for anybody who will bring her back safe and sound."

"She's worth the money, too," added Captain Oscar, promptly. "Martha Adams is one of the sweetest girls in this country. How in the world was the deed accomplished?"

"Last night she was left home alone, the President being at a Cabinet meeting, and Mrs. Adams being at a meeting for the benefit of disabled soldiers. Two of the servants in charge of the President's apartments were drugged and one stabbed in the back and killed. That is as much as is known now, excepting that two men were seen to hurry somebody in a coach and drive off with her."

"And in what direction did the coach go?"

"Straight for the Potomac—and a boat was seen to leave and go down the river an hour later."

"Then she has been carried off to sea, beyond a doubt."

"So I'm thinking, and more than likely she is now a prisoner on one of the foreign warships."

The captain of the new Holland scratched his head thoughtfully.

"If she is on a warship, it must be either a Japanese or a Chinese craft," he muttered.

"Why so?"

"Because I don't think England, France or Germany would stand for any such thing as that. It's heathens' work, and nothing less—or private spite."

"And why private spite?"

"Oh, easily. Somebody may be mad because he didn't get a fat position from the President, or something like that. You know how much wire-pulling there is at Washington," concluded Oscar.

The news interested everybody, and when the papers came on board each read the reports on the case closely. But nothing new had been learned, excepting that it was practically certain Martha Adams had been carried off to some foreign warship lying off Chesapeake Bay.

"I'd like to catch the rascals who abducted her," sighed Captain Oscar, after finishing the reading of the newspapers.

"After the reward, eh?" laughed Andy.

"Humph! I wasn't thinking of the reward. Martha Adams is the sweetest girl I ever——" He broke off short, and as Andy looked at him closely he blushed in spite of himself.

Oscar had seen Martha Adams three times while the girl was at the shipyard with her father and others.

"Oho! so that is how the wind blows," cried the lieutenant. "Well, it's a long step to a President's daughter, captain, but who knows what you'll be when this war is over—if the Holland XI. keeps on as she has begun?"

"Andy, you get on deck," came quickly, and the lieutenant did so, but with a broad grin on his face. He knew that Oscar had met Martha Adams and had "gone sweet" on the President's only child in those days.

Late on the following night a special messenger came on board of the Holland with orders for the submarine boat to move out to the east coast of Cape Cod, the locality being mentioned in detail.

Captain Oscar was much puzzled by the order, for it was entirely unexpected.

Yet there was nothing to do but to obey, and soon the new Holland was on her way out of Cape Cod Bay and heading first northeast and then southeast, outside of the cape.

"This is strange," he said to the lieutenant. "I don't understand it."

"Perhaps the navy department is afraid some foreign ship will crawl along Cape Cod in the dark," suggested Andy.

"Perhaps."

There the conversation ended, but still Captain Oscar was doubtful, he knew not why.

His experience with Raxtell, who had been put ashore at Boston, made him extremely cautious.

"I didn't like the looks of that messenger," he mused. "He had a bad eye."

The outside of the cape gained, it was a run of two miles to the spot mentioned in the order.

"Put on the searchlight and see that our way is perfectly clear," he said to the man who attended to the lights.

"Aye, aye, cap'n!" was the answer, and the powerful searchlight was made to do duty under the sea, bringing within its rays thousands of fish who knew not what to make of the unexpected glare.

Soon Oscar found his way to the lookout.

The way seemed to be perfectly clear, and he was on the point of having the speed of the submarine craft increased when something caught his eye which made him pause.

The Holland had glided into a fine netting made of copper wire.

The netting was shaped like a funnel, running down to a hole at the end not quite as large in diameter as the width of the ship.

Here was located a hidden mine, ready to go off the instant any moving body of large size should strike it.

Had the Holland kept on running the huge copper netting would have led the submarine craft directly into the hole, the mine would have exploded, and that would have been the end of the craft and all on board.

"Back, quick!" cried Captain Oscar, and touched the button which connected with the engine.

The screws were reversed, and the Holland XI. gave a shiver from stem to stern as her rapid head-way was checked.

Still she went on, however, until the end of the hole was almost gained.

"A mine!" shrieked the lookout. "We shall be blown up!"

"All power backward!" cried Oscar to George Dross through a speaking tube. "Quick! It means life or death to us!"

The backward power was increased. Yet the Holland drifted closer and closer, until her sharp prow was less than two feet away from the butt of the mine. Oscar held his breath. Another instant and they might all be blown to pieces.

But then the forward motion ceased, the Holland gathered power in the opposite direction, and soon they had backed out of the huge copper net and were free!

"What does this mean?" demanded Andy Greggs, as he crowded into the lookout.

"It means two things," answered Oscar, drawing a long sigh of relief. "In the first place we have had a close shave from death, and in the second place it means that the order to come here was fraudulent."

"Then this was a trap set for us?"

"Beyond a doubt. And I would just like to lay hands on that messenger." And Oscar grated his teeth.

"Perhaps he is somewhere around, in a boat. Undoubtedly he was a foreign sympathizer."

"We will go to the surface and see if any craft is in sight."

Going to the surface did not consume long, and the waters were swept by the powerful searchlight.

Far out from land was an English despatch boat.

"I'll wager that is the messenger's ship," cried Oscar. "We'll run closer and make sure."

Again they went down, and now the light was put out, and they swept up to the despatch boat as silently as a black ghost.

When within a hundred yards of the craft they came up and the light was turned directly upon the despatch boat's deck.

Every man on the deck could be seen distinctly, and looking through his night glass, Oscar made out a form he had seen before.

"That messenger—and in the uniform of a lieutenant!" he cried.

He ordered the Holland below, but not before the despatch boat fired two four-pounders at the submarine craft.

The four-pounders were powerless to hurt the Holland, further than to make a dent in her starboard side.

"Now for a quick revenge!" muttered the young captain. "Close those front windows!"

Those on board knew what that meant, and the order was quickly obeyed.

Then the new Holland went forward at full speed.

Bang! crash; The despatch boat was hit fairly and squarely in the side and began to sink immediately.

The Holland withdrew, and Captain Oscar watched the result of the ramming.

Down went the English vessel and the most of her crew with her.

A few tried to swim away, but the swell of the ocean was too strong for them, and one after another sank to rise no more.

The new Holland had added another to her list of triumphs over her enemies.

CHAPTER XI.

AN URGENT CALL FOR THE HOLLAND XI.

Early on the following morning the Holland went back to her old resting place near Provincetown, and the young captain reported to his superiors what had occurred.

"You have done well," said the commodore, who received his report. "You beat them at their own game. But we must be very careful in the future, for there may be more fraudulent messages afloat."

"I would like to make a suggestion to the department," replied Oscar, modestly.

"What is it?"

"Why not have every real message marked in some peculiar and secret manner known only to those who can be trusted? Then every commander would know at once whether a message was genuine or not."

"An excellent suggestion," answered the commodore. "I will recommend that this be done."

Later on Oscar's plan was carried into effect, and by it three false messengers were caught, and later on these men were hung as spies.

Nothing had been seen of the foreign fleet since they had run to sea, but it was not long before the warships were discovered about thirty miles outside of Boston harbor.

The new Holland was at once ordered to that vicinity, "To do as much damage as possible," so the order read.

"And we'll do it," said Captain Oscar. "They'll clear out for good when we're done with them."

But alas! the best laid plans are sometimes miscarried by things really small in themselves.

A small fishing smack one night came in the bay and anchored directly above the Holland.

When the Holland started to move, the anchor of the fishing smack got tangled up in one of the submarine boat's screws.

The result was the wrecking of the screw and the grinding of the anchor into powder. Those on the fishing smack were scared almost to death, thinking there was an earthquake going on under the boat.

Andy Greggs was in despair, but not so Oscar.

"No use crying over spilt milk," said the young captain. "We must get that screw repaired without delay."

And he had the Holland XI. towed over to the Charlestown Navy Yard.

The accident put a damper on the enthusiasm of the navy department, for much had been looked for from the new Holland.

But the enemy was close at hand and must be met, and Admiral Fielding gathered a squadron of twenty-six cruisers and gunboats for that purpose. With this squadron went two of the regular torpedo-boat destroyers.

More warships were telegraphed for from New York, but it would take these vessels two days to reach the scene of battle.

The squadron sailed out at night, with everybody in the best of spirits.

It was felt that one of the greatest battles of the war was at hand.

"We'll smash every one of the enemy!" cried one old salt, "just as Dewey smashed the Spanish warships in Manila Bay."

"And Schley smashed the Spaniards in Santiago harbor!" added another jackie.

And so the talk ran on until morning dawned.

It was expected that the enemy would be in sight, but not a single ship was to be seen anywhere.

"This is remarkable," said Admiral Fielding. And he at once sent some scouting craft ahead to find out what had become of the foreign vessels.

The scouts came back at nightfall and reported that the foreigners were running up to the coast of Maine. The enemy was making for Casco Bay, off the city of Portland.

At once began a chase after the foreign ships which lasted all of that night and up to noon of the next day.

Then the American cruisers Vermont and Canada came up to the rear guard of the enemy and opened fire without delay.

Inside of half an hour a fierce battle was in progress, with twenty-eight warships on the American side, and thirty-two on the side of the allies.

The din was terrific, as broadside after broadside was poured forth from one ship or another.

The first vessel to go down in the dreadful encounter was the German cruiser Berlin. She was quickly followed by the Italian gunboat Carlos II. and the French frigate Siene. In the meantime one of the British cruisers had caught fire and was burning fiercely.

But now the Americans began to catch it, and presently the cruiser Utah took fire. Her magazines blew up, and this set fire to the Tennessee, which happened to be close at hand when the explosion occurred.

In the van of the fight was the noble Oregon, with the Brooklyn beside her. These old ships had done wonders in the Spanish-American war, and they were now adding nobly to their laurels.

To the right of the line, the New Jersey was having a sort of private duel with the English cruiser Windsor. The Windsor had pumped three ten-inch shells into the New Jersey, but still our cruiser held her own, and let drive with two of her thirteen-inch guns. Both shots hit below the water-mark, and the Windsor slowly sunk, many of her crew swimming to the neighboring warships.

To the left of the line was the New York, fighting two French ships whose names could not be ascertained. The Frenchmen were plucky, and poured shot and shell hotly into the New York. But presently one was sunk by a ten-inch shell, and rushing around in a semi-circle, the New York managed to ram the second, nearly cutting her in two.

But now more foreign ships were coming up and the fight became hotter than ever, until the surface of the sea was filled with nothing but waterspouts and thick clouds of smoke. At times but little could be seen, and it is no doubt that on more than one occasion a friendly ship fired into one of its comrades without knowing it.

But though the American ships were doing nobly, it was seen by nightfall that the battle was slowly but surely going against them. They still had sixteen ships fit for service, but the other foreign war vessels had come up, and the good ships on the other side numbered twenty-six, just ten more. The newly arrived warships were big ones, and the outlook for the Americans became blacker and blacker.

"If only we had the new Holland here," sighed Admiral Fielding. "I believe she could turn the scales in our favor when morning comes."

By the wireless telegraph he sent a message ashore to Portland, which was immediately transmitted to the Charlestown Navy Yard.

Soon this message came back:

"Have just finished repairs and am at your service.

"Oscar Pelham,
"Captain, commanding Holland XI."

"Good!" cried the admiral, and then he sent this massage in reply:

"Come to Casco Bay instantly, and do all the damage you can."

"We are off for Casco Bay!" cried the young captain to his lieutenant.

"The call looks important," answered Andy.

"It is important. There has been a big battle, and it looks as if our fleet was almost knocked out."

"By Jove! Then we are wanted, and no mistake."

Boston harbor was soon left behind, and they stood up the New England coast.

"Crowd on all power!" said the young captain to the engineer. "Don't spare anything. This run may prove the run of our lives."

And power was crowded on, until the Holland XI. quivered with an energy that seemed to endow her with life.

Slowly the night went by, and when morning came it found the submarine boat in sight of the great battle ground.

The foreign ships were hammering the Americans as never before, and matters were going badly with the upholders of Old Glory.

"Here is where we make a record for ourselves, or die in the attempt!" cried Captain Oscar. "We must turn that defeat into victory. Let every man do his duty to the utmost. Down we go, Dross."

And down plunged the new Holland into the ocean on her course of destruction and death.

CHAPTER XII.

DEFEAT TURNED INTO VICTORY.

Captain Oscar Pelham knew that whatever was to be done must be done quickly.

In the terrific naval battle now in progress the Americans were getting the worst of it fast.

Ship after ship was either going down or burning up and thousands of brave lives had already been sacrificed.

Officers and men were doing their best to hold their own, but the foreign fleet was so much larger, that defeat appeared inevitable.

The first warship the Holland attacked was a British armored cruiser which was pounding our own Iowa III.

The Iowa was suffering from several big gaps in her larboard side, but still fought on desperately.

Under the British cruiser sunk the Holland XI. a torpedo was rapidly adjusted, and then the submarine craft ran away with all speed.

Some sixteen-inch guns had just been trained on the Iowa III. and the English gunners were about to set off the pieces when a deep rumble was heard, like an earthquake, and up went the British cruiser into a million atoms.

The explosion was a surprise to everybody. The Holland had, so far not shown herself and it was thought by friends and foes alike that the British warship had been the victim of her own magazines.

Those on board might have told a different story, but all were either killed outright or drowned in the awful wreckage which followed.

"Number One!" cried Captain Oscar. "Now for Number Two!"

Close at hand lay a broad-beamed French ship, the Coronet, carrying a newly-invented battery of dynamite guns.

Another torpedo was quickly adjusted here and an explosion as loud as the first followed. The Coronet, however, was not blown to pieces, but suffered a hole in her bottom four feet long and three feet wide. Through this the ocean poured with the power of a Niagara, and swiftly the Frenchman sank from view, leaving her dead and dying scattered in all directions. Some of these sailors were picked up and they told of the explosion from the bottom, and then the foreigners knew a submarine craft was at work.

This explosion also revealed to Admiral Fielding the true state of affairs.

"Nothing but a torpedo from the Holland XI. could have done that!" he cried. "She is among us and is doing nobly. The day will be ours after all!" And the old salt almost fell to dancing a jig.

The news was quickly communicated from ship to ship and all felt the inspiration of the Holland's presence.

To the northward two big German cruisers had cornered the Virginia, a gunboat of fair size.

The Virginia was fighting desperately, but the German men-'o-war were slowly but surely driving the American ship on a low-lying reef.

"We will fight to the last," said the commander of the Virginia. "A man can die but once and what more noble than to give up one's life for his country!" And his men cheered him loudly.

Captain Oscar had noted this state of affairs, and as soon as the Coronet was disposed of he made after the two German vessels.

As he came closer, he noticed the two ships moving up side by side, as if their commanders were consulting together.

"I'll end that consultation," he muttered, and ordered that a torpedo be shot out directly between them.

Wizz! went the huge instrument of death, and as it struck the side of one of the German warships it went off with a terrific noise, tearing great holes in both vessels.

The ships were not sunk, but consternation now reigned supreme, for both were in danger of sinking.

"Hurrah!" yelled the jackies on board the Virginia. "Hurrah! The new Holland is at hand. The fight is ours!" And then the Virginia went into the contest with new vigor, which speedily placed the two foreign ships completely at her mercy. The Holland did not wait to see the end of the struggle, but ran back to where the sea battle was still at its hottest.

To the northward four American warships had been cornered by eight foreign ships and shot and shell were raining down as never before. Coming to the surface to get a good view of the situation, the young commander of the new Holland ordered that two of the new highite bombs be thrown at the largest of the enemy's vessels.

The bombs were aimed with great accuracy and did fearful execution, one almost clearing a deck of all the men standing upon it, while smoke-stacks and riggings went flying in all directions.

Then the Holland XI. sank below, but not before one of the Allies' warships had sent a thirteen-inch solid shot over her bow.

"Phew! But that was close!" muttered Andy Greggs. "A foot nearer and we would have had a pretty good-sized hole into us."

"We must expect to get hit sooner or later," answered Oscar. "Every one of the enemy is laying for us. They would rather sink us than capture our largest armored cruiser."

"To be sure, for the Holland XI. is more deadly to them than a score of cruisers."

The Holland now turned her attention to several Italian and Turkish vessels which were guarding the enemy's transports, far to the eastward.

"If we make a demonstration against the transports those cruisers in front will have to run back to protect them," said Captain Oscar. "It's a pity to sink the soldiers who haven't had a chance to fight, but it's got to be done."

