"Right, Dad!" Tom promised.
Again the _Swiftsure_ submerged. This time it was only a few minutes before Arv Hanson gave a cry of warning.
"Something on the sonarscope, skipper!"
Bud, Hank, and Chow hastily gathered around the scope to watch. The blip grew larger rapidly. It was clearly another submarine, closing in on a collision course.
Tom put on a burst of speed, as if attempting to outrace their pursuer.
But he was careful to gauge his knots by reports from the sonarscope, in order not to widen the gap between the two craft. There seemed no danger that this would happen, although the _Swiftsure_ raced ahead faster and faster. Still the enemy sub continued to close in like a marauding shark, finally pa.s.sing Tom"s craft.
"Some baby!" Bud muttered respectfully.
The words were hardly out of his mouth when a missile streaked across their bow, in plain view through the _Swiftsure"s_ transparent nose. Its foaming wake rocked the jetmarine.
"They"re attacking us!" Bud cried out.
Tom slammed shut the turbine throttle, bringing his craft to a gliding halt in the water. At the same time, he switched on the sonarphone.
"Orders to Swift sub!" a voice barked over the set. "Surface and heave to! No tricks, or the next missile will not be across your bow!"
Tom blew his tanks and sent the _Swiftsure_ spearing upward. As the conning tower broke water, Tom and his men swarmed up on deck. Seconds later, a sleek gray enemy submarine knifed into view. Its hatch opened and several men climbed out.
To Tom"s amazement, their leader was Samson Narko!
Chow let out a yelp of rage. "Why, you sneakin", double-dyed, bushwhackin" polecat!" the old Westerner bellowed. "We shoulda kept you hawg-tied, "stead o" lettin" you go free!"
Narko ignored the outburst and raised a megaphone to his lips. "Hand over your cargo and do it quickly!"
"What cargo?" Tom snapped back. "And what"s the meaning of this outrage?
You realize this is piracy?"
"I realize you will wind up on the bottom at the slightest show of resistance!" Narko warned menacingly. "You know very well what cargo I refer to! Now do not try our patience!"
[Ill.u.s.tration (a submarine attacks the Swiftsure)]
Tom and his crew pretended to put up a bl.u.s.tering, indignant front. Chow was especially convincing, with a blistering torrent of salty Texas invectives.
Narko"s only response was a barked-out order to his men in Brungarian.
Quickly the enemy submarine maneuvered closer until the two craft were almost chockablock. Narko and his men then leaped aboard the _Swiftsure_, armed with sub-machine guns and automatics.
"I"m warning you, Narko--" Tom began angrily. But Narko cut the young inventor short by a poke in his ribs with the gun muzzle, then issued orders to two of his men to go below.
Moments later, Exman was being hauled up through the hatch and transferred aboard the raider. The Americans glared in angry silence.
"Thanks so much, my stupid friends!" Narko taunted them with a jeering laugh. Then he followed his crewmen as the last one scrambled back to the enemy submarine.
With laughs and waves, they disappeared into its conning tower. The hatch was clamped shut and the raider promptly submerged.
Tom and his men were amazed, but delighted at not having been taken prisoner along with Exman. All of them broke into happy chuckles of relief.
"Wow! That"s what I call fast service!" Bud exclaimed.
"It was sure a blamed sight easier"n I expected," Chow said. "Thought fer a while we might end up feedin" the fishes!"
"You put on a real act, Chow!" Tom said, clapping the stout old cook on the back. "Well, they"ve taken the bait. Now let"s hope it pays off--for us!"
The Americans swarmed below again, closed the hatch, and submerged. Tom took his time in bringing the jet pumps up to speed. "Wonder if we should pretend to proceed on course, or turn around and head for home?"
he murmured to Hank.
Hank"s reply was cut short by a yell from Hanson at the sonarphone.
"Missile coming, skipper! Straight at us!"
CHAPTER XVI
A UNIQUE EXPERIMENT
"Bearing?" Tom cried.
"One-seven-five!" Arv Hanson sang out.
Tom gunned his port jet turbine and swung the _Swiftsure_ hard right.
The abrupt turn at high speed sent the craft sideslipping crazily like a skidding race boat.
"Here she comes, skipper!" Bud yelled. He had rushed to the sonarscope with the other members of the crew.
Tom"s maneuver had carried them a good hundred yards off the missile"s course. Now he yanked a lever, pulling the cadmium rods still farther from the atomic pile, in order to increase power and jet-blast their sub still farther out of range.
But suddenly the men at the scope blanched. "The missile"s turning too!"
Hank cried. "It"s homing in on us!"
Unlike most Swift craft used on scientific expeditions, the cargo sub"s hull had not been coated with Tomasite. This would have insulated it from all magnetic effects or any form of pulse detection. Tom had chosen the _Swiftsure_ partly for this very reason, so that the Brungarian rebels could easily pick up its trail after leaving Fearing.
How ironic if his choice should prove fatal! As the thought flashed through Tom"s brain, the missile came streaking into view through the sub"s transparent nose.
By this time, Tom had flipped up the _Swiftsure"s_ diving planes. The craft plummeted deeper into the ocean depths.
"Brand my whale blubber, she"s turnin" again!" Chow gulped. The missile"s arc, as it veered around to follow, painted a streak of light on the sonarscope.
Anxious moments raced by while Tom steered their craft in a deadly game of tag with the sub-killer. Gradually the missile appeared to be losing momentum.
"It"s slowing down, all right!" Arv called out.
In a few minutes the missile had lost so much way that Tom was easily able to outdistance it. The crew crowded to the scope, heaving sighs of relief. The missile, its velocity spent, sank harmlessly toward the bottom.