Produced by Anthony Matonac
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT
or
Under the Ocean for Sunken Treasure
by
VICTOR APPLETON
CONTENTS
I News of a Treasure Wreck II Finishing the Submarine III Mr. Berg Is Astonished IV Tom Is Imprisoned V Mr. Berg Is Suspicious VI Turning the Tables VII Mr. Damon Will Go VIII Another Treasure Expedition IX Captain Weston's Advent X Trial of the Submarine XI On the Ocean Bed XII For a Breath of Air XIII Off for the Treasure XIV In the Diving Suits XV At the Tropical Island XVI "We'll Race You For It!" XVII The Race XVIII The Electric Gun XIX Captured XX Doomed to Death XXI The Escape XXII At the Wreck XXIII Attacked by Sharks XXIV Ramming the Wreck XXV Home with the Gold
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT
Chapter One
News of a Treasure Wreck
There was a rushing, whizzing, throbbing noise in the air. A greatbody, like that of some immense bird, sailed along, casting a grotesqueshadow on the ground below. An elderly man, who was seated on theporch of a large house, started to his feet in alarm.
"Gracious goodness! What was that, Mrs. Baggert?" he called to amotherly-looking woman who stood in the doorway. "What happened?"
"Nothing much, Mr. Swift," was the calm reply "I think that was Tom andMr. Sharp in their airship, that's all. I didn't see it, but the noisesounded like that of the Red Cloud."
"Of course! To be sure!" exclaimed Mr. Barton Swift, the well-knowninventor, as he started down the path in order to get a good view ofthe air, unobstructed by the trees. "Yes, there they are," he added."That's the airship, but I didn't expect them back so soon. They musthave made good time from Shopton. I wonder if anything can be thematter that they hurried so?"
He gazed aloft toward where a queerly-shaped machine was circling aboutnearly five hundred feet in the air, for the craft, after swooping downclose to the house, had ascended and was now hovering just above theline of breakers that marked the New Jersey seacoast, where Mr. Swifthad taken up a temporary residence.
"Don't begin worrying, Mr. Swift," advised Mrs. Baggert, thehousekeeper. "You've got too much to do, if you get that new boat done,to worry."
"That's so. I must not worry. But I wish Tom and Mr. Sharp would land,for I want to talk to them."
As if the occupants of the airship had heard the words of the agedinventor, they headed their craft toward earth. The combined aeroplaneand dirigible balloon, a most wonderful traveler of the air, swungaround, and then, with the deflection rudders slanted downward, came onwith a rush. When near the landing place, just at the side of thehouse, the motor was stopped, and the gas, with a hissing noise, rushedinto the red aluminum container. This immediately made the ship morebuoyant and it landed almost as gently as a feather.
No sooner had the wheels which formed the lower part of the crafttouched the ground than there leaped from the cabin of the Red Cloud ayoung man.
"Well, dad!" he exclaimed. "Here we are again, safe and sound. Made arecord, too. Touched ninety miles an hour at times--didn't we, Mr.Sharp?"
"That's what," agreed a tall, thin, dark-complexioned man, who followedTom Swift more leisurely in his exit from the cabin. Mr. Sharp, aveteran aeronaut, stopped to fasten guy ropes from the airship tostrong stakes driven into the ground.
"And we'd have done better, only we struck a hard wind against us abouttwo miles up in the air, which delayed us," went on Tom. "Did you hearus coming, dad?"
"Yes, and it startled him," put in Mrs. Baggert. "I guess he wasn'texpecting you."
"Oh, well, I shouldn't have been so alarmed, only I was thinking deeplyabout a certain change I am going to make in the submarine, Tom. I wasday-dreaming, I think, when your ship whizzed through the air. But tellme, did you find everything all right at Shopton? No signs of any ofthose scoundrels of the Happy Harry gang having been around?" and Mr.Swift looked anxiously at his son.
"Not a sign, dad," replied Tom quickly. "Everything was all right. Webrought the things you wanted. They're in the airship. Oh, but it was afine trip. I'd like to take another right out to sea."