The attention of the Holland was first turned to the Turkish man-'o-war, that being the nearest. It was crowded with Turkish soldiers and sailors, their bright-red uniforms standing out boldly in the sunlight.

A time torpedo was attached to the Turkish ship, and before it went off another torpedo was attached to the Italian corvette. Then the Holland went for the nearest transport, one carrying nearly two thousand foreign soldiers of various nationalities.

Bang! crash! boom! went the torpedoes, and as the Turkish and the Italian ships sailed skyward, the Holland hurled two highite and one dynamite bomb at the transport.

The execution was horribly perfect, for the upper deck of the transport, crowded with soldiers, was literally swept clean; men, deckhouse, masts, sails, smoke-stacks, everything being hurled into the sea. A blood-curdling yell went up, and instantly the steam whistles of numerous other transports sounded a note of warning.

It was the beginning of the end and that end was triumph for the Americans.

But the victory had been dearly bought, and would have been a defeat had it not been for the timely arrival of the wonderful Holland XI.

By night what was left of the Allies' fleet had withdrawn to the darkness of the Atlantic Ocean.

What a celebration there was when the news of the victory reached land!

Bells were rung, cannon fired, bonfires lit, and the people went almost crazy.

The name of the Holland XI. was on every lip, and everybody spoke of her young inventor and commander, Oscar Pelham.

"A wonderful young man," said President Adams. "He will assuredly make his mark in the world, indeed he has already done so."

He telegraphed his congratulations to the fleet at large and sent an extra message of thanks to Oscar, which pleased all on board of the submarine ship very much.

Yet the President was very sad.

He could not forget that his daughter, his only child, was in the hands of the enemy.

The shock had been severe upon Mrs. Adams and she was now sick in bed and not likely to get up for a long time to come.

It must not be supposed that the strain of the great naval contest had not told upon the Holland.

Her machinery had been taxed to the utmost and needed overhauling, and several of her plates had to be re-riveted. Besides this, she needed another supply of ammunition.

She accordingly put back to Boston and to the Charlestown Navy Yard, where the repairs were made with all possible speed.

A week passed and all remained quiet.

Then came news which was calculated to fill the stoutest heart with dread.

A fleet of fifty Chinese, Japanese and Russian warships had set sail for Asiatic waters, bound, so it was surmised, for the western coast of the United States.

The fleet would probably try to enter the Golden Gate and bombard San Francisco and Oakland!

These twin cities now rivaled New York in size and their commercial value was enormous.

During the past ten years thousands of Chinamen had been driven from San Francisco and other cities of California, and this made the Celestials wild to gain a footing in what had once been their beloved Chinatown.

Soon came a message for Captain Oscar Pelham:

"You are wanted immediately on the pacific coast. If you do not come we are doomed.

"Chester."

Alvin Chester was the Admiral in command of the Pacific Squadron of our navy. He was a fighter to the core and had been well acquainted with Oscar's father.

"Wanted, eh?" mused the young captain of the new Holland. "All right, we'll go."

"But how are you going?" demanded Andy. "It will take a long while to sail around Cape Horn."

"We will go by the way of the Central American Canal," answered the young captain.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE CENTRAL AMERICAN CANAL.

The great canal, in Central America, had just been completed by the United States at a cost of thirty-six millions of dollars.

Other nations, especially France, had tried to push a canal through for years, but had failed.

The United States now controlled all the land in the vicinity of the canal, and, as previously stated, thought seriously of taking these Central American States into our glorious union.

"Can we get through the canal?" questioned Andy.

"Yes. I figured it out long ago—when I thought we might be needed on the western coast."

"Captain, you have a long head."

"Thanks, Andy, no compliments. Let's go to dinner." And there the subject was dismissed.

Thirty-six hours later found the new Holland on her way southward.

Cuba was passed without special incident and then they ran into the Caribbean Sea.

At the canal entrance a special message awaited them, urging them to come on with all possible speed.

"The enemy are coming to the western coast as fast as they can," said Oscar, after reading the message to Andy. "It is feared that they intend to bombard the Hawaiian Islands on the way over, and capture Honolulu and other important seaport towns."

"Can't we head them off?"

"Perhaps that is what we will be called upon to do," answered the young captain of the Holland XI.

The weather was very hot everywhere and in the interior of the submarine craft it was stifling.

"This isn't so much fun," grumbled old George Dross. "I expect some day you'll find nothing but a grease spot left o' me."

"All right, George, we'll give the spot decent burial," answered Oscar, dryly, and then a laugh went up.

With no time to lose, preparations were made to go through the great canal with all speed.

In the meantime the enemy heard of the proposed trip and it caused all foreign nations to worry a good deal.

They knew that if once the new Holland got into the Pacific Ocean she could do incalculable damage to their warships.

A plot was at once instituted to blow up several of the canal locks, thus rendering the artificial waterway useless.

This was to be accomplished when the Holland was half way to the Pacific side, so that the submarine craft might be left high and dry some seventy miles from either coast.

Ten miles from the Atlantic coast entrance, or more particularly the Caribbean Sea entrance, the Holland put up for a few hours at the town of Ambrose, a Spanish settlement.

Oscar went ashore for despatches and with him went Andy, glad to have the chance of stretching his legs on Mother Earth once more.

The despatches filled Oscar with suspicion, for there was one from the Pacific end of the canal which read as follows:

"Be on your guard, or the Holland XI. will suffer while coming through the canal."

"Humph! Now what does that mean?" muttered the young captain.

"It means that there is more deviltry afoot," answered his lieutenant. "We must be wide-awake. Perhaps the Spaniards down here are not so friendly as they would like to appear."

Feeling hungry, the pair entered a restaurant not far from the edge of the canal.

They sat close to an open window and while eating, caught some talk of three Spaniards who rested in a small boat directly under the window.

The talk was about the new Holland, and Oscar gathered that the foreigners were far from friendly to the craft.

"I vish she vas sunk," growled one Spaniard.

"Perhaps your vish vill come true, Carlos," said a second Spaniard. "Remember, Pargloss ees vide awake."

"And Pargloss ees a vonderful man," added the third Spaniard.

Then the three rowed away in the darkness.

"Who can this Pargloss be?" mused Captain Oscar.

"I don't know. There used to be a Nathan Pargloss in the Treasury Department, but he was kicked out on account of some crookedness."

"Then perhaps he is the man, Andy. Perhaps he wants to get square with the United States."

The young captain had struck the nail on the head.

Nathan Pargloss was furious because he had been discharged from a position paying five thousand dollars per year.

He was a dishonest man and for years had been in sympathy with Spain and other foreign nations.

He had sold valuable treasury secrets to foreigners and the discovery of these actions had caused his dismissal.

It was he who had concocted the scheme to blow up two of the canal locks when the new Holland should reach about the middle of the long water-course.

All of the next day Oscar thought of Nathan Pargloss and of what the Spaniards had said.

When the second lock was gained he spoke to the keeper about Pargloss.

"Ha! I heard of him only yesterday!" cried the keeper. "He is around here somewhere."

"Then we must set a trap and catch him," returned Oscar, decidedly. "I cannot risk the loss of the Holland at such an important time as this."

It was decided to set a close watch all along the canal.

Trustworthy men were hired at Oscar's expense, the young captain knowing full well that the Navy Department would reimburse him for any outlay thus made.

The plan worked well, for about midnight a small boat was seen to approach the lock.

It contained two men, Pargloss and a confederate.

Pargloss' craft contained a large can of dynamite and this was placed close to the gate of the lock.

Pargloss was about to depart when Oscar and several men fell upon him.

"Halt!" ordered the young captain of the new Holland, and aimed a pistol at Pargloss' head.

The wretched man, however, was game, and he flung himself upon the young captain and both tumbled over the brink of the lock into the waters below.

Pargloss had Oscar by the neck and the young captain was in peril of either being choked to death or drowned.

Oscar tried to free himself but in vain.

Pargloss was a powerful man and could not be made to let go.

In desperation, Oscar pulled the trigger of his pistol.

He scarcely expected the weapon to go off, but it did, and the bullet struck Pargloss in the shoulder.

The man was not seriously injured, but the sudden pain made him loosen his hold and in another instant Oscar was free.

Coming to the surface he reached a ladder running up the side of the lock and soon found himself once more above the canal.

In the meantime, Pargloss' confederate had been made a close prisoner by the others.

"Where is Pargloss?" asked Andy.

"In the canal. Watch for him, he must soon come up."

They did watch, and in a few seconds the criminal appeared and gazed around him savagely.

"Come up out of there!" ordered Oscar. "If you don't you are a dead man!"

"I defy you! You shall never capture me!" shrieked Pargloss, and dove out of sight again.

Ten minutes passed, but he did not come up.

They watched in vain, running up and down the canal bank and bringing many torches to bear upon the scene.

"He went under to stay under," was Andy's sober comment.

Early in the morning they dragged the canal, and at the bottom came upon Pargloss' body.

Rather than give himself up he had clung fast to an old tree stump and thus drowned himself!

CHAPTER XIV.

CAST UPON THE SHORE.

Forty-eight hours later found the Holland XI. out in the Pacific Ocean, on her way to the Golden Gate.

The death of Pargloss and the capture of his confederate had put a damper on other plans to tamper with the Central American Canal, and no trouble was experienced in finishing the journey.

Arriving in San Francisco, Oscar was much surprised to receive what was little short of an ovation by the citizens.

All had heard of the wonderful work done by the new Holland and all wished to see the craft, her young commander and her brave crew.

But time was precious and the submarine boat remained in San Francisco Bay but a few hours.

A cablegram had come from the Far East, that the Hawaiian Islands were to be attacked and that the enemy wanted to use Honolulu as a base of supplies.

At that time, Honolulu, the capital of the islands, had grown to be a city of three hundred thousand inhabitants. Many of the people were Americans and much of the money invested there had come from California.

The Holland was soon bound for Honolulu, and this made a run of nearly ten days for the craft.

"Now we are getting into the territory of earthquakes," remarked Andy. "I wonder what a strong under-water earthquake would do to us?"

"I don't think I would care to experience an earthquake," replied Oscar. "We are having lively times enough fighting the enemy."

The run to the Hawaiian Islands was made without trouble of any kind, excepting that the weather was hot and they had to come to the surface of the ocean every night to get cooled off.

The harbor of Honolulu is an ideal one, situated behind a high series of rocks called Diamond Head.

When the Holland came into view of Diamond Head, not a native vessel of any sort was in sight.

"By Jove!" cried Oscar, suddenly. "Look!"

He pointed to the very top of Diamond Head.

From a tall flagpole situated there, floated a large flag of red, black, yellow and blue.

It was the standard used by the Allies!

"The enemy have captured the Islands!" ejaculated Andy.

His words were true.

Just three days before the new Holland reached there, the fleet of warships from Asiatic waters had arrived in front of Honolulu and demanded an immediate and unconditional surrender.

The authorities would not surrender and the three American warships in the harbor, along with the shore forts, had done their best to hold the enemy at bay.

But it was a vastly unequal contest from the start, and before sundown, the three American ships were annihilated, the forts reduced to ruins, and the capital taken by main force.

For many years the Chinese had been very bitter against the Hawaiians, for they had been thrown out of the island States after Hawaii was annexed, and now when they came ashore from their warships they did everything they dared to make it unpleasant for the inhabitants.

Had it not been for the Russians, every man, woman and child of Hawaiian birth would have been butchered.

The majority of the foreign fleet had now sailed to capture other seaports on the islands.

Eight big men-o'-war, however, lay close in Honolulu harbor, keeping watch over the town.

Watching his chance that night, Oscar went ashore, and from several Americans gained a full knowledge of what had occurred.

"We would still fight, were the outlook more hopeful," said one of the Americans, a Custom House official.

"We will make it more hopeful," answered Oscar, grimly. "By morning not many foreign warships will be seen in this harbor."

The young captain hurried back to the Holland and the submarine craft immediately sank out of sight and came around Diamond Head into the harbor. By the aid of a powerful glass they made out the location of the enemy's ships with ease.

Then Oscar paid a long visit to the ammunition room and where a number of torpedoes were adjusted, and also a number of dynamite and highite bombs.

The foreign ships rode at anchor, so that the bombs and torpedoes could be set off by means of a wire charged with electricity instead of the time fuses.

"They shall all go up together," said the young captain. "It will be the greatest blow-up of the age."

Again he sent word ashore, stating that all Americans must keep away from the water front between the hours of seven and eight o'clock the next morning.

At midnight the Holland began to move around the bottom of Honolulu harbor, adjusting the torpedoes and bombs.

The bombs were concealed in seaweed and floated on top of the water, close beside the ships they were to destroy.

By six o'clock in the morning every instrument of destruction was in position, and all attached to the fatal electric wire.

Those on board of the Holland were exhausted by their work, yet nobody thought of going to sleep.

An early breakfast was had and then the Holland ran out of the harbor as far as the length of the electric wire permitted.

Watching the foreign ships, Captain Oscar saw the sailors stirring and then heard the roll-calls sounding.

The warships were crowded with Chinese, Japanese and Russians.

These commanders had ordered fresh meat and vegetables to be brought on board their vessels at half-past seven, and when no native lighters came out with the things they grew very angry.

"We are not to be disobeyed!" stormed one Chinese commander. "If that food is not forthcoming quickly, I will go ashore and fire the accursed city."

Similar threats were made by the other commanders, and by quarter to eight some of them prepared to leave their ships, to put their threats into execution.

"We will let them get ashore," said Oscar to his companions. "They will make good prisoners."

The foreign commanders went ashore with much pomp, and hurried to the Custom House to see why their commands had not been obeyed.

Oscar had ordered that any foreigners ashore should be made prisoners, yet as the warships still rode unmolested in the harbor, the Americans at the Government Building knew not what to do.

If they made the commanders prisoners, and the plan of those on board of the Holland failed, it would go bad with the city people.

But at ten minutes to eight came what appeared to be a terrific earthquake.

There was a noise like a sharp crash of thunder, followed by broad sheets of fire playing across Honolulu harbor, and then those at a distance saw several of the foreign warships flying skyward and townward, blown into atoms.

The air was filled with debris and the streets of Honolulu and the housetops were covered with bits of wreckage. In some instances the wreckage was on fire and produced other fires in the city, but these were rapidly extinguished.

The native Hawaiian thought the end of the world had come and some of the most superstitious of them ran hither and thither, shrieking in terror.

The explosion shook the Custom House and broke some of the glass in the windows.

"Ha! What does that mean?" demanded one of the Chinese officers, who had come ashore.

"It means that your ship is blown up and that you are our prisoner!" answered one of the Americans, and pointed a pistol squarely at his head.

A wild scene followed, but the foreigners were outnumbered and soon all eight of those who had come ashore were made prisoners, and cast into one of the dungeons of the old fort. The sailors who had been left in charge of the small boats at the dock were either killed by the shock of the explosions, or shot down by sharpshooters stationed at a distance.

The annihilation of many of the foreign warships was complete, and when the wreckage and the smoke cleared away, nothing remained in the harbor but several sunken hulks, the other ships having lost no time in leaving. The lives of all on board the sunken ships were also destroyed.

Oscar came ashore at ten o'clock and the Americans nearly hugged the young captain to death.

"You have saved us!" said one of the number. "That was the greatest move I ever witnessed in my life!"

"Now we must watch for the return of the other warships," said the young captain.

But he first wanted some more torpedoes. Fortunately these were close at hand, for Honolulu was an American base of supplies for warships sailing between San Francisco and the Philippines.

That afternoon found the Holland lying off shore about two miles from the city.

It was rumored that seven other foreign ships were coming, but so far they were still out of sight.

Suddenly a strange rumble rent the air, coming from the depths of the sea.

The terrific explosion of the morning had loosened some rocks of the reefs outside of the harbor and now followed a regular under-water earthquake.

The disturbance was a violent one, and brought on a tidal wave which arose to a height of fifteen feet.

"Hi, look!" screamed Andy to Oscar.

Both were on the deck of the Holland at the time, and before they could go below the craft was caught by the tidal wave and carried rapidly toward shore.

Over the beach swept the wave, carrying the Holland with it, a distance of two hundred feet and more.

Then the wave went down almost as suddenly as it had arisen, and the young captain found his submarine craft high and dry on the rocks, three hundred feet from water deep enough to float her!

There was great confusion on board, and in the midst of this came another alarm.

"The foreign warships are in sight! They have spotted us and are running this way!"

CHAPTER XV.

TIDAL WAVES AND WHALES.

It was a perilous situation, of this there could be no doubt.

