Chapter XVI

CONCLUSION.

As day followed day and week followed week, bringing no sign of any further trouble with the Sons of the Rising Sun, Motor Matt and his friends realized that, beyond all doubt, they had worsted their wily foes, and perhaps had taught them a lesson which they could ponder wisely.

At Panama, which was almost the same as United States soil, the boys took shore leave, turn and turn about. From this place Matt sent a cablegram to Captain Nemo, Jr., at Belize.

"On the last leg of our journey. All well and Grampus as fit as a fiddle. Telegraph me at Acapulco."

"Too bad that old canal wasn't finished," observed Dick, as the Grampus left Panama, "at the time we left Belize. We could have come through it, if it had been, and saved a month's time and all that mix-up with the Japs."

"That wasn't the point, Dick," spoke up Glennie. "This trip has been in the nature of a try-out for the Grampus. The government wanted to see what she could do—and I guess the government will know when my log is read at headquarters."

"You're giving us a good report, Glennie?" laughed Dick.

"As good as I can make it."

"Then that means a sale of the boat, without a doubt."

"I understood that my report was to be final. I've had the cruise of my life with you motor boys, and I almost hate to reach San Francisco, because we'll have to separate there."

"You're an A One comrade, Glennie," said Matt heartily, "and you need never look for a pal while this outfit of motor boys is around."

"My sentiments to a t, y, ty," averred Dick.

"Und mine, too, py shinks!" cried Carl.

Glennie was deeply touched. At the beginning of the cruise there had been some hard feelings between him and Dick and Carl, but as they had come to know each other better the unpleasantness had worn away.

All four of the lads were now loyal friends, having undergone perils and dangers shoulder to shoulder, and so each had tried the other's and had not found them wanting.

At Acapulco Matt was confidently expecting to receive a message from Captain Nemo, Jr. In this, however, he was disappointed. There was no message for him. Matt could not understand the reason and was prone to think dire things.

"Captain Nemo, Jr., would surely have answered that message I sent him from Panama," said Matt, "providing he had received it."

"Sure he would," agreed Glennie; "and the fact that you did not get an answer is proof that the captain did not receive your message."

"Aber vy ditn't he receif id?" asked Carl.

"That's the point that alarms me, friends," went on Matt gloomily. "You know we left the captain sick at Belize; too ill, in fact, to come with us on the Grampus. We haven't heard a word from him since the cruise began, and it may be that his sickness terminated fatally."

This thought cast a depression over the motor boys. Captain Nemo, Jr., was a good friend of theirs, and all of them liked him. The Grampus was the triumph of the captain's career, and if he was to be stricken down just as the boat, in charge of the motor boys, was to pass successfully through the Golden Gate, the elation Matt and his friends would otherwise feel must give way to dejection and sorrow.

The victory of this successful cruise was entirely theirs, but the loss of Captain Nemo, Jr., would rob the victory of all pleasure for them.

But the gloom that accompanied the submarine from Acapulco northward was lost in rejoicing at San Diego; for no sooner had the Grampus anchored in the bay off the latter place than no less a person than Captain Nemo, Jr., himself, rowed out and came aboard.

The captain was well and hearty, and his delight in welcoming the boys was boundless.

He looked over the boat and complimented all hands on her efficiency after such a long cruise—the longest and hardest any submarine had ever made; and in the periscope room, until long into the night, the captain sat wide-eyed and absorbed, listening to the adventures of those whom he had commissioned to take the Grampus from Belize to Mare Island.

When all had had their say, and the recital was done, there followed a period of silence. The captain was the first to speak.

"A hundred thousand dollars, my lads, is a great deal of money; but if I had been able to look ahead and learn what dangers were to beset you on your long journey, I would not have allowed you to start for a million. I had some inkling of this Japanese business, for I was offered two hundred thousand for the Grampus by the Japanese government. I chose to deal with the navy department of my own country, even at a direct pecuniary loss to myself. My refusal to sell to the Japs brought a threatening letter from the Sons of the Rising Sun, but I treated it with contempt. I should have taken you into my confidence regarding this Japanese matter before you left Belize, but I thought it of no moment and hesitated to alarm you by even mentioning it."

"It's all but over now, captain," laughed Matt lightly, "and I think we are all of us better for the experience. I know I wouldn't sell the benefit that has accrued to me from this cruise for a lot of money."

"Nor I," said Dick.

"Me, neider," chirped Carl.

"Let me go on record, too," put in Glennie.

"I'm glad you all feel in that way about it," said the captain.

"By the way," asked Matt, "why didn't you answer the cablegram I sent you from Panama, captain?"

"Principally because I never received it," was the smiling response. "Where did you address the message, Matt?"

"To you, at Belize."

"Why, I left Belize a week after you did! It was my intention all along to leave Central America, work up into the States, and then meet you here and take the last lap of the cruise with you."

"It was a mighty big relief to see you come aboard at this port," said Matt. "I hadn't the least idea what was the matter."

"You had a guess that I had taken the One-way Trail, hadn't you, Matt?" jested the captain.

"I didn't know but that might have happened."

"In that event," said the captain, "I had already made a will whereby you boys were to receive the whole amount to be paid by the government. So, you see, my being alive has cost you a pretty pile."

"The money doesn't count, captain," declared Matt stoutly.

"No? Well, money usually counts in this world, Matt—in fact, it cuts a pretty wide swath in every direction."

"It is secondary, captain, to the idea of 'making good.' When we left Belize I vowed that we'd make good and prove that your confidence in us wasn't misplaced. We've all had that in mind before anything and everything else."

"It's a good trait in you," replied the captain, "and in any young man, to love a piece of work for itself, and, money apart, centre every hope on making a success of it. That's the spirit that brings its reward, not only in money, but in self-approval, which is something money can't buy. Every one who went around South America on the Grampus will find, I think, that I know how to be grateful; this, while of secondary importance to the consciousness of duty well performed, will be a substantial acknowledgment of the debt I hold myself under to all of you.

"In San Francisco the Grampus will be sold. The motor boys will go one way, Captain Nemo, Jr., another way, and Speake, Gaines, and Clackett still another. But I hope that this will not be the last of our associations, but that we shall sometime come together again and renew our friendships, which have been so firmly woven together by this cruise of the Grampus, and the persistent and successful effort of the king of the motor boys to make good."

With the hearty echoes this sentiment received still lingering in our ears, the hour seems propitious for taking leave of Matt and the motor boys, while they are at the threshold of another of their many victories.

THE END.

THE NEXT NUMBER (21) WILL CONTAIN

Motor Matt's Launch;

OR,

A FRIEND IN NEED.

New Friends and New Fortunes—The Raffle—Ping-pong Objects—Another Rescue—An Odd Tangle—The Rich Man's Son—A Plan that Failed—A Chase Across the Bay—The Lion's Mouth—The Mouth Closes—Surprising Events—McGlory's Run of Luck—Waiting and Worrying—Ping Stars Himself—A New Twist, by George—Another Twist, by Matt and McGlory.

MOTOR STORIES

THRILLING ADVENTUREMOTOR FICTION

NEW YORK, July 10, 1909.

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