Terror and uneasiness having ceased with the danger, Ker Karraje's exploits soon began to be forgotten, even in the West Pacific.
This is what had happened--and what will never be known unless I succeed in escaping from Back Cup: These wretches were, as a matter of fact, possessed of great wealth when they abandoned the Southern Seas.

Having destroyed their ship they dispersed in different directions after having arranged to meet on the American continent.
Engineer Serko, who was well versed in his profession, and was a clever mechanic to boot, and who had made a special study of submarine craft, proposed to Ker Karraje that they should construct one of these boats in order to continue their criminal exploits with greater secrecy and effectiveness.
Ker Karraje at once saw the practical nature of the proposition, and as they had no lack of money the idea was soon carried out.
While the so-called Count d'Artigas ordered the construction of the schooner _Ebba_ at the shipyards of Gotteborg, in Sweden, he gave to the Cramps of Philadelphia, in America, the plans of a submarine boat whose construction excited no suspicion.

Besides, as will be seen, it soon disappeared and was never heard of again.
The boat was constructed from a model and under the personal supervision of Engineer Serko, and fitted with all the known appliances of nautical science.

The screw was worked with electric piles of recent invention which imparted enormous propulsive power to the motor.
It goes without saying that no one imagined that Count d'Artigas was none other than Ker Karraje, the former pirate of the Pacific, and that Engineer Serko was the most formidable and resolute of his accomplices.

The former was regarded as a foreigner of noble birth and great fortune, who for several months had been frequenting the ports of the United States, the _Ebba_ having been launched long before the tug was ready.
Work upon the latter occupied fully eighteen months, and when the boat was finished it excited the admiration of all those interested in these engines of submarine navigation.