The tidal wave had cast the Holland XI. high and dry on the Hawaiian shore, where she lay as helpless as a whale on a grassy plain.

In the offing loomed up three foreign warships, a Chinese, a Japanese and a Russian.

The enemy had already sighted the new Holland, and were drawing closer to the curious-looking craft.

The submarine boat had landed on the shore right side up, and Captain Oscar Pelham and Lieutenant Andy Greggs had just come to the little deck to view the situation.

"We are knocked out this trip," groaned Andy. "As soon as they learn who we are they'll throw a shell this way and that will finish us."

"Let us see if we can't train one of our guns on them," suggested the young captain.

The word was passed and it was found that one gun could be trained on the Russian warship, which was coming up from the southward.

The gun was loaded with a highite bomb and at the proper moment was touched off.

Boom!

Loud and clear the sound echoed over the Pacific Ocean and the shell exploded close to the deck of the Russian warship, causing death and destruction upon every hand.

The effect of the awful shot was soon apparent, for those left on the warship lost no time in turning the vessel about and sailing out of range.

The shot, however, was noticed by those on the Japanese and the Chinese cruisers, and soon they came in and let fly at the Holland XI.

One solid shot plowed up the sand in front of the submarine craft, while several others struck the rocks behind, causing a shower of stones to cover the craft as with flying hail.

"By Jove! But this is dangerous!" muttered Oscar. He turned to his men. "What do you wish to do, remain here or leave the Holland XI. and take to yonder wood?"

"We'll do what you do," answered old George Dross.

"I will never desert the Holland XI.!" answered the young captain, calmly.

"Neither will I!" added Andy.

"We'll all stay!" came in a shout. "Hurrah for Uncle Sam! We'll get the best of 'em yet!"

"Give them another shell," went on Oscar. "Even if it doesn't hit them it may make them keep their distance."

The shell was soon sent forth, but the enemy was out of range and the bomb did no further damage than to land in the body of a shark sporting in the offing.

Then the three foreign ships got together and concocted a scheme to bombard the new Holland from three different points at the same time.

Soon shot and shell were raining all around the submarine craft.

One shell struck so close it smashed out one of the side windows, sending a shower of glass and sand into the little cabin.

"This is hot!" cried Andy, and of a sudden came a yell from a man at the stern window, which was pointed out to sea.

"The water! The water!" yelled the lookout. "It is rising again."

His words were followed by another rumble, similar to that which they had before experienced, and looking toward the ocean all saw another tidal wave sweeping toward the shore.

"Close up the deck!" ordered Oscar, hurriedly. "And, Marken, get some sort of cover for that broken window."

Then the young captain turned to the old engineer.

"We must take advantage of that wave when it strikes us," he said. "We are lying stern to the ocean. If we get afloat, start her backward with all power."

"Aye, aye!" answered George Dross.

Soon the sea could be heard rushing up the sand and then they found the new Holland rocking from side to side. But the water only came up to her windows and the submarine craft did nothing but slip a dozen feet closer to the Pacific.

"Left!" muttered Andy, in disgust. "That wave was not strong enough."

"Another is coming!" cried Oscar. "By Jove, look!"

Far out to sea they saw the ocean becoming white with foam, while a very mountain of water loomed up. It had struck the Chinese cruiser and that ship had keeled over and lay a wreck in the boiling sea.

Then the mighty torrent rushed up the beach, bringing with it driftwood and fish innumerable. It reached the new Holland, raised her up and whirled her around and around like a top.

"No use to use our power!" yelled Oscar, that George Dross might hear him. "We are being carried further inland!"

The young captain was right, and now came a thump and a bump, as the craft struck rocks and palm trees and then slid along a cliff. Oscar thought they might be carried directly to the center of the island, when of a sudden the tide turned and rolled back to the vast ocean. And they went with it!

But those inside of the Holland XI. knew little now of where they were. Having gotten into deep water, the force of the tidal wave turned the craft completely over, and all those inside had all they could do to keep themselves from being smashed to death on walls or ceiling.

But in less than three minutes the agitation was over and the new Holland righted herself. The water had come in at the broken window and this had to be pumped out with all rapidity. Had not one of the men placed a temporary plate over the window when first ordered to do so, the new Holland would surely have been swamped.

Inside of half an hour the tidal disturbances were at an end and the ocean rolled as peacefully as before. Feeling they could now rise in safety, the young captain gave the necessary orders and they went up.

The first sight which met their gaze filled them with wonder. All three of the foreign warships had been caught by the tidal wave and carried on the rocks, and there they lay, battered and broken almost beyond recognition.

Sailors and soldiers lay in the wreckage or floating helpless on the tide.

A few had gone ashore, but these the Hawaiians had either shot down or made prisoners.

"Our work here is done," said Oscar. "Let us go back to Honolulu and see what damage has been done there."

His orders were obeyed and at Honolulu they found much of the shipping a wreck, yet but few lives had been lost.

The loss of the foreign ships was hailed with great delight and Oscar and his crew were entertained in fine style for the remainder of that day and also the next.

In the meantime the Holland XI. was repaired, making her once more as good as new.

Everybody wondered what had become of the balance of the foreign fleet which had set sail for San Francisco from Asiatic waters.

"They must be somewhere in these waters," said Andy.

"Perhaps they have pushed on to the United States," answered Captain Oscar.

The young commander of the submarine craft was right.

Thirty-two of the foreign warships had pushed on, and word to this effect was brought to Honolulu the next day by a steamship which had run away from them by sheer good luck.

"That ends our stay here," said Oscar.

And within the hour the new Holland left the Hawaiian Islands behind, the people of Honolulu cheering lustily as the craft left the harbor.

The air was all that could be desired and the run toward the Golden Gate was made for days without anything of special interest happening.

Sometimes they put out a small drag net in which they caught many fish, which, properly cooked, were no mean addition to their table.

"If the weather holds out, we'll be in sight of California in two days," observed Oscar, one evening.

"And I'll be glad of it," returned Andy. "I'll tell you what, there is nothing like the old States, after all!"

"Right you are, Andy!"

The night was a hot one, and to get air, the new Holland came to the surface and the trap-door of the deck was left wide open.

Oscar went to bed early and had been asleep less than an hour when a strange rocking motion of the submarine awoke him.

"Hullo, something is wrong!" he cried, and slipped into his clothing. The rocking motion continued and he heard cries from several of his crew.

"We have sailed into a school of whales!" announced Andy, coming to him.

"A school of whales!"

"Exactly. They are around us as thick as bees around a pot of honey. Just look!"

Oscar ran to one of the windows and gazed out.

His chum was right. Whales were on every hand, so thick that the submarine boat could scarcely move among them.

"This is the oddest yet!" was Oscar's comment. "We had better close the trap-door and go down, before a whale gets into the screw and disables it."

He had just given the order to close the trap when there came a great shock from above, followed by a dripping of water.

One of the more sportive whales had thrown himself into the air, intending to come down on the Holland XI. and crush it.

THE WHALE INTENDED TO CRUSH THE BOAT.

The whale had struck the trap-door opening head first, and now his head was as tight as if in a bear trap, sticking six feet and more down the narrow companionway, leaving his mighty tail to flop above, high in the air!

CHAPTER XVI.

SAVING THE MERCHANTMAN.

"Held—with a whale in us for a mast!" roared old George Dross. "Hang me, ef this isn't the wust yet!"

"We must get rid of that whale!" cried Captain Oscar. "If we don't he may turn the Holland over, with that trap-door open!"

"All hands get something and shove him back!" put in Andy Greggs.

"We can't do it," answered Oscar. "Hold, I have it!"

With all speed he ran to the ammunition room and soon returned with a small shell, of the kind usually used for signaling purposes.

This he rammed into the mouth of the whale, while the huge creature strained and puffed and turned, rocking the new Holland violently.

"Run away!" he cried, and set fire to the fuse of the shell.

All got out of sight as speedily as possible, and then waited.

Fifteen seconds passed and then the shell went off, with a muffled roar.

The head of the whale was torn to shreds, fat and blood spattering all sides of the companionway and the apartment around it.

With the head torn away, the body slid from the top of the Holland XI. into the sea.

"We are free!" gasped Andy, as soon as he could speak.

"Shut the trap!" ordered Oscar, and it was done, old George Dross cleaning off the slide with a broom.

Then the order came to sink the new Holland and they went down in the very midst of the whales, who had parted for the instant after the explosion and the sight of their headless companion.

"That was an adventure I don't care to repeat," remarked Oscar, when all danger was passed. "Who would have thought of a whale trying to get into the Holland XI.?"

"Reckon he knew a good thing when he saw it," grinned Andy.

It took quite some work to clean up the mess and there was little sleep for anybody for the balance of that night.

The next day came a thunder storm.

The lightning was terrific and when the Holland XI. came up for some fresh air it seemed to play all around the steel plates of the submarine ship.

One of the men went on deck and was hurled backward by the shock, with such force that he died an hour later, having had his skull fractured.

This was the first death which had occurred on board of the new Holland, and it cast a gloom over everybody.

The trap was closed and the vessel sunk thirty feet below the surface.

Here all was silent, for the heavy storm above could not reach them at such a depth.

The body of the dead man was placed in a canvas shroud and consigned to the ocean, Oscar reading a chapter from the Bible and making a brief address and prayer.

Then they resumed the course eastward.

Twenty-four hours later the storm had passed away and the lookout announced several steamships in sight.

As they came closer they made out an American steamship loaded with merchandise for the Philippines.

The merchantman was being chased by two Japanese warships.

The warships had already sent a ball through the merchantman's upper works, but the latter still held to her course.

Those on board knew that it was to them a matter of life or death.

Should they surrender to the enemy they would most likely all be butchered on the spot.

"Here is work for us!" said Oscar, after surveying the chase through his glass. "We must get after those foreigners at once."

Down went the Holland XI. to a distance of fifteen feet.

Then a course was laid straight for the nearest of the Japanese warships.

The crafts soon came together and a torpedo was fastened to the enemy close to the stern.

Then the new Holland sped off to where the second Japanese warship was coming on.

Those on the first ship were in the act of planting a broadside into the merchantman when there came a rumble and a roar from the ocean, and the ship sailed skyward, blown up as the Holland XI. had already blown up so many others.

It was a frightful spectacle, that lurid flash, that thunderous report, and then the wreckage sailing in all directions and commingled with the torn and mutilated bodies of the Japanese sailors and officers.

The sight held those on the merchantman spell-bound.

"She has blown up her magazines!" was the cry. "Heaven be praised that it is so!"

Then all attention was placed on the second Japanese warship, which was by far the larger of the two.

She was coming on swiftly, but now she turned and fled, all on board filled with terror.

"We are saved!" cried those on the merchantman.

All were filled with wonder. Nobody could understand what had caused so speedy a turn of the dire situation.

But when the new Holland came up and Captain Oscar showed himself with an American flag in his hand a mighty cheer went up.

"It is the Holland XI.!"

"Three cheers for the boat and the men that saved us!"

Of course Captain Oscar was invited on board of the merchantman, and he went, accompanied by Andy and George Dross.

All crowded around the young commander to learn how the destruction of the Japanese vessel had been accomplished.

From those on the merchantman Oscar learned that over thirty of the foreign warships had been seen off the Golden Gate, and that San Francisco and Oakland were expecting a bombardment to begin at any moment.

"If that's the case we have no right to delay here," said the young captain.

Soon the Holland XI. was again speeding eastward.

A sharp lookout was kept for the foreign ships.

That evening they came upon half a dozen, riding close together.

Small boats were passing from one warship to another, as if an active consultation of some sort was going on.

"They are plotting something special, and I know it," said Oscar to Andy.

"What could they plot—the bombardment of San Francisco?"

"Perhaps worse. I wish I could find out."

No sooner had the thought entered the young captain's head than he resolved to act upon it.

He would come up directly in the rear of one of the ships and try to go aboard in the dark.

It was a risky thing to do, but Oscar was far from being a coward.

Indeed, nobody in the whole navy was more daring than this young inventor.

The ships comprised two Chinese cruisers, two Japanese cruisers and two English men-of-war.

The conference was being held on board one of the British ships.

As silently as a shadow the new Holland glided along under the Pacific Ocean until directly under the stern of the British ship, which was named the Corcoran.

All was dark here, for the lights from the deck could not reach the spot.

With caution the trap-door of the Holland was opened.

Oscar came up and saw a large port open in the Corcoran to admit the evening breeze.

He climbed to this and saw that the apartment beyond was empty.

From a distance came a murmur of voices and from overhead the steady tramping of feet.

"Remain here for me," he said to Andy, who was on the deck. "Be prepared to let the Holland XI. down the instant I come on board again."

Then the young captain passed into the Corcoran and out of sight of his companions.

CHAPTER XVII.

PLAYING THE SPY.

Captain Oscar Pelham knew only too well that he carried his life in his hands.

He was in the heart of the enemy's domain, and they would not hesitate to kill him on sight.

He must be cautions, for the ship was a strange one to him and it would be easy to make a false move and thus expose himself.

In one hand he carried a long knife and in his belt rested a brace of pistols.

He walked silently to the end of the stateroom he had entered, and through a half-open door saw a narrow passageway leading into a large and well-furnished cabin.

From this cabin came the murmur of voices which had first greeted his ears.

The British commander of the ship was holding a conference with the two Chinese captains of the warships lying close alongside.

As Oscar took a step forward, a negro suddenly appeared, from another stateroom.

"Hi, you——" began the negro, when Oscar caught him by the throat.

"Silence! if you value your life!" muttered the young captain of the new Holland. "Say another word and I will kill you!"

The negro was powerful, and instead of keeping silent he tried to throw Oscar off. Both went down to the floor and the negro strove to cry out.

It was a fatal move.

Down came the keen knife, straight into the negro's body, and he lay still where he had fallen.

Oscar withdrew the bloody blade with a shudder.

He hated to take human life thus, but it had been rendered absolutely necessary.

He stowed the body under a bunk and threw a blanket before it.

Then wiping the knife on a curtain, he tiptoed his way closer to the cabin.

"I do not see how your plan can succeed," he heard the English captain say.

"But it will succeed," replied one of the Chinese captains, with a strong accent. "Chan Lee and I have it well in hand."

"Then you must have a strong hold upon President Adams."

"We have."

"I doubt if he will agree, even so. Why, sir, if he did that, he would be a traitor to his country—a regular Benedict Arnold."

At this both Chinese captains shrugged their bony shoulders and drew down their almond-shaped eyes.

"That is nothing to us," remarked the captain, who had heretofore remained silent.

"He won't do it, I tell you."

"Captain Gresson forgets that the President has lost his daughter," went on the other Chinese captain.

"Ha! So that is the way the wind blows!" ejaculated Captain Gresson.

"You are now on the right path."

"The girl was abducted."

The two Chinese captains bowed.

"You have her on board of your ship?"

"No, she is many miles from here."

"Where?"

Again the two Chinese captains shrugged their shoulders.

"Let us talk of something else," said one.

"It is a clever plan, but a horrible one in the bargain," was the honest comment of the British captain. "We don't make war in that fashion."

"The Chinese fight as pleases them," answered one of the yellow commanders.

"Yes, I know. But I don't think you will succeed, anyway."

"Why?"

"President Adams would rather see his child killed before his face than prove a traitor to his country. I know these Americans."

"Good for the Briton!" muttered Oscar. "His heart is in the right place, even if he is an enemy."

"We shall see!" muttered one of the yellow captains. "But what of this attack on San Francisco?"

"Orders are to commence at sunrise to-morrow."

"And how many ships will take part?"

"Seven."

"But seven?"

"Yes."

"And the remainder?"

"The remainder will sail up the coast under the direction of the Russian admiral."

"To bombard the Alaskan coast and try to retake the territory," said the Chinese captain, with a shrewd laugh. "The great Russian bear has always wanted Alaska back, since gold was discovered at the Klondyke and elsewhere."

"Well, who can blame him?" answered the English captain. "What do you ask at the hands of President Adams—a slice of California, where you can locate a new Chinatown—and if he won't give it to you you will kill his daughter."

The talk continued for several minutes more, when there came a call from the deck.

"I will come in a moment," said the English captain, and arising he hurried to the passageway in which Oscar was hiding.

The Englishman passed him, but not so the yellow captains.

One stumbled over a rug and pitched forward, clutching at the curtains which concealed Oscar.

Down came the curtains.

"Walila! Cher walila!" roared the second yellow captain. "A spy! He must be killed!"

"A spy!" cried the British captain.

"Ha! You are a stranger to us!" came from Captain Gresson, and he eyed Oscar sharply.

