CHAPTER VI

THE LOST TORPEDO


From the rocks of a promontory that jutted out not far from the
wharf where Wu Fang's body was found and Kennedy had disappeared,
opened up a beautiful panorama of a bay on one side and the Sound
on the other.

It was a deserted bit of coast. But any one who had been standing
near the promontory the next day might have seen a thin line as if
the water, sparkling in the sunlight, had been cut by a huge
knife. Gradually a thin steel rod seemed to rise from the water
itself, still moving ahead, though slowly now as it pushed its way
above the surface. After it came a round cylinder of steel,
studded with bolts. It was the hatch of a submarine and the rod
was the periscope.

As the submarine lay there at rest, the waves almost breaking over
it, the hatch slowly opened and a hand appeared groping for a
hold. Then appeared a face with a tangle of curly black hair and
keen forceful eyes. After it the body of a man rose out of the
hatch, a tall, slender, striking person. He reached down into the
hold of the boat and drew forth a life preserver.

"All right," he called down in an accent slightly foreign, as he
buckled on the belt. "I shall communicate with you as soon as I