"Not now, Tom," said his father. "I want you to help me. And I needMr. Sharp's help, too. Get the things out of the car, and we'll go tothe shop."
"First I think we'd better put the airship away," advised Mr. Sharp. "Idon't just like the looks of the weather, and, besides, if we leave theship exposed we'll be sure to have a crowd around sooner or later, andwe don't want that."
"No, indeed," remarked the aged inventor hastily. "I don't want peopleprying around the submarine shed. By all means put the airship away,and then come into the shop."
In spite of its great size the aeroplane was easily wheeled along byTom and Mr. Sharp, for the gas in the container made it so buoyant thatit barely touched the earth. A little more of the powerful vapor andthe Red Cloud would have risen by itself. In a few minutes thewonderful craft, of which my readers have been told in detail in aprevious volume, was safely housed in a large tent, which was securelyfastened.
Mr. Sharp and Tom, carrying some bundles which they had taken from thecar, or cabin, of the craft, went toward a large shed, which adjoinedthe house that Mr. Swift had hired for the season at the seashore. Theyfound the lad's father standing before a great shape, which loomed updimly in the semi-darkness of the building. It was like an immensecylinder, pointed at either end, and here and there were openings,covered with thick glass, like immense, bulging eyes. From the numberof tools and machinery all about the place, and from the appearance ofthe great cylinder itself, it was easy to see that it was only partlycompleted.
"Well, how goes it, dad?" asked the youth, as he deposited his bundleon a bench. "Do you think you can make it work?"
"I think so, Tom. The positive and negative plates are giving meconsiderable trouble, though. But I guess we can solve the problem. Didyou bring me the galvanometer?"
"Yes, and all the other things," and the young inventor proceeded totake the articles from the bundles he carried.
Mr. Swift looked them over carefully, while Tom walked about examiningthe submarine, for such was the queer craft that was contained in theshed. He noted that some progress had been made on it since he hadleft the seacoast several days before to make a trip to Shopton, in NewYork State, where the Swift home was located, after some tools andapparatus that his father wanted to obtain from his workshop there.
"You and Mr. Jackson have put on several new plates," observed the ladafter a pause.
"Yes," admitted his father. "Garret and I weren't idle, were we,Garret?" and he nodded to the aged engineer, who had been in his employfor many years.
"No; and I guess we'll soon have her in the water, Tom, now that youand Mr. Sharp are here to help us," replied Garret Jackson.
"We ought to have Mr. Damon here to bless the submarine and his liverand collar buttons a few times," put in Mr. Sharp, who brought inanother bundle. He referred to an eccentric individual who had recentlymade an airship voyage with himself and Tom, Mr. Damon's peculiaritybeing to use continually such expressions as: "Bless my soul! Bless myliver!"
"Well, I'll be glad when we can make a trial trip," went on Tom. "I'vetraveled pretty fast on land with my motorcycle, and we certainly havehummed through the air. Now I want to see how it feels to scoot alongunder water."
"Well, if everything goes well we'll be in position to make a trialtrip inside of a month," remarked the aged inventor. "Look here, Mr.Sharp, I made a change in t
he steering gear, which I'd like you and Tomto consider."
The three walked around to the rear of the odd-looking structure, if anobject shaped like a cigar can be said to have a front and rear, andthe inventor, his son, and the aeronaut were soon deep in a discussionof the technicalities connected with under-water navigation.
A little later they went into the house, in response to a summons fromthe supper bell, vigorously rung by Mrs. Baggert. She was not fond ofwaiting with meals, and even the most serious problem of mechanics was,in her estimation, as nothing compared with having the soup get cold,or the possibility of not having the meat done to a turn.
The meal was interspersed with remarks about the recent airship flightof Tom and Mr. Sharp, and discussions about the new submarine. Thistalk went on even after the table was cleared off and the three hadadjourned to the sitting-room. There Mr. Swift brought out pencil andpaper, and soon he and Mr. Sharp were engrossed in calculating thepressure per square inch of sea water at a depth of three miles.