"Hush! Not so loud!" said Oscar, and raised his hand, warningly.

He saw that he was in a bad situation—that nothing but a clever ruse could save his life.

"Why be still, young sir?" demanded the British captain, but in a lower tone.

"We may be overheard," whispered Oscar. "I come to you on a secret errand. Is the admiral on board?"

"No, the admiral was here, but left an hour ago."

"To go up the Alaskan coast?"

"I believe so. But what is that to you? Who are you?"

"I am Barton Peeks," answered Oscar.

He mentioned the name of a notorious British spy who had been captured in St. Louis, shortly after the great war broke out.

"Barton Peeks!" ejaculated Captain Gresson. "Where have you been? How did you get here?"

"It is a long story, captain," replied Oscar. "I was placed under arrest by those clever Yankees, but I found a friend and escaped one dark night in a heavy storm. But I have important news for the admiral. If he goes to the Alaskan coast all is lost."

"Then you thought he was on board this vessel?"

"I did; otherwise I would never have come on board."

"How did you get here?"

"In a submarine boat captured from the Yankees."

"Not the Holland XI.?"

"No, but a craft very much like her. We captured her while she was coming through the Central American Canal. Six of the men on board were killed. The engineer took the oath of allegiance to England and I got aboard a new crew of men I could trust. We shall now be able to give the Yankees a dose of our own medicine, captain."

"It is a strange story, Peeks—a strange tale, truly. But you were always a wizard, by the war reports—captured to-day and free to-morrow. Where is your craft?"

"At the stern. Will you come on board?"

"I am needed on deck now."

"I will go aboard and wait for you, for I want you to help me. Everything is going wrong, and this movement on Alaska is the worst of all."

"I would like to see that strange under-water ship," spoke up one of the yellow captains, who had listened to the talk with interest.

"Then come with me," said Oscar, grimly. "And you'll be a prisoner in five minutes more," he added under his breath.

The turn of affairs delighted him, for the Chinese commander was the same who had spoken about President Adams' daughter. Once he was a prisoner, Oscar was certain he could wring the yellow wretch's secret from him.

"Remain here for a moment," said Oscar, as they neared the stern. "My men are on guard and may not like to see me with a stranger, after my telling them I had come on a secret mission. I will be back in a minute."

The Chinese captain agreed to wait, and Oscar hurried to the rear rail of the Corcoran.

He leaned far over, expecting to catch a dim view of the new Holland underneath.

Then a cry of dismay burst from his lips.

The submarine craft was gone!

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE CAPTURE OF HANG CHANG.

"Gone!"

Such was the single word which escaped from Captain Oscar Pelham's lips as he gazed over the stern of the British warship into the darkness of the Pacific Ocean.

In vain he scanned the waves, to the rear, to the larboard and starboard. It was all to no purpose; the submarine craft had vanished utterly.

What had become of her? Had those on board become scared and deserted him?

The thought was agony. Andy and old George Dross deserting him? Never!

And yet, why had they gone? Was it possible that men from other warships had come up and captured his beloved ship and made prisoners of all on board.

He looked back of him, and saw Hang Chang, the Chinese captain who had expected to inspect the Holland, coming slowly toward him.

"Is something wrong?" questioned the Celestial.

"The boat—it must have sunk," said Oscar. He knew not what to say.

At this the second yellow commander plucked his companion by the sleeve.

"Perhaps he has no boat," he whispered in Chinese. "It may be a ruse. He may have been deceiving Captain Gresson."

At this Hang Chang shrugged his bony shoulders.

"It may be so. Yet the English captain must know him, or all would not have gone so smoothly in the cabin."

In the meantime, Oscar was straining his eyes as never before, in his search for the Holland.

What was that? A tiny ray of light, shooting up from the dark green depths of the ocean. It was the Holland XI., moving silently and slowly to her old position under the stern. Soon she came up and the trap-door opened noiselessly.

"My vessel is back, sir," announced Oscar, with a bow. "If it will please your highness to visit my filthy quarters I will do what I can to make his visit full of pleasure."

His form of address was in the regular Chinese style—for a Chinaman always depreciates his own residence—and Hang Chang smiled broadly.

"Thank you, I will go," he said, his suspicions removed.

Oscar led the way and the Celestial followed. The second Chinaman held back.

"Have a care!" he called out in Chinese.

By this time Oscar and Hang Chang were on the deck of the new Holland. Andy was looking up the companionway filled with wonder.

"Sixteen, nine," said Oscar, to his lieutenant.

During their spare time Oscar had formulated a secret language and had taught it to all on board of the Holland XI.

Each number meant something important.

Sixteen meant, "There is an enemy here." Nine meant, "Go down as quickly as possible."

Andy understood and passed the word along.

Oscar was on the companionway and Hang Chang was following him, when all of a sudden an alarm arose on board of the Corcoran.

The body of the negro had been discovered and all was confusion.

"A murder!" shrieked the second yellow captain. "I knew something was wrong. Hang Chang, come back!"

Soon faces appeared at the stern of the Corcoran, and a pistol was leveled at those below.

"Come back here!"

"I—I will go back," stammered Hang Chang, in alarm.

"Not much!" retorted Oscar, and seizing the Celestial by the foot he gave a jerk, which landed Hang Chang flat on his back at the bottom of the companionway.

"Down, quick!" cried the young captain, and in a trice the trap in the deck was closed and the Holland XI. began to sink.

They were not an instant too soon, for just as the waters of the Pacific closed over the craft a gun was trained on her from one of the Chinese warships.

Bang! and the ball grazed the upper plates of the submarine boat.

But before another shot could be fired the new Holland was safe, having slid under the Corcoran and away out of sight and hearing.

While this was going on Oscar had thrown himself on Hang Chang.

The Chinese captain was a powerful man and realizing that he had been caught in a trap he resolved to sell his life as dearly as possible.

He was on the floor, but soon he struggled to his knees and tried to throw Oscar.

Over and over went the pair, bumping against the companionway ladder and the hard steel walls of the ship. Then the Chinaman grabbed Oscar by the throat.

"Die, dog!" he hissed in his native tongue. "If I have to go, you shall go with me!"

All was becoming black before Oscar's eyes. He tried to get his breath—to cry out. All in vain.

The young captain felt his senses leaving him, when somebody rushed up. It was Andy, who had left the spot to give directions to the engineer.

Without hesitation Andy leaped at Hang Chang.

One heavy blow behind the ear staggered the Chinaman and another under the jaw made him relax his hold and stagger to the lower step of the ladder.

Then Oscar recovered sufficiently to add another blow, on the nose, which drew blood and caused Hang Chang to become partly unconscious.

"Bring the irons," said Oscar, to one of the ship's hands who was passing.

The irons were speedily brought, and by the time Hang Chang was himself again he was bound, hands and feet, and chained to one of the walls of the Holland XI.

He raved, swore and prayed to his gods for deliverance. He called Oscar all the vile names his tongue could frame, and finally fell in a fit from which he did not recover for hours.

"I tricked him nicely," said the young captain, with a grim smile.

"But what made you bring him on board?" asked Andy.

"He holds an important secret. He knows all about the abduction of President Adams' daughter."

"Oh! Then you have made quite a haul."

"Yes."

The appearance and disappearance of the new Holland had caused much consternation on board of all the warships congregated outside of San Francisco harbor.

Several on board of the Corcoran had known the celebrated spy, Barton Peeks, and from these men the English captain gathered that he was an entirely different looking individual from Oscar.

"We have been duped!" said Captain Gresson. "That rascal must have been a Yankee."

"Then his submarine boat must have been the Holland XI.," added his first officer.

The foreign ships were very uneasy, yet just at present those on them had nothing to fear.

The course of the new Holland was straight for San Francisco.

"We must inform the naval authorities of what has been done at Honolulu, and of the expedition to Alaskan waters," said Oscar.

The new Holland arrived at San Francisco without anything unusual happening, and here Oscar spent a full hour with his superiors.

The naval commander was well satisfied with the work at Hawaii, and astonished that the bombardment of the Golden Gate was to be little more than a ruse.

"We must send a strong fleet to Alaskan waters at once," he said. "And the new Holland must go with our warships."

To hear was to obey, and soon Oscar had received his orders in full, and was once more on board of his submarine craft.

He said nothing to the admiral about Hang Chang, wishing to discover for himself what had become of Martha Adams.

He was not thinking of the one hundred thousand dollars reward offered for her recovery.

He could think only of her beautiful form, her deep brown eyes and that silvery voice which had so thrilled him in former days.

He knew that she was the President's daughter, and stood high in society. Yet he was a captain in the navy and the inventor of a boat which had performed wonders in this fearful war, and there was no telling how high he might stand at the end of the contest.

From the admiral he learned that the navy department contemplated the construction of three other vessels similar to the Holland XI.

If these were built, Oscar would be put in command of the submarine squadron, with the rank of commodore.

CHAPTER XIX.

NEWS OF THE PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTER.

"Now where, Oscar?"

It was Andy who asked the question.

"Back to those ships we left several hours ago."

"Are we to blow them up?"

"Blow up as many as we can."

"And after that?"

"We are off for the coast of Alaska."

"Gee-rusalem! That's a long trip!"

"So it is. But there may be lots of glory in it. And Andy?"

"Well."

"You want to make a good record for yourself."

"How so?"

"The government is going to build three more ships like the Holland."

"That means that they will want three more captains."

"Exactly, Andy, and I intend to put in a good word for you," added Oscar.

"Thank you, Oscar, you always were the best chum in the world. But if I get one of those boats I'll hate to leave you."

"I may become commodore of the squadron and if so I'll see that you are always close to me."

It was now coming morning, and by the gray light of dawn they soon came upon the two Japanese and two Chinese ships getting ready to bombard San Francisco and Oakland.

The Corcoran and her sister ship had disappeared.

"I'm not sorry about the Corcoran," mused Oscar. "Captain Gresson seemed a pretty decent sort of fellow. I would hate to blow him up."

"Suppose Martha Adams is on board one of those ships?" asked Andy.

At this remark the young captain could not help shuddering.

"Don't! It makes me heartsick to think of it," he groaned.

"Why don't you make Hang Chang talk?"

"I will make him talk! I'll make him tell me everything!" cried Oscar, with sudden determination.

He had tried to talk to the Chinaman before, but Hang Chang had refused to open his lips.

The Celestial was still chained to the wall. He sat on the floor, his knees drawn up to his chin, a sullen look on his thin, yellow face.

"Hang Chang, I want to talk to you," began Oscar.

To this there was no answer. Indeed, the Celestial did not even lift his eyes.

"Do you hear? I want to talk to you. If you value your life you will speak."

At this the Chinese captain shifted uneasily.

"What does the Yankee wish me to say?" he asked, with a treacherous look from his almond-shaped eyes.

"I want you to tell me the truth about President Adams' daughter. Where is she?"

"She is—safe."

"You have her a prisoner."

"How does the Yankee know that? Ha! You overheard my talk on the Corcoran."

"I did. Where is she? I demand to know."

"She is, as I said before, safe." And the Celestial grinned wickedly.

"Hang Chang, you are playing with fire. We Americans are civilized and do not usually harm the prisoners we take. But unless you tell me what I want to know it will go hard with you. Martha Adams is too good to remain a prisoner of the yellow dogs who are holding her."

"There is an easy way for her to become free."

"How?"

"Let your President do as China demands and she shall be returned to her father safe and sound."

"You talk as the savage Indians of years ago used to talk. I demand to know at once where she is."

"I have nothing more to say."

"Do you value your life? Would you not give something to be set again at liberty?"

"No."

"You tell a lie when you say that. You do value your life, and it would be far sweeter for you to go free than to suffer the torture which awaits you if you refuse to speak."

"Torture!"

"Aye, torture; Hang Chang—torture worse than any you ever inflicted on Japanese or Tartar—a torture which will make you writhe and scream in spite of yourself."

Oscar had no intention of torturing the yellow wretch, but he spoke so earnestly that Hang Chang shivered and his yellow face blanched.

"I thought the Yankees did not torture their prisoners," he faltered.

"Usually they do not, but there are exceptions to all cases. I think much of Martha Adams, and am bound to restore her to her parents. If you do not tell me where she is you shall suffer all the horrors of the Pit of Everlasting Fire! I will kill you by inches! You shall thirst, you shall starve, you shall burn, all at the same time. Now take your choice."

"I—I will say nothing," responded Hang Chang, but his lips trembled so that he could scarcely frame the words.

Oscar turned to Andy, who had come up.

"Lieutenant Greggs, see to it that the foot plates are made red-hot," he ordered. "Perhaps he will talk after his feet have been well warmed."

"No! no! Do not scorch my feet!" wailed the yellow wretch. "I suffered that once—from the Borneo pirates—I could not stand it again."

"And, Lieutenant Greggs, see that the branding iron is also made red-hot," went on Oscar, calmly. "Hang Chang needs a mark of beauty upon each cheek and upon his chin."

"No! no! no! I will not stand it! It is inhuman!" shrieked the Celestial. "Do not touch me! I—I will tell all I know, if only you will let me go!" And he fell upon his bony knees in front of Oscar.

"Then tell me at once where Martha Adams is. And mind I will not let you go until you have proved your words true."

"And if I tell you the truth will you let me go?" questioned Hang Chang, eagerly.

"Yes."

"She is on board of our warship, the Green Dragon."

"You are positive of this?"

"I swear it!" And Hang Chang beat upon his forehead with his hand.

"Where is the Green Dragon now?"

"Many miles from here."

"I asked where?"

"I cannot tell exactly. She sailed from Chesapeake Bay southward to the coast of Cuba."

"Is she with other warships?"

"No, she is alone, for with the President's daughter on board, it was thought best by our admiral not to let her go into any fights."

At this Oscar drew a long breath. At least for the present this lovely girl was safe.

"Have you informed President Adams that you are holding his daughter?"

"Not yet, but we expect to do so soon."

"And you intended to give her up only when he should grant what China demanded?"

"Yes."

"What ships have you here?"

"The Pekin and the Shanghai."

"You are certain she is on board neither of these?"

"She is thousands of miles from here, on the Green Dragon, as I swore before."

"Very well, I will take your word for it. But if you have played me false let me say no torture I can think of shall be spared you."

"I have told the simple truth. When will you let me go?"

"As soon as I can prove your words. I have work ahead now, and when that is done I shall go in search of the Green Dragon."

"And in the meantime?"

"In the meantime you must remain on board of the Holland. But you will fare as well as any of us."

"Then you will unchain me?"

"No, I cannot as yet trust you that far."

"And when you have found the Green Dragon, what then?"

"I will try to make terms with those on board."

"What terms?" questioned Hang Chang, eagerly.

"Wait and you will see," replied Oscar gravely.

CHAPTER XX.

THE CAVE UNDER THE OCEAN.

By the time Oscar's interview with Hang Chang was over it was broad daylight.

The two Japanese and two Chinese warships had drawn as closely as possible to San Francisco and Oakland, and now they began to bombard those cities with all their power.

Shot and shell told heavily along the water front, but not one of either struck into the heart of the cities, for the foreign guns could not carry so far.

The guns of the forts in the harbor responded nobly and a well-directed fire soon put one of the Chinese cruisers, the Pekin, out of the race forever.

The Pekin was a sister ship to the Tien-Tsin, which the Holland had annihilated on her maiden trip at the opening of the great war.

She carried many guns and over eight hundred sailors and officers, and was certainly a formidable fighting machine.

This was Hang Chang's vessel, but Oscar did not let his prisoner know of this.

"No use to make him feel worse than he does," said the young captain to his lieutenant. "He may go and do something desperate. You know some Chinese commit suicide after defeat."

"But not Hang Chang," answered Andy. "He's too much of a coward."

Boom! crash! came a rumble and a roar, and the Pekin was seen to be enveloped in a sheet of flame from end to end. She did not sink, and soon her magazines caught fire, and then it was the old story over again of a cruiser blown into atoms.

The annihilation of the Pekin was speedily followed by the wrecking of the first of the Japanese warships, which had the keel split into three parts. The Japanese could not understand what struck them and scores of them leaped overboard, to be speedily pulled under by the vast suction when the ship suddenly settled with a plunge, and went from sight forever.

The alarm was now great on board of the second Japanese warship, the Tokio, for those on her had seen that something was around in the water—a deadly enemy. The commander at once issued orders that the vessel withdraw from the fight and run from the vicinity.

This sudden withdrawal proved almost fatal for the Holland XI. without the Japanese being aware of what they were doing. As the great warship made a turn, one of her anchors slipped overboard, and the anchor chain became entangled in the screw of the submarine craft, hauling her around like a flash.

"Something is wrong with the screw!" announced George Dross to Oscar through the speaking tube.

"Turn off the power."

"I have already done so."

"We are being dragged backward!" put in Andy, as he looked out of one of the glass windows.

The young captain ran to the rear lookout and made an examination. He saw the anchor chain and saw how the new Holland was being towed backward by the cruiser overhead. Then the chain became tighter, as those on board of the Tokio tried to recover the anchor which had dropped overboard.

But the power overhead was not equal to the task of bringing in the anchor with such a weight attached, and presently the task was abandoned for the time being.

"I reckon they are thinking only of escaping from the hidden monster that blew up the other warships," said Captain Oscar, and in this surmise he was correct.

On and on swept the Japanese cruiser, with steam at full power and every sail set. The wind was almost due north and the course of the vessel lay in that direction.

"Where can she be going?" asked Andy.

"Perhaps she is going to join that fleet in Alaskan waters."

"By Jove! That's so, Oscar. Perhaps those English ships have gone to join that fleet, too."

"More than likely."

A consultation was now held as to what could be done concerning the entangled screw.

With the Holland being towed at such a speed it was impossible to go outside and untwist the anchor chain.

As the bow of the submarine craft was pointed away from the Tokio, it was equally impossible to fire a torpedo at the Japanese vessel and thus blow her up.

"Besides, if we did that," said Oscar, "some of the wreckage might cling fast to the other end of the anchor chain and drag us to the bottom of the ocean."

It was a desperate situation, yet as hour after hour went by and nothing unusual happened, they became accustomed to it, and Andy even cracked a joke on the point.

"We're getting a free tow," he said, with a grin. "Wonder if they won't be sending in a bill to the Government for the job."

The course of the Tokio had been northward, but now the big cruiser turned almost due east.

"She is running for Fisherman's Bay," said one of those on the Holland XI. who happened to know the California coast thoroughly.

"Is it deep there?" asked Oscar.

Before the man could reply all on board of the submarine craft heard a grating sound.

"We are dragging on the bottom!" gasped Andy.

Orders were passed to George Dross and the new Holland came up close to the side of the Japanese warship.

Had they remained longer under the big craft they might have been crushed between the rocks on the bottom and the keel of the cruiser.

Presently the big cruiser came to a standstill, and a minute later those on board of the Holland XI. heard the roar of her mighty guns.

The Tokio had found a single American warship in the harbor and was doing her best to sink the craft.

The warship was something of a transport and was carrying sixteen hundred soldiers to San Francisco, from Tacoma, Washington.

She had put into the bay for fresh water and was now doing her best to fight the Tokio off.

But it was an unequal struggle, for her guns were much smaller than those on the Japanese vessel. Soon she had a gaping hole in her side, but fortunately this was two feet above the water line.

While the Tokio continued to fire shot and shell, Oscar gave orders to George Dross to bring the new Holland around under the warship's stern.

Then the young captain put on a diving suit and ordered Andy to do the same.

Both went forth and with caution made their way to the stern of the Holland XI.

The anchor chain was twisted twice around the screw and it took all their strength on a long crowbar to set the screw free.

It was dangerous work, for had they been caught in the chain when it slipped away, one or both would surely have been killed.

In a quarter of an hour they were back to the new Holland, but so exhausted that neither could stand upright.

"Try the screw!" panted Oscar. "If it is all right, fix a torpedo under the warship and run away."

The screw was tried immediately and found to work as well as ever.

Then the torpedo was brought forth from the ammunition room and adjusted, and the Holland XI. ran off a distance of a quarter of a mile and then came to the surface.

The Tokio was preparing to close in on the American transport; with the evident intention of killing or capturing all on board, when the torpedo went off with a rumble and a roar that could be heard for many miles around.

The execution done by the torpedo was frightful, for the instrument of death had been attached to the weakest part of the Japanese ship's keel.

The charge went straight up through the four decks of the Tokio, setting fire to every magazine.

It was a fireworks spectacle which could not be equaled and was followed by a scene of horror.

Everything went to pieces at once, and it is safe to say that scarcely an officer or a man on board escaped with his life.

Those on the American transport could scarcely believe their eyes, and when the Holland appeared and a man went to the deck, to wave an American flag and then the private flag of the submarine craft, there was a wild hurrahing.

"The Holland XI.!"

"What a wonderful boat!"

"Three cheers for her and her gritty commander and crew!"

And the cheers were given with a will.

The captain of the transport wished to thank Oscar in person, but the most the new Holland could do was to run alongside of the transport, and Oscar merely showed himself.

"We are off for Alaska," he said. "We are after the big Russian fleet."

"Good!" was the answer. "Hope you do them all up!" And then another cheer went up.

Soon the Holland was cutting the waters of the ocean at a speed of twenty knots an hour.

Oscar felt pretty certain that the first attack of the Russian fleet would be made at Cape Nome.

In 1900, Cape Nome had boasted of less than a thousand souls, now the city contained over fifty thousand inhabitants.

The Cape Nome mines had proved richer than any mines ever discovered in California or Australia, and the city contained a government assay office and several first-class banks.

At one of the banks was stored gold to the value of thirty-five millions of dollars, and silver to the value of eighteen millions of dollars.

"The Russians have their eyes on that gold and silver," said Oscar. "And they sha'n't get it, not if I can prevent the move."

Day after day the new Holland kept on her journey, only stopping once for extra food and water.

Then they ran between a number of islands, and one day found themselves caught in a storm and entered a little cave under a cliff.

The storm increased in violence and the heavy rains caused a landslide.

There was a strange rumble over their heads and the water was boiling and foaming on all sides of the Holland.

"By Jove! I don't like this!" cried Andy. "Something is wrong."

"It sounds like an earthquake," replied Oscar. "And see how dark it is getting."

The young captain of the Holland was right; the light of day had suddenly ceased to shine in on them and nothing more could be seen until the electric lights were lit.

"We had better move out of here," said George Dross.

"Right you are," said Oscar, "and the sooner the better. That cliff may be coming down on our heads."

The order was given to go forward, but the new Holland had run less than a hundred feet when she came to a sudden stop.

Rocks blocked her way on every side.

Then the submarine craft began to back, but soon other rocks brought her to a standstill.

The terrible truth burst upon those on board.

They were prisoners in the cave under the ocean!

CHAPTER XXI.

OUT OF ONE DANGER INTO ANOTHER.

Entombed alive!

Such was the agonizing thought which came to the mind of everybody on board of the Holland XI.

The submarine craft was caught in the cave under the ocean, and there seemed no way of escape.

The darkness outside was intense, and the water still boiled and foamed upon every side.

Once a huge rock came squarely down upon the upper side of the new Holland with a shock that made those inside fear the craft would be smashed flat.

But at last all became quiet as a tomb.

The searchlight was brought into play and they looked eagerly for some way out of the cave.

But rear and front entrances were blocked by rocks almost as large as the Holland herself and could not be budged.

An hour passed—a time full of awful anxiety.

What if the whole top of the sea-cave should give way?

It would prove the end of the new Holland and all on board!

"We must do something," said Oscar. "I am going outside.

"You may be killed," said Andy.

"And I may be killed staying here."

"If you go I shall go with you," returned the lieutenant.

Together the chums put on diving suits.

Then the torpedo trap was opened and they glided out on the bottom of the sea-cave.

It was of sand, with sharp rocks scattered here and there.

Oscar took with him a powerful electric hand light, and also a small dynamite shell.

The pair walked to the front end of the cave and made a thorough examination of the rocks.

"No way out of here," muttered Oscar, and then shook his head at Andy, who also replied in the negative.

The next movement was toward the rear end of the cave.

They had just passed the stern of the Holland XI. when Oscar grabbed Andy by the arm and pointed ahead.

A huge mound of sand was moving, as if it were alive!

With anxious eyes they gazed on the sand pile, until of a sudden it was scattered in all directions and from underneath a huge sea serpent showed itself.

The monster was all of thirty feet long and as thick around as a good-sized stovepipe.

It had a broad, flat head, from out of which shone two hideous eyes of bright yellow.

Its color was green and white, and its tail was shaped like that of a fish.

In a twinkle it curled itself into a number of loops and raised its slimy head.

Those piercing eyes were turned first upon Andy and then upon Oscar.

They moved from one to the other with the steadiness of a clock pendulum, and each young man was fairly fascinated.

Andy tried to move, but found himself rooted to the spot, for those yellow eyes had burnt themselves into his very brain.

Oscar, too, was almost transfixed.

Then slowly, but surely, the huge serpent moved closer to the two, intending to embrace the pair as one and crush them.

But the movement broke the spell so far as Oscar was concerned, and hardly knowing what he was doing the young captain hurled the dynamite shell at the water reptile.

It struck the serpent on the head, and with a strange hiss the monster set its teeth into the shell.

Oscar was pulling Andy with him.

There was a dull explosion, and the water was filled with bits of the serpent's head and neck and also with the sand which was stirred up.

When Oscar got up again he found the serpent's harmless body whipping itself furiously against the rocks.

Andy was so weak he could hardly stand, and Oscar had to support him back to the submarine craft.

All on board shivered when they heard of the sea serpent, and by turning the searchlight in that direction they saw the body still coiling and uncoiling on the sand.

"I wouldn't go out there for a million dollars," said Marney, the air man.

"Nor I," said Walton, the fellow in charge of the ammunition room.

"Well, I'm going out again," said Oscar. "But this time I shall go armed with a rifle as well as with the dynamite."

The new Holland boasted of several electric rifles, which could readily be discharged under water.

"I'll go along in place of Andy, if you'll have me," said old George Dross.

"All right," said Oscar.

The pair were soon outside, each with a rifle and each carrying a dynamite bomb.

They made a thorough examination of the cave and during that time nothing but a few curious, but harmless, fish came to disturb them.

At one point they discovered a small opening through which came a faint light.

Some small rocks were in the way and these pulled aside they saw that only one large stone lay between them and the outside ocean.

Oscar pointed to the rock and to his dynamite shell and George Dross nodded, to show that he understood.

The two shells which they carried were placed in proper position and they hurried back to the Holland.

They had scarcely re-entered the submarine craft when the dynamite shells went off.

The water was filled with the shattered rocks and as these cleared away they saw a good-sized opening ahead.

"Hurrah, for our imprisonment is at an end!" cried Andy.

The new Holland was sent forward at full speed through the opening, and once she was free those on board lost no time in quitting the vicinity of the islands.

"No more ocean cave for me," said Oscar. "One such experience is enough for me."

"And that serpent!" said Andy, with a shudder. "I imagine I'll dream of him for many a night to come." And he did, getting such a nightmare that Oscar often had to wake him up.

Four days later they came up to a point within twenty-two miles of Cape Nome.

The weather was now fine and a constant lookout was kept for foreign ships.

Once they passed an American warship bound for Seattle, and hailed her for news.

The Americans knew nothing about the Russian fleet, but said the people at Cape Nome were daily in fear of attack.

"Well, I can't say that I blame them," said Oscar. "That gold must be a great temptation."

"Right you are," returned Andy.

For several hours the sky had been overcast, showing that a heavy storm was at hand.

It was so hot on board of the Holland XI. that the young captain hated to order the submarine craft below the surface of the ocean.

"I don't believe that storm can do us much damage," he said.

"Unless we get struck by the lightning," replied Andy.

Presently it began to rain, but this did not matter, for what little water came into the new Holland ran into the well and was promptly pumped out by the electric pump.

Oscar was tired, for he had been working hard for several hours, helping to repair some wires which had broken.

He laid down to rest, and was just in a doze when a report like a cannon close to his ears almost stunned him.

The air was full of electricity, and as soon as he recovered he realized that what Andy had mentioned had happened. The Holland XI. had been struck by lightning.

Staggering to his feet he made his way toward the engine room.

He had scarcely entered the compartment when he stumbled over the body of George Dross.

"Dross!" he murmured. "Are you dead?"

No reply came back and the engineer lay like a log where he had fallen.

Oscar had scarcely made his unwelcome discovery when he noticed that something was wrong with the engines of the new Holland.

The submarine craft was running at a furious rate of speed, the indicator showing several points beyond the danger limit.

"My graciolus! This won't do!" he ejaculated, and leaped to the controlling lever.

As his hand touched the lever a spark of fire flew from the end of it to a wheel close at hand.

Oscar received a shock, but not such a one as he would have gotten had his hand remained on the bar of steel.

"Oh!" he gasped. "That was a close shave. I might have been electrocuted!"

By this time he heard Andy calling to him.

"Here I am, in the engine room," he called back.

"Stop the boat! We are shipping water fast!" came from Andy.

"I can't stop her!" replied Oscar. "Shut the trap-door at once."

Without delay Andy tried to follow out the order given.

No sooner had he touched the steel plate than he gave a gasp and fell down the companionway and lay like one dead.

The fall reached Oscar's ears and he came out to see what was the matter.

Then the terrible truth burst upon him.

The bolt of lightning had disarranged the electric machinery on board of the Holland XI. and the submarine craft was now at the mercy of the powerful current which seemed to be beyond control.

CHAPTER XXII.

A RUN NOT WANTED.

"Andy! Andy! Rise up!" cried Oscar, with increasing horror. "Tell me that you are not dead!"

But Andy did not budge, nor did even a groan escape his lips.

"If he is dead, and George Dross, what will I do?" thought the young naval captain.

Never had his heart so failed him as now. He was still weak from the shock, and to think that his two best friends might be lost to him forever was sufficient to make him collapse utterly.

The electricity was now playing around every part of the engine room, causing little flashes of fire and numerous sparks to fly hither and thither. It was a pretty sight, but woe to him who should come within the influence of that display!

Oscar dragged George Dross' body into another compartment, and as he did so one of the other hands appeared.

"Captain," he cried, hoarsely, "we are running too fast!"

"I know it, but I cannot help it."

"The trap——"

"Don't touch the trap."

"But the water——"

"The lightning has played the old Harry with our engine. Everything is charged with electricity. He tried to close the trap, and look at him."

Oscar pointed to Andy and the man gave a start of horror. Then he stared at the body of Dross.

"Is he dead, too?"

"I trust not, but I am by no means sure, Gilson."

"But what shall we do, captain? I reckon all of the others are either stunned or dead."

"The lookout, what of him?" demanded Oscar, quickly.

"On the floor in a heap."

"Too bad! We might run into something, and then——"

Oscar did not finish, but Gilson, who was a general all-around helper on the submarine craft, understood what was in his mind.

"We'll go to smash, eh?"

"Yes, Gilson. But be careful what you try to do."

"Can't we turn the electricity off?"

"We can if the switch is all right."

It may be mentioned here that all on board wore rubber shoes, so that no electricity might ever shock them through the feet while walking in dangerous places.

Together the young captain and Gilson hurried to where the switchboard was located, between the engine room and the tiny compartment built for the lookout.

"Ginger!" came from Gilson. "Burnt out! That was a strong stroke of lightning, and no mistake!"

Gilson was right. The switchboard was completely wrecked and lay in a black mass on the floor. It had been burning, but the fire was now out, for it could not communicate with the steel plates of the new Holland.

"Now what's to do, captain? How are you going to control that current?"

The question was one not easy to answer.

"I'll have to make a thorough examination first," replied Oscar. "In the meantime you attend to the others and see if some of them at least are not alive."

"Lieutenant Greggs don't look much alive," said Gilson. "Nor does George Dross. But I'll do what I can for all hands."

Left to himself, Oscar made the entire rounds of the submarine craft, surveying all of the intricate electric machinery with care.

"It's a wonder the lightning didn't set off some of the torpedoes or dynamite bombs," he said to himself. "If they had gone off we would have been blown to kingdom come."

The result of the examination was far from satisfactory. Many of the electric wires on board had become badly "crossed," and a new machine, called an electrogratrode, used for regulating the current, was running in a manner that completely puzzled the young inventor.

"This is a brand new experience, that's sure," he told himself. "If I ever get out of this alive I'll beware of thunderstorms in the future."

The new Holland continued to dash along over the surface of the water and at every big wave a large quantity of water came pouring down the companionway, until the well-hole was full and overflowing in spite of the fact that the pumping engine was working faster than ever before.

"Something has got to be done," muttered Oscar, with set teeth. "If that water gets too high it will carry the electricity everywhere and we'll be killed on the spot."

Getting out a long hook covered with rubber he began to work on the plate of the trap-door.

For some time he could not budge it and more than once a slight shock of electricity made him halt. But at last the trap shut with a click.