"Do you intend to go as deep as that?" asked Tom, looking up from apaper he was reading.
"Possibly," replied his father; and his son resumed his perusal of thesheet.
"Now," went on the inventor to the aeronaut, "I have another plan. Inaddition to the positive and negative plates which will form our motivepower, I am going to install forward and aft propellers, to use in caseof accident."
"I say, dad! Did you see this?" suddenly exclaimed Tom, getting up fromhis chair, and holding his finger on a certain place in the page of thepaper.
"Did I see what?" asked Mr. Swift.
"Why, this account of the sinking of the treasure ship."
"Treasure ship? No. Where?"
"Listen," went on Tom. "I'll read it: 'Further advices from Montevideo,Uruguay, South America, state that all hope has been given up ofrecovering the steamship Boldero, which foundered and went down offthat coast in the recent gale. Not only has all hope been abandoned ofraising the vessel, but it is feared that no part of the three hundredthousand dollars in gold bullion which she carried will ever berecovered. Expert divers who were taken to the scene of the wreck statethat the depth of water, and the many currents existing there, due to asubmerged shoal, preclude any possibility of getting at the hull. Thebullion, it is believed, was to have been used to further the interestsof a certain revolutionary faction, but it seems likely that they willhave to look elsewhere for the sinews of war. Besides the bullion theship also carried several cases of rifles, it is stated, and othervaluable cargo. The crew and what few passengers the Boldero carriedwere, contrary to the first reports, all saved by taking to the boats.It appears that some of the ship's plates were sprung by the stress inwhich she labored in a storm, and she filled and sank gradually.'There! what do you think of that, dad?" cried Tom as he finished.
"What do I think of it? Why, I think it's too bad for therevolutionists, Tom, of course."
"No; I mean about the treasure being still on board the ship. Whatabout that?"
"Well, it's likely to stay there, if the divers can't get at it. Now,Mr. Sharp, about the propellers--"
"Wait, dad!" cried Tom earnestly.
"Why, Tom, what's the matter?" asked Mr. Swift in some surprise.
"How soon before we can finish our submarine?" went on Tom, notanswering the question.
"About a month. Why?"
"Why? Dad, why can't we have a try for that treasure? It ought to becomparatively easy to find that sunken ship off the coast of Uruguay.In our submarine we can get close up to it, and in the new diving suitsyou invented we can get at that gold bullion. Three hundred thousanddollars! Think of it, dad! Three hundred thousand dollars! We couldeasily claim all of it, since the owners have abandoned it, but wewould be satisfied with half. Let's hurry up, finish the submarine, andhave a try for it."
"But, Tom, you forget that I am to enter my new ship in the trials forthe prize offered by the United States Government."
"How much is the prize if you win it?" asked Tom.
"Fifty thousand dollars."
"Well, here's a chance to make three times that much at least, andmaybe more. Dad, let the Government prize go, and try for the treasure.Will you?"
Tom looked eagerly at his father, his eyes shining with anticipation.Mr. Swift was not a quick thinker, but the idea his son had proposedmade an impression on him. He reached out his hand for the paper inwhich the young inventor had seen the account of the sunken treasure.Slowly he read it through. Then he passed it to Mr. Sharp.
"What do you think of it?" he asked of the aeronaut.
"There's a possibility," remarked the balloonist "We might try for it.We can easily go three miles down, and it doesn't lie as deeply asthat, if this account is true. Yes, we might try for it. But we'd haveto omit the Government contests."
"Will you, dad?" asked Tom again.
Mr. Swift considered a moment longer.
"Yes, Tom, I will," he finally decided. "Going after the treasure willbe likely to afford us a better test of the submarine than would anyGovernment tests. We'll try to locate the sunken Boldero."
"Hurrah!" cried the lad, taking the paper from Mr. Sharp and waving itin the air. "That's the stuff! Now for a search for the submarinetreasure!"