"Shut," he muttered, and then came a thought that made him turn pale. Had he locked himself and the others in what would prove their tomb of steel?

The water had now stopped coming in and then the well-hole speedily became empty. But the pumping engine ran on as madly as ever, with a whirr that shook the Holland XI. from stem to stern.

Soon Gilson came running to him.

"Dross is alive," he cried, "and so are most of the others."

"Is Lieutenant Greggs alive?"

"I can't tell about him, sir. If he is he was touched pretty heavily."

"Well, do what you can, Gilson. I have no time to attend to them. I must stop this machinery or the boat will be ripped to bits."

"Shall I stop the pumping engine. That seems to be O. K?"

"No, for if that power is turned off it will only be added to the screw, and we have too much power there already. See how we are flying—as fast as an express train."

"That's true, sir, and let me add, it's not the worst of it."

"No? What do you mean?"

"We are running due East, captain."

"I know that, Gilson."

"By this time we must be within two or three miles of land. If we can't stop the Holland XI.——"

"We must stop her!" ejaculated the young captain. "If we don't she'll strike shore like a battering ram!"

"Right you are, sir."

Oscar waited to say no more, but rushed to where the steering apparatus of the submarine craft was located.

The electricity was still playing all over the compartment, yet he felt that he must at least change the course of the new Holland or all would surely be lost.

With a rubber glove on his hand he took hold of one of the levers and tried to swing it over.

At first it refused to budge. Then came a snap and a click and the lever slid over to where he wanted it and three notches further.

Instantly the Holland XI. gave a shiver from stem to stern and started to run in a small circle.

The engines pounded away as before and the submarine craft tilted until it was next to impossible to stand on the floor.

Then came an explosion from the engine room and Captain Oscar was enveloped in a blueish smoke which threatened to strangle him on the spot.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE FIGHT OFF CAPE NOME.

"Captain, are you dead?"

It was Gilson who uttered the cry, as he rushed forward through the smoke, to where Oscar was leaning against a post, gasping for breath.

"No—no, Gilson," was the answer. "But we—we must have some fre-fresh air!"

Gilson knew what to do and ran with might and main to where the air was stored.

He turned several cocks and soon the foul air was being forced out of the Holland XI. and fresh air began to circulate through the various compartments.

This had hardly been done when Oscar heard a voice calling him. Then the engineer appeared, as pale as death and with his forehead bandaged.

"Reckon I was knocked out," said George Dross. "What happened?"

"A good many things," answered Oscar. "How do you feel?"

"As weak as a half drowned cat, captain. But what is wrong? Did the lightning knock us inside out?"

"Almost," answered the young commander, and told the engineer some of the particulars.

"I'll do what I can with that engine," said Dross. "But it's a ticklish job—with so much electricity flying around loose."

"Be careful," returned Oscar. "I don't want you to get knocked out for good."

He followed the engineer to the doorway of the engine room and here a long consultation took place.

Then it was decided that Dross should try to manage one part of the engine while Oscar managed another, both at the same time.

In the meantime the Holland XI. continued to swing around in a circle and once the craft came close to throwing herself completely over on the starboard side.

"Now then, ready, George?"

"Yes, captain."

"Then let her go."

Both strained at their task and several sharp clicks followed. Then Oscar sprang to a nearby lever and gave it a pull.

Instantly the power was shut off and in a moment more the Holland XI. came to a standstill on the bosom of the ocean.

"Hurrah, we have stopped her at last!" cried Oscar, enthusiastically.

With the turning off of the electricity it became safe to walk all over the submarine craft and both Oscar and the engineer, as well as Gilson, set to work to repair damages.

While they were at work the most of the men who had been shocked by the lightning came to their senses and wanted to know all about what had happened.

But poor Andy still lay in a stupor and he did not recover until several hours after.

It was no mean task to repair all the damage done to the intricate machinery of the Holland XI. and for two days every man on board was kept busy.

Fortunately, however, nothing had been destroyed but the burnt-out switchboard, and luckily there was a duplicate switchboard in the storeroom. Oscar himself put this into place and when tried it worked perfectly.

"Now I reckon we are all right once more," said the young commander, after a test had been made of all the working parts of the submarine boat.

Yet to make certain that he was ready for active service, once again he ran the Holland XI. out into the ocean and made her go through all the movements of blowing up a warship.

Then the course was changed for Cape Nome and soon they were but a few miles from that port.

An American warship was sighted, but Oscar got no opportunity to hail her, for she was steaming along at full speed.

"Looks as if she was running from something," said Andy.

The American warship had scarcely sailed out of sight to the southeast than the lookout announced a strange craft coming up from the southwest.

The new Holland was sunk almost to the level of the ocean, so that only the trap deck was above the water.

At last they made out the newcomer to be a big Russian cruiser, the Ivan II.

She was supposed to be the largest warship in the Russian navy, if not in the world.

She carried a battery of over a hundred large guns and her muster roll counted over two thousand men.

"By jove! but she's a wonder!" muttered Andy, as he gazed at her through a glass.

"She is, and she's not alone," answered Oscar. "See two more warships have come into view."

The young captain was right. The second and the third ships were also Russian, and these were followed by a Chinese cruiser and a Japanese frigate, and then came six other Russian vessels.

By this time the Ivan II. was so close that Oscar thought it best to descend below the surface of the ocean, and coming down with Andy he gave orders for the trap-door to be closed.

The button which communicated with the machinery of the Holland was touched, but, much to the young commander's surprise, the trap-door remained open.

"Hullo, something is wrong there again!" he cried, and ran to push the button himself.

It worked all right, but he speedily discovered that the connection with the power was broken in the engine room.

"We must shut the trap by hand!" he cried to Andy. "Quick, before that Russian cruiser spots us!"

The chums ran up the ladder to move the door.

But the plate was heavy and ran in a tight groove which was water-proof, and for the minute it refused to budge.

Suddenly a yell came from the deck of the Ivan II.

The Holland had been discovered.

"The accursed American sea-devil!" roared the Russian captain. "If she gets the chance she will sink us as she has sunk the Tien-Tsin and other ships."

He ordered that a bomb be brought on deck with all speed.

This was done, and a few seconds later the deadly thing was hurled straight at the Holland XI.

It struck the open trap-door, bumped on the steps, and rolled at Oscar's feet.

The fuse was burning briskly, and in a few seconds more the bomb would go off, creating destruction and death upon every hand!

CHAPTER XXIV.

SINKING OF THE IVAN II.

"We shall be killed!"

Such was the cry which came from the lips of Andy Greggs as he stared in helpless horror at the bomb, and its smoking fuse.

It was a moment to act, not to think.

By instinct more than reason Oscar leaped forward and caught the bomb in his hands.

His fingers closed over the burning fuse, to put out the fire.

But the action was too late—the fire had gone inside!

Then with a lightning-like movement the young captain hurled the shell up through the trap-door into the air.

Before it had time to drop into the ocean it went off with a loud report.

Pieces of the shell came down through the trap-door, hitting both of the young men on the head and hands and in the face.

Andy had the skin taken from one cheek and Oscar's left hand was somewhat bruised.

But they and the Holland were saved!

By this time George Dross was running forward to shut the trap-door with an instrument made for that purpose.

"What's up?" he asked, in astonishment.

"Shut the trap first and I'll tell you," gasped Oscar. For the moment he could scarcely speak.

Once the trap was closed the new Holland sank down to a depth of thirty feet.

The movement came none too soon.

The Ivan II. now had several guns trained on the submarine craft and the balls from these struck the water and swept past them with no room to spare.

"We'll fix you for that!" murmured Oscar.

Then he told George Dross of what had occurred.

"Oscar's move was the bravest I ever saw!" declared Andy.

The young captain now ordered that they follow the Ivan II. closely and this was done.

As expected, the course of the big Russian cruiser was for Cape Nome and soon she came to a stand about five miles from the sea front of the city.

"Now we have her at our mercy," said Andy.

But for once the young lieutenant was mistaken.

The foreign ships—or at least a fair number of them—had profited by the destruction of the craft wrecked by the Holland XI. and had adopted a curious device by which they might be warned of the near approach of a submarine ship.

From the under side of the keel of the Ivan II. there ran a number of wires, stretching out in all directions, like the spokes of some gigantic bicycle wheel.

These wires were connected with an alarm bell on the ship, which would ring, by an electric circuit, the moment any large mass of metal touched them.

The new Holland was going ahead at a fair rate of speed, when, by aid of the searchlight, the lookout announced the discovery of some odd-looking wires ahead.

An inspection was made, and those on board of the submarine craft soon learned the nature of the defensive method the Russian naval officers had adopted.

"That's pretty good," mused Oscar.

"I'm afraid its going to beat us!" declared Andy. "No telling what may happen if we run into those wires."

"They may contain current enough to shock the Holland and kill everybody on board," said George Dross.

The matter was talked over for a quarter of an hour.

In the meantime the other warships had drawn up in line and all were preparing to bombard the city beyond, which contained so much of gold and silver.

"Well, we've got to do something," said Oscar. "I have an idea."

His idea was nothing less than to float a torpedo out of the Holland XI. and attach it to a long line, setting the time fuse at ten minutes.

They would then tow the torpedo into such a position that the drift of the ocean would pull it under the Ivan II.

The job was a delicate and dangerous one, for the fuse when once set, might become entangled in the line and set the torpedo off prematurely.

Oscar superintended the task himself and in a quarter of an hour the torpedo was drifting close to the Ivan II.

The guns of the Russian warship had just spoken up against the city forts, when the warning bell attached to the wires began to ring.

"Ha! that boat is now at hand!" cried the Russian commander. "We will soon give him more than he sends!"

An electric current was touched off, but this only struck the torpedo, which was slowly traveling toward the Russian cruiser's keel.

Two minutes passed and the Russians were wondering what had happened on board of the Holland XI.

"Let the line go!" sang out Oscar, as he saw that the time for the explosion was about up.

Then the new Holland ran for safety.

Boom! Bang!

Loud and clear came the report over and under the ocean, as the torpedo, charged with both high explosives and electricity, went off.

It would have been impossible to smash up a craft of the size of the Ivan II. with one torpedo, but a great hole was torn in her keel and through this the water rushed in a veritable cataract.

"We are ruined!" shrieked one of the Russian officers. "The Holland has torpedoed us after all!"

Then commenced a scene which beggars description.

To the upper deck rushed the sailors, gunners, ammunition men, engineers and all others connected with the big craft.

There were men cursing, men praying, and men rushing around as if crazy. Some leaped overboard, some climbed the tall masts, and some stood as if turned to stone, too paralyzed to move.

Those on the other warships were horrified.

Then they realized that the Holland XI. must be at work and the various captains gave orders to get into motion without delay.

Cape Nome and its gold were forgotten. The one thought of all was to get away from this frightful submarine ship which had brought so many foreign vessels to their doom.

Off went the ships, in all directions, putting on their best steam, and running so well that the Holland did not attempt to follow them until some time later.

Slowly and majestically the Ivan II. sank until reaching the bottom she stood where she had gone down, only her tall masts showing above the bosom of the ocean.

The going down of the Ivan II. and the sudden departure of the other ships mystified those on shore and they wondered what it all meant.

But when the new Holland showed herself near one of the forts, those inside understood and a yell arose, which soon became a ringing cheer.

As soon as he could Oscar went ashore and was received by the commander of the fort, who shook him warmly by the hand.

"You have done nobly, sir!" said the commander. "You have saved both us and the city."

"I would advise you to make prisoners of all the Russians found floating in the bay," answered Oscar. "It may save you from another attack at a later day."

"A good idea," responded the commander, and at once gave the necessary orders.

As a result two hundred and nine Russians were captured, including an Admiral, for the Ivan II. had been the flagship of the fleet.

It was announced that the Admiral would be held at Cape Nome until the end of the war, and this saved the place from another bombardment, for the Russians were afraid the naval officer might otherwise be put to death.

After leaving Cape Nome the Holland put after the rest of the fleet, but they could not be found.

This broke up the movement on Alaska for the time being, and then the bow of the submarine terror was turned southward once more.

All this time the Chinese Captain, Hang Chang, had remained on board a close prisoner.

He frequently begged for the freedom of the ship, but Oscar was afraid to trust him.

"At least give me a sight of the outside world," he begged one day.

Oscar agreed to do this, as they were then in mid-ocean, and releasing the prisoner, led him up through the trap-door to the tiny deck of the Holland.

The movement was almost a fatal one. The confinement had preyed on Hang Chang's mind and turning suddenly while on deck, he caught Oscar by the throat.

"We go—we die together!" he hissed, grating his teeth and rolling his wicked eyes. "Farewell to the world!"

The next moment he had leaped into the ocean, dragging Oscar with him!

CHAPTER XXV.

IN WHICH THE HOLLAND XI. IS CAPTURED.

"Man overboard!"

Such was the cry which came from the lips of Marney.

He was at the foot of the ladder at the moment Hang Chang grappled Oscar and disappeared with the young captain.

"Who's over?" came from Andy, as he rushed up.

"The cap'n!" went on Marney. "The Chink dragged him over! He had the cap'n by the throat!"

Andy waited to hear no more, but bound up the ladder two steps at a time.

All he could see was a slight disturbance in the water, where a few bubbles were coming to the surface.

With Andy to think was to act, for he felt that Oscar was in a dangerous situation.

With one leap he was down at the foot of the ladder again and calling to George Dross.

"Watch for us! I am after Oscar!" he shouted, and then caught a knife which was in Marney's belt.

Then he went to the deck again and taking a long breath, plunged into the ocean, blade in hand.

In the meantime Oscar was having a bitter struggle with the madman, for such Hang Chang had become.

The grip of the Celestial was like that of steel and could not be broken.

Oscar kicked at him and turned and twisted, but all in vain.

Then there came a darkness over the eyes of the young captain and a strange rumble in his ears.

He felt himself going down and down, the water each instant getting colder and more lonely.

"It must be the end of all!" he thought. "Heaven alone can help me!"

He thought of the Holland XI., of his friends, of the many victories he had gained—and of what he had hoped to do for the President's daughter.

Was this to be the end of all—this, a grave at the bottom of the mighty Pacific?

Again he struggled, and this time he thought the grip on his throat was somewhat relaxed.

But only for a moment, then it became even tighter than before.

The darkness increased and he believed himself dead and dreaming.

Of a sudden something brushed against his shoulder.

It was Andy's body, and opening his eyes he saw dimly a hand clutching a knife.

Once, twice, three, the blade was plunged into the back of the Chinaman. Then it came upward a fourth time and slashed across the crazy man's wrist.

The sea was died with the blood of the Celestial and slowly but surely that steel-like grip relaxed, until Oscar found himself free.

But he was almost too weak to help himself and Andy had to assist him to the surface.

Here willing hands helped both to the deck of the new Holland and down into the interior, where both sank on the floor exhausted.

Oscar looked white and faint, and not without reason, for never before had he been so close to death.

"We are well rid of him," he said, after he and Andy had told their stories. Then he caught his chum's hand. "Andy, that is another debt I owe you."

For several days after this nothing unusual happened on board of the new Holland.

Oscar had now determined to go in search of the Chinese cruiser, which was said to have Martha Adams on board as a prisoner.

He felt that he must rescue the girl, no matter what the cost, for to him Martha Adams was the loveliest young woman on the face of the globe.

Day after day went by and at last they approached the coast of California once more.

Here a stop was made for provisions and for some extra ammunition, and Oscar reported to the authorities what had been done at Cape Nome.

But the news had already come in from Alaska by telegraph.

The Navy Department at San Francisco also had news for Oscar which caused him much pleasure.

Congress had awarded him and his men a special medal for bravery and it was broadly hinted that Oscar would soon be made a commodore.

"We'll get to the top of the naval ladder—if this war lasts long enough," said Oscar.

"That's what we want," answered Andy. He was equally delighted, for he scented a captaincy ahead.

From San Francisco the run was straight to Central America, and then to the entrance of the great canal.

At the east end of the canal it was learned that several foreign warships had been sighted in the Caribbean Sea off the south coast of Cuba.

One of the warships was supposed to be the Chinese cruiser Green Dragon.

"We'll soon find out if it is the Green Dragon," said Oscar, grimly.

But, alas! just as they wished to crowd on all power, something got the matter with the machinery and they had to lay-to two days for repairs.

It was very hot, for they were not far from the equator, and so they lay on the top of the ocean, with the trap-door open day and night.

By the second night the repairs were almost completed and George Dross announced that they would be ready to continue their voyage by ten o'clock the next day.

All had worked hard over the machinery, especially Oscar and Andy, and were much exhausted in consequence.

The young captain and his lieutenant retired and were soon in the land of dreams, and George Dross, Marney and several others followed, leaving only Walton on guard.

It was a dark night and so close that it made Walton sleepy. He sat on the companionway ladder smoking, but soon his head began to nod, and though he didn't fall asleep he was not as alert as he might have been.

In the meantime from shore there had put off a long Spanish cutter containing ten of the most daring Spanish and Italian naval men and sailors to be found anywhere.

Slowly and silently the cutter crept up to the Holland XI. and the leader of the party, Captain Roquez, stepped on the tiny deck of the submarine craft.

He motioned his followers to be silent and then took from his pocket a plaster of pitch.

Down the ladder he went like a ghost until he stood directly over Walton.

The ammunition-man started in alarm, but ere he could say a word the pitch plaster was clapped over his mouth and he was made a close prisoner.

"Now for the others," whispered Captain Roquez. "We will show the Americanos what we can do and wipe out the insult of the War of 1898!"

Slowly and cautiously the party moved forward until they came to where Oscar and Andy slept.

They had brought leather straps along, and these were clapped on the pair before they could sit up.

"What does this mean?" demanded Oscar, as soon as he could speak.

"It means that we have captured your ship and that you are our prisoners!" chuckled the Spanish captain.

CHAPTER XXVI.

PRISONERS ON THE HOLLAND XI.

"Prisoners!"

Such was the single word which burst from Oscar's lips as he tried to sit up on his couch.

He almost thought he was dreaming, but when he tried to raise his arm and found it tied fast to his resting place, he fully realized the direful situation.

"And who are you?" he went on slowly.

"Captain Roquez, but not at your service," returned the Spaniard, with a baneful glance. "The Americanos defeated my country in Cuba, years ago, but they shall never defeat me again. On the contrary, I shall have a splendid revenge upon all the Yankee navy—now I am master of the new Holland.

"Oscar, this is an outrage," put in Andy, after finding himself also bound. He turned to Roquez. "What have you done with the engineer and the others?"

"All prisoners, excepting one man, who slept at the door of the ammunition room."

"That was Marney, the air man. What of him?"

"He tried to resist, and he is now at the bottom of the sea."

"You killed him?"

Captain Roquez nodded, coldly.

"And I will kill every one of you if you try to resist me," he added grimly.

"How do you expect to run this boat?" questioned Oscar, curiously. "Do you not know that it takes a well-drilled expert to do the trick?"

"Humph! We are prepared!" said the Spaniard. "Rest assured that I knew what I was doing when I planned to capture the new Holland."

"Well, I'll wager a dollar you can't run the boat," said Oscar, decidedly.

"Then if we cannot we will force you and your men to run it for us."

"I'll see you hanged first!"

"And so will I!" added Andy, promptly.

"Ho! Do not speak so, or I will run you through with this!" cried the Spaniard, and flourished a long dagger in their faces.

A moment later Captain Roquez went away, leaving Oscar and Andy in charge of one of the Spanish sailors, Canelli, by name.

Canelli could not speak English, so to converse with him was out of the question.

"Oscar, this looks as if we were in a pickle," came from the lieutenant, with something of a groan.

"That's true, Andy. How are your bonds."

"As tight as a drum. And yours?"

"Ready to cut the wrists and ankles off me."

"They know how to tie knots, don't they?"

"They do."

"I wonder how they intend to run the Holland? I don't see how they can manage our intricate machinery," went on Andy, musingly.

"They can't run her unless they have an expert machinist aboard, and even then he'll have to know something of submarine boats. If any ordinary fellow tackles George Dross' job, he'll run us to the bottom or blow us up."

Canelli now came forward and clapped his hand on each of their mouths, at the same time showing them his knife, upon the blade of which was a quantity of dried blood.

This was a warning to keep silent, and as the Spaniard looked like a wicked wretch, capable of doing almost anything, they stopped conversing.

Half an hour went by and all remained silent on board.

The trap-door was still open, but now of a sudden they heard the well-known click-click as the trap closed.

"Found out how to shut her up, anyway," murmured Andy.

Both strained their ears to learn what the next movement of the captors of the Holland would be.

They heard earnest talking in the power room, where George Dross lay, bound to an iron bench.

"Won't tell ye a thing, hang ye!" came presently from the old engineer. "I run this ship for Cap'n Pelham, not for the likes o' you!"

"Good for Dross!" whispered Oscar. "I knew he would stick by us."

"If you won't help us we will kill you!" came in Captain Roquez's voice.

To this George Dross was silent.

Then followed pleading and curses, but all to no effect. Finally Captain Roquez and another man came out into the passageway in front of the apartment in which Oscar and Andy were prisoners.

"Gabretti, you must do your best without their help," said the Spanish captain, earnestly.

"I will, captain," was the answer, in a strong foreign accent. "But it will be taking something of a risk."

"It ought to be all right. You once ran the engines on the old Holland."

"Zat ees true, captain, but ze new Holland is von great improvement on ze old. Ze machinery ees much more—vat you call heem?—complications, eh?"

"I suppose so—these accursed Yankees are forever improving things. But their engineer won't do a thing and so you must do your best. Only don't blow us up as you blew up the old Holland."

"Ha, ha! You make von joke on me, eh? I blow up ze old Holland because ve vant him blow up. I hate ze Americanos. But I not blow up ze new Holland, no, no! I make heem blow up two-seex-ten-a-hundred Yankee ships before I am done."

"Now you are talking," answered Captain Roquez. "But be careful, and if you can't manage her we will force that Yankee engineer to help us out, even if I have to cut off his ears to make him come to terms."

The two passed out of hearing, and presently Canelli was called away, leaving Oscar and his first lieutenant alone.

"Andy, that fellow is Gabretti, the rascal who blew up one of the old Hollands!"

"Right you are, Oscar. He ought to be hung!"

"Rather say, captured. Don't you remember that there is a reward of fifty thousand dollars out for his apprehension?"

"By Jove, that's so! I'd like to obtain that reward."

"He ought to be captured, the sneak! I don't believe he can run our boat."

"He may run her after a fashion. But sooner or later he is bound to get into a tight hole and then he won't know what to do."

Half an hour more dragged by, and the Holland began to sink by jerks, showing that the man who was running the power was new at the business.

She descended a distance of fifty feet and came to a stop.

Then the new engineer began to experiment with the power, and moved the boat backward with a number of other jerks, and then forward slowly and unevenly.

"He's trying hard to get there," muttered Andy.

"He can't run her smoothly enough to do service with," returned Oscar. "Wait, I have an idea!" he added, suddenly.

"What's up now?"

"Perhaps I can get free. The edge of this couch is of iron and rough in one spot, as I well remember. Perhaps I can saw this leather strap apart on the rough edge. Do you think that Spaniard will stay away?"

"Never mind; do what you can."

With caution, and making as little noise as possible, the young captain set at the task of liberating himself.

It was a slow and painful job, and he rubbed the skin on his wrists almost as much as he did his leather bonds.

But the movement was a success, and at last he found his hands free.

He quickly liberated his feet and then set his lieutenant at liberty.

"Now if only we had pistols," said Andy.

"We will take the electric rifles—they make little or no noise," answered Oscar. "And don't forget those swords in the pantry."

Soon both were well armed and ready to fight to the death for liberty.

Hardly had they prepared themselves when they heard footsteps approaching the apartment.

On the instant Oscar reached up and turned off the electric light hanging from the ceiling.

"Get in a corner, Andy, and watch your chance," he whispered. "And mind, they are our deadly enemies and would kill us were they certain they could run this boat without our aid."

There was no time to say more, for a second later the door was opened and Captain Roquez and the sailor, Canelli, entered.

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE DEFEAT OF THE ENEMY.

"Ha! It is dark here!" cried the Spanish captain, as he paused on the threshold of the door.

"The light has lost its power," answered Canelli. "Perhaps it got turned off by accident."

"Try to find it."

"Aye, aye, captain."

The sailor came into the room and Captain Roquez followed.

The instant they entered Oscar kicked the door shut and caught the Spanish captain from behind.

Andy caught Canelli, and a fierce hand-to-hand struggle ensued.

Down went both pairs on the floor and rolled over and over.

They tried to rise, but this was impossible, for the Holland had begun to jerk around in a semi-circle, the new engineer having tried some experiment with the power.

The Spanish captain drew his dagger, but before he could use it, Oscar brought his sword into use and the Spaniard received a nasty cut in the side. At the same time Andy was trying to draw his own blade, but Canelli caught hold of it, and now it was a wrangle for the blade, hot and bitter.

"Do you surrender?" asked Oscar, as he placed the sword at the Spanish captain's throat.

"Yes! Do not kill me!" howled Roquez.

"Then lie where you are. A single move and I will put a bullet into you."

Oscar backed to the center of the apartment and turned on the electric light once more.

Captain Roquez lay helpless on the floor. He knew that if he moved, the young captain of the Holland would run him through with that ugly-looking blade.

Oscar turned to look at Andy. The sight that met his gaze thrilled him with horror.

Canelli had obtained possession of the sword, and was on the point of running it through the young lieutenant's body.

"Stop!" cried Oscar. "Stop, or I will fire!"

"STOP OR I WILL FIRE!"

"Never! He shall die!" shrieked the Spanish sailor.

And he made a fierce lunge at Andy, intending to lay open his very heart.

The blade had already cut through the young lieutenant's shirt and scratched his skin, when Oscar raised the electric rifle with the rapidity of lightning.

Zip! There was a faint, hissing sound, and Canelli fell over backward, mortally wounded.

"Ha! You have killed him——" began Captain Roquez, when Oscar clapped his hand over the Spaniard's mouth.

"Say another word, or make the least outcry, and I will serve you in the same way!"

"Gosh! but that was a close shave!" gasped Andy, as he staggered forward. "I was afraid I was a goner!"

"Hand me that leather strap and I will make this fellow a prisoner," said Oscar.

The strap was quickly adjusted, and then Oscar brought forth a large neckerchief, which he speedily transformed into a gag and inserted in Captain Roquez's mouth.

"What shall we do with him?" questioned Andy.

"We'll put him in the pantry for the present. The dead body we can stow away under my couch." For Canelli had breathed his last.

Back of the apartment was a pantry containing flour, potatoes and other ship's stores.

In this narrow space they placed Captain Roquez, perching the Spaniard on a flour barrel.

"Now keep quiet if you value your life!" said Oscar.

Then the door was closed and bolted on the rascal.

Oscar's next movement was to look out into the passageway.

"The coast is clear," he said to his lieutenant. "Come."

Andy followed, and they passed to the entrance to the ammunition room.

Here they found Walton and two other men, close prisoners, each with a pitch plaster over his mouth.

There was a Spanish guard here, but he was readily overpowered, and one of the pitch plasters was placed over his mouth and he was tied to a big torpedo.

"Where is George Dross?" asked Oscar.

Nobody knew.

"So far we are but four against seven," said Andy. "We want to be careful, or our cake will be dough."

"I hope Dross is safe," said Oscar. The old engineer was very dear to him.

He told the men to remain on guard, and each armed himself with a dagger, sword or pistol.

Then Oscar tiptoed his way to the engine room.

Peering in he saw Gabretti at the engine, studying a power register with much perplexity.

"I can make nodding of heem!" he muttered. "Do zat make ze boat go zis vay or zat vay, eh?"

He turned to George Dross, who still lay bound to the iron bench.

"Don't ask me any questions," growled the old engineer.

"You shall answer me!" stormed the Italian. "Answer—vot ees zat funny clock for?"

"It shows the time to pump the electricity in the go-bang-it-on-the-head," answered Dross.

"Ze electricity in ze go-bang-him—vot you call eet? Who ses eet?"

"It shows when you will be hung," grumbled George Dross.

"Ha! You make von fun of me, eh? You are a—a—I know not vot. How you like dat, eh?"

Raising his heavy boot, Gabretti kicked the old engineer violently in the side.

He was about to repeat the act when Oscar rushed at him from behind and pushed him headlong.

Then the young captain of the Holland jumped on the Italian rascal, knocking every particle of wind out of him.

"Let—mego!" panted Gabretti.

"Ha! It ees the captain!"

"You scoundrel, to blow up one of the old Hollands!" cried Oscar angrily. "You, a naturalized citizen of the United States. You deserve what you will surely get—a traitor's death."

Gabretti struggled wildly and tried to draw a knife from his bosom. But Oscar kicked the blade aside and hit the rascal a blow with his electric rifle, and then the traitor sank back, insensible.

"Heaven be praised!" murmured George Dross, when set free. "I was afraid we had reached the end of our string."

"I reckon that fellow has reached the end of his string—or he will when he hangs," answered Oscar. "Bind him with the ropes that bound you." And Dross quickly complied.

With the leaders of the expedition against the new Holland out of the way, and with five men to fight but six, Oscar rightfully felt that success was now but a short distance off.

George Dross was soon armed, and then Oscar and the old engineer moved silently toward the lookout.

Here two men were stationed, a Spaniard and an Italian. They were both gazing intently at what was before them in the ocean, and neither heard the approach of the Americans until it was too late for them to do anything.

Both were thrown down and in the struggle one was knocked senseless. Then the pair were bound, back to back, and pitched into one of the lower compartments of the Holland XI.

While this was going on two other men had appeared in front of Andy and those with the young lieutenant.

A fierce fight ensued, in which one of the foreigners was shot and the second cut in the head with a sword. One of the Americans was also wounded, but the wound was of small consequence.

Half an hour later the Holland XI. was once again in complete control of her regular crew.

Walton explained how he had been overcome, and Oscar read him a lecture on being more careful in the future.

"And I will be careful," said the ammunition-man. "After this the first man to try any game on me gets shot."

Oscar did not care to go after the Green Dragon while he had so many prisoners on board, and consequently he ran in at Santiago de Cuba, and placed Captain Roquez, Gabretti and the others in charge of the American garrison there.

"A big haul, Captain Pelham," said the commander of the garrison. "The capture of Gabretti means fifty thousand dollars in your pocket."

"A fair share of it shall go to my men," answered Oscar.

Soon the new Holland left Cuba, and then the search for the Green Dragon and pretty Martha Adams was renewed with more vigilance than ever.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

AN UNDERWATER EARTHQUAKE.

From Santiago the Holland XI. ran southward and then eastward.

A rainy season was now on, and it was cloudy nearly all the time, while showers were frequent.

A sharp lookout was kept constantly, but for several days nothing was sighted but a few peaceable fishing smacks.

At Santiago the young commander had received news that many of the foreign nations were growing tired of the war.

Out of sixteen naval battles they had won but four and out of twenty-two contests on land only three stood to their credit.

In the meantime Uncle Sam had not been idle.

An army of invasion, numbering forty thousand soldiers, had been landed on the coast of England and had taken possession of two forts and one city located there.

Another army was on its way to Japan and a third had just left the Philippines bound for China.

More than this, the Boers of South Africa had thrown in their fortunes with the United States and Cape Colony had followed. Four small South American republics had likewise declared for our country and were willing to do whatever Congress and President Adams wanted of them.

"Things are coming our way fast," declared Andy, when talking the matter over with the young naval captain. "I reckon those foreigners who have combined against us are heartily sick of their job. I can't understand why they went in at all."

"It's the capitalists who forced the war, Andy. The United States is taking the trade of the world fast, and they had to do something."

"Then why didn't they stop buying our goods?"

"Because the common people won't stand that—not if they can buy our goods cheaper than they can their own. When you touch a man's pocketbook you touch his heart."

"But after this war is ended, what then?"

"We'll have to adjust commercial matters with them, that's all. Congress will come to some sort of a friendly agreement. After all, you must remember that our enemies are really our fellow human beings. While we have the power to do so, it's not right for us to drive them too far into a corner."

"I agree with you, Oscar. 'Live and let live' is my motto. But I must say I've got no use for the Chinese."

"Nor I—especially for the fellows who abducted Miss Adams."

"I see you can't get her out of your head. Well, I don't blame you. She's a fine girl, no two ways about it."

The Holland XI. was now out of sight of land, and no shore came to view until some hours later.

In the meantime the air grew strangely hot in spite of the heavy rain which was falling.

"Gosh, but the Holland XI. is getting to be a reg'lar sweatbox!" panted George Dross, as he came out of the engine room and to the trap-door to get a whiff of fresh air.

Oscar examined the thermometer.

"Great Scott!" he ejaculated.

"How high?"

"A hundred and eighteen in the shade!"

Dross could not believe it and examined the glass for himself.

"Right you are, captain. No wonder I was getting ready to keel over down there from the heat."

"We will sink to the bottom of the sea," answered Oscar. "It must be cooler there than up here."

A fresh supply of air was taken on board and soon the submarine craft was slowly descending.

At this point the bed of the Caribbean Sea lay a quarter of a mile below the surface and was broken up by a series of ridges and several hilltops, which looked as if in years gone by they might have been islands.

"It is cooler here," said Andy, while they were resting on the bottom. And then, glancing out of the window, he continued: "What beautiful seaweeds and trees! Oscar, do you suppose this part of the ocean was ever an island?"

"More than likely, Andy."

"What caused it to sink—an earthquake?"

"Either that or else a volcanic eruption, such as they had on Martinique years ago."

"That was a terrible thing. I was told it wiped out 30,000 lives at the city of St. Pierre."

"Yes, and it was followed by the sinking of four small islands in that vicinity and the appearance of the island now known as Gromley, after Professor Gromley, the geologist, who discovered it."

"Those must have been trying times down here."

"They were—so my father told me. And a few years later, when they had that little earthquake in New York city, and the whole mass slipped two inches toward the Battery and the bay, folks got scared out of their wits. My father told me that downtown people left New York with a rush, and some of them didn't go back until several months later."

"I don't blame them. Imagine the whole city, with its enormously high buildings, coming down with a crash and sliding into the bay. It's enough to make a fellow shiver from head to foot."

"Something is bound to happen there some day—if they keep on putting up those skyscrapers. Just before we left I heard of a party who was going to erect a building one hundred stories high and three blocks long, the streets between the blocks to be bridged over."

"Gosh! That fellow must have money!"

"It was a stock company building, and the shares were to be held by the tenants. But I wouldn't want to live or do business on the hundredth floor, I can tell you that."

At this moment word came in from the lookout that he desired to see Captain Oscar at once.

The young captain lost no time in hurrying forward.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Look there, captain. What do you make of that?" questioned the lookout, in return.

Captain Oscar looked in the direction indicated, which was the top of a small hill.

From this hilltop sand was pouring, accompanied by a peculiar something which resembled smoke.

For several minutes both gazed at the extraordinary phenomena in silence.

"That is something new," said Oscar. "I would not mind going a bit closer to investigate."

The words had hardly left his lips when the sand began to shoot up into the air. Then followed something that looked like smoke and steam, and soon the plate glass of the lookout window became hot.

"It's a volcano!" cried Oscar. "I reckon we had better leave this vicinity."

Through the speaking tube he gave orders to George Dross to back the Holland XI.

The screw was just beginning to turn when a dull explosion came to the ears of all on board.

A rush of sand, mud, steam and fire followed and stones beat a steady tattoo on the steel plates of the Holland XI.

Some of the mud and stones became entangled in the screw of the submarine craft and in their hurry to get away from the vicinity the boat was run into a forest of seaweed and marine brushwood.

The whole bottom of the sea was moving and they realized that an earthquake was at hand.

They were caught in the very midst of the awful disturbance and it was a question whether or not they would get out of it alive.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE RESCUE OF JEAN FEVRE.

It was a moment of extreme peril and nobody realized it more than did Captain Oscar Pelham.

Should the Holland XI. become fast between the rocks and mud now pouring forth on all sides the submarine craft would be doomed.

"Turn her and run at full speed!" he shouted. "To port, quick!"

His order to turn to port was obeyed as speedily as possible.

He had seen the bed of the sea rising in the opposite direction and the movement came none too soon. A moment later the ground shot high up into the air, carrying huge rocks with it.

Had the Holland XI. been caught in that upheaval she would have been thrown two hundred feet above the surface of the Caribbean Sea, to fall back a broken and battered mass, with all on board lifeless.

The commotion under water was now growing rapidly, so that little could be seen, and they had to trust largely to luck as they moved on in an endeavor to get away from the ill-fated spot.

Once the Holland XI. struck a huge mass of mud which had just been raised by the earthquake.

It sent the mass flying in all directions and the lookout window was completely covered with the stuff, so that next to nothing could be seen.

"If we get out of this we can be thankful!" gasped Andy. "Hark to the roaring! And feel, the very sides of the boat are getting hot!"

The young lieutenant was right; the plates were so warm that they were positively painful to the touch.

And now came a greater explosion than before, and in a twinkle the new Holland was caught and turned around and around like a top in a strange current created by this new volcanic eruption. And, worst of all, the boat was sinking.

"We're going down into a hole!" shouted one of the ammunition men. "Nothing can save us now! We'll drop to the bowels of the earth and right into that volcano fire!"

His words were truly startling, and for the moment it looked as if all on board the submarine craft were losing their presence of mind. Oscar ran to the engine room.

"Up! up!" he yelled. "And give her all the power possible! It is our one chance!"

The electric engine began to work as never before, and presently their downward course was stayed. Then they arose and Oscar directed they run ahead as before.

The mud was still on every side and the water ran hither and thither in all directions, carrying seaweed, wood and dead fish with it. The heat continued, but presently it grew cooler.

"I guess we are going to get out of it, after all," said Andy, mopping the perspiration from his forehead. "But, oh! what an experience! I never want another like it!"

"Don't crow until you are out of the woods," said Oscar.

"That was a real volcanic eruption and an earthquake combined, wasn't it?"

"Certainly—and not a little one, either."

"By no means."

Yet in an hour the danger was over and the sea once more resumed its normal condition.

When they came to the surface it was much cooler than it had been and it was raining in torrents.

On every side seaweed was floating about and on the water rested an oily substance exceedingly disagreeable to the smell.

"What will you do?" asked Andy.

"Put in to shore and find out how bad the earthquake has been," answered the young captain.

It was no easy matter to locate themselves in the darkness, but after a consultation the course was set and they ran back in the direction of Santiago.

When they arrived at the entrance to Santiago Harbor they found great excitement. The earthquake had done considerable harm to the shipping and several small coast vessels had been completely destroyed.

In the town a number of large buildings had suffered, but no serious damage was done and no lives were lost.

But a few hours later came in word that the shock had been very heavy on the north coast of Venezuela and that several seaport towns were completely wiped out.

"I want no more earthquakes," said Oscar. "One is enough."

And Andy agreed with him.

Two days later they left Santiago once more and the search for the Green Dragon was resumed.

But day after day went by and nothing was seen of the Chinese warship.

"It looks to me as if we were on the wrong track," said Oscar.

"Do you intend to give up the search?" asked Andy.

"No, no! We must find that ship, and Miss Adams."

On the following day the lookout announced a ship far away to the southeast.

"Looks something like a warship and then not exactly like one, either," he said.

"Perhaps it is a private ship fixed over into a fighting machine," returned the young captain.

In less than an hour they came up to within a hundred yards of the strange craft.

Not a soul was in sight and they soon discovered that the ship was a complete wreck from stem to stern.

There was a large hole on her starboard side, just above the water line and many of her upper guns were missing.

"This is queer," said Andy, as they gazed at the wreck. "What do you make her out to be?"

"A French ship-of-the-line. See, there is the name, Bordeaux, on her bow. Do you know what I think?"

"That she has been through a battle?"

"Yes, but not with other ships."

"I don't understand, Oscar."

"I think she has been through a battle with that earthquake and got the worst of it."

"By Jove! Perhaps you are right!"

"I'm going to see if anybody is on board."

Oscar set up a yell through a trumpet, and then, to increase the sound of his voice, added an electric attachment which magnified the voice fiftyfold.

Presently a cry came faintly from the wreck and a single Frenchman appeared at the rail.

"Safe me! Safe me!" he called piteously.

"SAVE ME! SAVE ME!" HE CALLED PITEOUSLY.

"Are you alone?" questioned Oscar, cautiously.

"Yes! yes! All alone!"

"Where is the crew?"

"All drowned by ze great earthquake! Oh, it was terrible, terrible. Safe me!"

"This may be a trick to get us on board," came warningly from Andy.

"I don't intend to go on board yet, Andy."

The Holland XI. was run in close to the wreck and the Frenchman was told to drop into the water.

"I vill drown!" he wailed. "Poor Jean Fevre has never learned how to swim!"

"We will pick you up, never fear," said Oscar, and then the Frenchman did as bidden. In a moment more he was on board. Tears of joy streamed down his face.

"It is so goot to be safed!" he said, brokenly.

It was now discovered that the French warship was in danger of going down at any moment, and they got out of the vicinity without delay.

Soon the big ship began to sink and a quarter of an hour later she passed out of sight forever.

CHAPTER XXX.

THE LAST BATTLE.—CONCLUSION.

Jean Fevre proved to be a queer character. He was something of a French dude, and before the war had shone in social circles both in Paris and in Washington.

Oscar soon learned that the Frenchman knew Martha Adams fairly well, and the Frenchman raved over her beauty. When told that she was a prisoner on the Green Dragon, he was thunderstruck.

"Zat ees not right!" he cried with a shudder. "Poor la belle a prisoner of ze bad yellow men! Too bad! It must not be! She ees no soldier! It ees—ees, yes, it ees devilish!" And he stamped his boot on the deck.

Then he told Oscar that the Green Dragon was hiding in a bay on the Cuban coast not ten miles distant. He hated the Chinese, and was perfectly willing to see them defeated, so long as Martha Adams was rescued, and so long as it did not give final victory to the Americans.

The new Holland ran at once for the bay Fevre mentioned and reached it at noon of that day.

Sure enough the Green Dragon was there, at anchor, and the people on her deck could be seen plainly.

Bringing the Holland XI. to the surface behind a point of land out of sight of the Chinese warship, Oscar scrutinized those on the deck with his spy-glass.

"By thunder!" he cried, and dropped the spy-glass.

He had seen Martha Adams on the deck.

The girl was trying to escape from the clutches of a Chinese officer, who acted as if he had been trying to embrace her.

Suddenly the girl broke loose and ran to the bow of the ship, which was pointed out to the ocean.

The warship had a long bowsprit, and the President's daughter made her way to the extreme limit of this.

"Come back!" roared the Chinese officer, and ran after her.

"Let me be, or I will leap overboard!" screamed the unhappy maiden, and then, as the officer came closer, she made a dive and disappeared beneath the bosom of the ocean.

By this time Oscar had caught up one of his pistols.

His aim was true and the Chinese officer pitched headlong into the water, mortally wounded.

The officer was an admiral in the Chinese navy, and a howl went up when the fatal shot was fired, and all eyes were turned in the direction of the Holland XI.

"Quick, we must rescue Martha Adams, no matter what the cost!" cried Oscar. "Will you stand by me, men?"

"We will!" came from Andy and the others.

"Then forward at full speed to where she went down. But take care that the Holland XI. does not strike the young lady."

Word was passed along, and the submarine craft darted over the ocean like a thing of life, keeping her deck above water and the trap-door wide open.

Oscar stood on the deck, pistol in hand, and beside him was Andy, also armed.

Soon the boat was almost under the bowsprit of the Chinese warship.

In the meantime, Martha Adams had come to the surface and was battling bravely to save herself from drowning.

She could swim, but the weight of her clothes was dragging her down.

"Keep up! We will save you!" cried Oscar.

"Help!" panted the girl. "Oh, save me from those horrible Chinamen!"

She struck out feebly, then disappeared from view.

"Take my pistols, Andy!" exclaimed Oscar, and threw down the weapons. The next instant he was over the side of the new Holland and swimming after Martha Adams. A dive and he had the beautiful maiden by the shoulder.

In the meantime the Chinese were bewildered and knew not what to do.

But then several officers ran forward with guns and pistols.

"Shoot the foreign dogs!" they shouted, and one fired a gun at Oscar, but the bullet sped wide of its mark.

"Come with me, and I will take care of you," said the young captain of the Holland XI., encouragingly.

"Mr. Pelham!" burst from the girl's lips, and a smile lit up her anxious face. "Oh, how thankful I am!"

"There is no time to spare! Come, quick!" And he helped her through the water to the new Holland's side.

As they came up out of the ocean, several shots were fired, one of which took effect in Oscar's shoulder.

Andy returned the fire, and two other Chinese officers went to their death, while a third was badly disabled.

"Catch hold of her, Andy!" panted Oscar. And Martha Adams was placed on deck. Then Oscar tried to come up, but was too faint from loss of blood to do so.

"Give me your hand!" cried Andy, and hauled him on board. Then all three went below and the trap-door was closed as quickly as possible.

The movement came none too soon, for the Chinese gunners were already training their heavy guns in the direction of the Holland.

"Blow her up!" shrieked an officer, in Chinese. "Make dog's meat of her!"

"Back her, full speed!" yelled Oscar. "Quick, Dross, for our very lives depend on it!"

And back went the Holland XI. at full speed, churning up the ocean into a milky foam.

"Bang! bang! boom! boom!" went the Chinese guns.

All of the shots but one flew wide of their mark.

One shot hit the bow of the Holland and glanced off, leaving a badly cracked plate behind.

"Down we go!" sang out Oscar, and down they did go, and in another minute were safe for the time being.

Then the young captain fainted.

When Oscar came to his senses he found Martha Adams bending over him and binding up his wound for him.

"You are so brave!" she murmured. "I shall never forget you, never!" And she blushed deeply.

She, too, was weak, but insisted upon making him comfortable before caring for herself.

Oscar found that the submarine craft had run half a mile away from the bay in which the Green Dragon was located.

He ordered the boat back at once, and told Andy to torpedo the Chinese warship.

This Andy was very willing to do, and inside of an hour the new Holland had added another to her long list of victories.

"And now back to the States to tell the President that his daughter is saved," said the young commander.

On the trip that followed, nothing of special interest occurred.

The time passed all too quick for Oscar, who found Martha Adams' society dearer to him than ever.

When Chesapeake Bay was gained, important news awaited all on board of the Holland XI.

The foreign nations had given up the struggle against the United States.

"Hurrah! The war is over!" cried Andy. "And I must say that on the whole I am not sorry."

"There is only one cloud which rests upon the nation," said the officer who brought the Holland XI. the news. "President Adams' daughter is still missing."

"She is not missing—she is found," answered Oscar, and introduced the officer to Martha Adams.

The news spread like wildfire, and when the new Holland reached the Potomac it found a regular flotilla of warships there, ready to do her honor.

Cannon boomed, whistles blew, rockets flared, bells rang, and flags and bunting were everywhere in evidence. The President and his wife came down to the wharf, in their carriage, and received the girl and Oscar, in person, and at the happy meeting the crowd fairly shouted itself hoarse. It was a fitting end to a most glorious campaign on land and sea.

"You have fairly earned your reward," said the President to Oscar. "The money is yours and you shall be commodore of the new submarine fleet which is building."

Two years went by and the great war of all nations became a thing of the past.

Yet the United States were bound to profit by past experience, and lost no time in completing all the warships which had been building.

Instead of three, the government built twelve new submarine boats of the Holland pattern.

This fleet was divided into two squadrons, and Andy Greggs became the commodore of one, and faithful old George Dross the commodore of the other.

And Captain Oscar, do you ask?

It was no longer Captain Oscar, then, but Rear Admiral Pelham, commander of all the United States submarine craft afloat, a worthy officer and one to be trusted with any mission, no matter how sacred or how dangerous. He was known far and wide as a brilliant inventor and daring navy official. And his pretty wife, Martha, was equally known for her great beauty and her sweetness of heart. They were happy, and here we will leave them.

THE END.

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Table of Contents

- THE YOUNG NAVAL CAPTAIN;

- THE WAR OF ALL NATIONS

- CONTENTS.

- PREFACE.

- THE YOUNG NAVAL CAPTAIN.

- CHAPTER I.

- CHAPTER II.

- CHAPTER III.

- CHAPTER IV.

- CHAPTER V.

- CHAPTER VI.

- CHAPTER VII.

- CHAPTER VIII.

- CHAPTER IX.

- CHAPTER X.

- CHAPTER XI.

- CHAPTER XII.

- CHAPTER XIII.

- CHAPTER XIV.

- CHAPTER XV.

- CHAPTER XVI.

- CHAPTER XVII.

- CHAPTER XVIII.

- CHAPTER XIX.

- CHAPTER XX.

- CHAPTER XXI.

- CHAPTER XXII.

- CHAPTER XXIII.

- CHAPTER XXIV.

- CHAPTER XXV.

- CHAPTER XXVI.

- CHAPTER XXVII.

- CHAPTER XXVIII.

- CHAPTER XXIX.

- CHAPTER XXX.

- THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE