Tom Swift And His Submarine Boat
V >>
Victor Appleton >> Tom Swift And His Submarine Boat
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 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 great body, like that of some immense bird, sailed along,
casting a grotesque shadow on the ground below. An elderly
man, who Was seated on the porch of a large house, started
to his feet in alarm.
"Gracious goodness! What was that, Mrs. Baggert?" he
called to a motherly-looking woman who stood in the doorway.
"What happened?"
"Nothing much, Mr. Swift," was the calm reply "I think
that was Tom and Mr. Sharp in their airship, that's all. I
didn't see it, but the noise sounded like that of the Red Cloud."
"Of course! To be sure!" exclaimed Mr. Barton Swift, the
well-known inventor, as he started down the path in order to
get a good view of the 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 must have made good time from
Shopton. I wonder if anything can be the matter that they
hurried so?"
He gazed aloft toward where a queerly-shaped machine was
circling about nearly five hundred feet in the air, for the
craft, after Swooping down close to the house, had ascended
and was now hovering just above the line of breakers that
marked the New Jersey seacoast, where Mr. Swift had taken up
a temporary residence.
"Don't begin worrying, Mr. Swift," advised Mrs. Baggert,
the housekeeper. "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 aged inventor, they headed their craft toward earth. The
combined aeroplane and dirigible balloon, a most wonderful
traveler of the air, swung around, and then, with the
deflection rudders slanted downward, came on with a rush.
When near the landing place, just at the side of the house,
the motor was stopped, and the gas, with a hissing noise,
rushed into the red aluminum container. This immediately
made the ship more buoyant and it landed almost as gently as
a feather.
No sooner had the wheels which formed the lower part of
the craft touched the ground than there leaped from the
cabin of the Red Cloud a young man.
"Well, dad!" he exclaimed. "Here we are again, safe and
sound. Made a record, too. Touched ninety miles an hour at
times--didn't we, Mr. Sharp?"
"That's what," agreed a tall, thin, dark-complexioned man,
who followed Tom Swift more leisurely in his exit from the
cabin. Mr. Sharp, a veteran aeronaut, stopped to fasten guy
ropes from the airship to strong stakes driven into the
ground.
"And we'd have done better, only we struck a hard wind
against us about two miles up in the air, which delayed us,"
went on Tom. "Did you hear us coming, dad?"
"Yes, and it startled him," put in Mrs. Baggert. "I guess
he wasn't expecting you."
"Oh, well, I shouldn't have been so alarmed, only I was
thinking deeply about a certain change I am going to make in
the submarine, Tom. I was day-dreaming, I think, when your
ship whizzed through the air. But tell me, did you find
everything all right at Shopton? No signs of any of those
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. We brought the things you wanted. They're in the
airship. Oh, but it was a fine 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 need Mr. Sharp's help, too. Get the things out of the
car, and we'll go to the shop."
"First I think we'd better put the airship away," advised
Mr. Sharp. "I don't just like the looks of the weather, and,
besides, if we leave the ship exposed we'll be sure to have
a crowd around sooner or later, and we don't want that."
"No, indeed," remarked the aged inventor hastily. "I don't
want people prying 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 by Tom and Mr. Sharp, for the gas in the
container made it so buoyant that it barely touched the
earth. A little more of the powerful vapor and the Red
Cloud would have risen by itself. In a few minutes the
wonderful craft, of which my readers have been told in
detail in a previous volume, was safely housed in a large
tent, which was securely fastened.
Mr. Sharp and Tom, carrying some bundles which they had
taken from the car, or cabin, of the craft, went toward a
large shed, which adjoined the house that Mr. Swift had
hired for the season at the seashore. They found the lad's
father standing before a great shape, which loomed up dimly
in the semi-darkness of the building. It was like an immense
cylinder, pointed at either end, and here and there were
openings, covered with thick glass, like immense, bulging
eyes. From the number of tools and machinery all about the
place, and from the appearance of the great cylinder itself,
it was easy to see that it was only partly completed.
"Well, how goes it, dad?" asked the youth, as he deposited
his bundle on a bench. "Do you think you can make it work?"
"I think so, Tom. The positive and negative plates are
giving me considerable trouble, though. But I guess we can
solve the problem. Did you bring me the galvanometer?"
"Yes, and all the other things," and the young inventor
proceeded to take the articles from the bundles he carried.
Mr. Swift looked them over carefully, while Tom walked
about examining the submarine, for such was the queer craft
that was contained in the shed. He noted that some progress
had been made on it since he had left the seacoast several
days before to make a trip to Shopton, in New York State,
where the Swift home was located, after some tools and
apparatus that his father wanted to obtain from his workshop
there.
"You and Mr. Jackson have put on several new plates,"
observed the lad after 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 employ for many years.
"No; and I guess we'll soon have her in the water, Tom,
now that you and Mr. Sharp are here to help us," replied
Garret Jackson.
"We ought to have Mr. Damon here to bless the submarine
and his liver and collar buttons a few times," put in Mr.
Sharp, who brought in another bundle. He referred to an
eccentric individual Who had recently made an airship voyage
with himself and Tom, Mr. Damon's peculiarity being to use
continually such expressions as: "Bless my soul! Bless my
liver!"
"Well, I'll be glad when we can make a trial trip," went
on Tom. "I've traveled pretty fast on land with my motor-
cycle, and we certainly have hummed through the air. Now I
want to see how it feels to scoot along under water."
"Well, if everything goes well we'll be in position to
make a trial trip inside of a month," remarked the aged
inventor. "Look here, Mr. Sharp, I made a change in the
steering gear, which I'd like you and Tom to consider."
The three walked around to the rear of the odd-looking
structure, if an object shaped like a cigar can be said to
have a front and rear, and the inventor, his son, and the
aeronaut were soon deep in a discussion of the
technicalities connected with under-water navigation.
A little later they went into the house, in response to a
summons from the supper bell, vigorously rung by Mrs.
Baggert. She was not fond of waiting 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 flight of Tom and Mr. Sharp, and discussions about
the new submarine. This talk went on even after the table
was cleared off and the three had adjourned to the sitting-
room. There Mr. Swift brought out pencil and paper, and soon
he and Mr. Sharp were engrossed in calculating the pressure
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 a paper he was reading.
"Possibly," replied his father; and his son resumed his
perusal of the sheet.
"Now," went on the inventor to the aeronaut, "I have
another plan. In addition to the positive and negative
plates which will form our motive power, I am going to
install forward and aft propellers, to use in case of
accident."
"I say, dad! Did you see this?" suddenly exclaimed Tom,
getting up from his chair, and holding his finger on a
certain place in the page of the paper.
"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 of recovering the steamship Boldero, which
foundered and went down off that coast in the recent gale.
Not only has all hope been abandoned of raising the vessel,
but it is feared that no part of the three hundred thousand
dollars in gold bullion which she carried will ever be
recovered. Expert divers who were taken to the scene of the
wreck state that the depth of water, and the many currents
existing there, due to a submerged shoal, preclude any
possibility of getting at the hull. The bullion, it is
believed, was to have been used to further the interests of
a certain revolutionary faction, but it seems likely that
they will have to look elsewhere for the sinews of war.
Besides the bullion the ship also carried several cases of
rifles, it is stated, and other valuable cargo. The crew and
what few passengers the Boldero carried were, 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 in which 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 the
revolutionists, Tom, of course."
"No; I mean about the treasure being still on board the
ship. What about 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, not answering the question.
"About a month. Why?"
"Why? Dad, why can't we have a try for that treasure? It
ought to be comparatively 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 suits you invented we can get
at that gold bullion. Three hundred thousand dollars! Think
of it, dad! Three hundred thousand dollars! We could easily
claim all of it, since the owners have abandoned it, but we
would be satisfied with half. Let's hurry up, finish the
submarine, and have a try for it."
"But, Tom, you forget that I am to enter my new ship in
the trials for the 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, and maybe 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 proposed made an impression on him. He
reached out his hand for the paper in which 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 as that, if this account is true. Yes,
we might try for it. But we'd have to 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 will be likely to afford us a better test of the
submarine than would any Government tests. We'll try to
locate the sunken Boldero."
"Hurrah!" cried the lad, taking the paper from Mr. Sharp
and waving it in the air. "That's the stuff! Now for a
search for the submarine treasure!"
Chapter Two
Finishing the Submarine
"What's the matter?" cried Mrs. Baggert, the housekeeper,
hurrying in from the kitchen, where she was washing the
dishes. "Have you seen some of those scoundrels who robbed
you, Mr. Swift? If you have, the police down here ought to--"
"No, it's nothing like that," explained Mr. Swift. "Tom
has merely discovered in the paper an account of a sunken
treasure ship, and he wants us to go after it, down under
the ocean."
"Oh, dear! Some more of Captain Kidd's hidden hoard, I
suppose?" ventured the housekeeper. "Don't you bother with
it, Mr. Swift. I had a cousin once, and he got set in the
notion that he knew where that pirate's treasure was. He
spent all the money he had and all he could borrow digging
for it, and he never found a penny. Don't waste your time on
such foolishness. It's bad enough to be building airships
and submarines without going after treasure." Mrs. Baggert
spoke with the freedom of an old friend rather than a hired
housekeeper, but she had been in the family ever since Tom's
mother died, when he was a baby, and she had many
privileges.
"Oh, this isn't any of Kidd's treasure," Tom assured her.
"If we get it, Mrs. Baggert, I'll buy you a diamond ring."
"Humph!" she exclaimed, as Tom began to hug her in boyish
fashion. "I guess I'll have to buy all the diamond rings I
want, if I have to depend on your treasure for them," and
she went back to the kitchen.
"Well," went on Mr. Swift after a pause, "if we are going
into the treasure-hunting business, Tom, we'll have to get
right to work. In the first place, we must find out more
about this ship, and just where it was sunk."
"I can do that part," said Mr. Sharp. "I know some sea
captains, and they can put me on the track of locating the
exact spot. In fact, it might not be a bad idea to take an
expert navigator with us. I can manage in the air all right,
but I confess that working out a location under water is
beyond me."
"Yes, an old sea captain wouldn't be a bad idea, by any
means," conceded Mr. Swift. "Well, if you'll attend to that
detail, Mr. Sharp, Tom, Mr. Jackson and I will finish the
submarine. Most of the work is done, however, and it only
remains to install the engine and motors. Now, in regard to
the negative and positive electric plates, I'd like your
opinion, Tom."
For Tom Swift was an inventor, second in ability only to
his father, and his advice was often sought by his parent on
matters of electrical construction, for the lad had made a
specialty of that branch of science.
While father and son were deep in a discussion of the
apparatus of the submarine, there will be an opportunity to
make the reader a little better acquainted with them. Those
of you who have read the previous volumes of this series do
not need to be told who Tom Swift is. Others, however, may
be glad to have a proper introduction to him.
Tom Swift lived with his father, Barton Swift, in the
village of Shopton, New York. The Swift home was on the
outskirts of the town, and the large house was surrounded by
a number of machine shops, in which father and son, aided by
Garret Jackson, the engineer, did their experimental and
constructive work. Their house was not far from Lake
Carlopa, a fairly large body of water, on which Tom often
speeded his motor-boat.
In the first volume of this series, entitled "Tom Swift
and His Motor-Cycle," it was told how be became acquainted
with Mr. Wakefield Damon, who suffered an accident while
riding one of the speedy machines. The accident disgusted
Mr. Damon with motor-cycles, and Tom secured it for a low
price. He had many adventures on it, chief among which was
being knocked senseless and robbed of a valuable patent
model belonging to his father, which he was taking to
Albany. The attack was committed by a gang known as the
Happy Harry gang, who were acting at the instigation of a
syndicate of rich men, who wanted to secure control of a
certain patent turbine engine which Mr. Swift had invented.
Tom set out in pursuit of the thieves, after recovering
from their attack, and had a strenuous time before he
located them.
In the second volume, entitled "Tom Swift and His Motor-
Boat," there was related our hero's adventures in a fine
craft which was recovered from the thieves and sold at
auction. There was a mystery connected with the boat, and
for a long time Tom could not solve it. He was aided,
however, by his chum, Ned Newton, who worked in the Shopton
Bank, and also by Mr. Damon and Eradicate Sampson, an aged
colored whitewasher, who formed quite an attachment for Tom.
In his motor-boat Tom had more than one race with Andy
Foger, a rich lad of Shopton, who was a sort of bully. He
had red hair and squinty eyes, and was as mean in character
as he was in looks. He and his cronies, Sam Snedecker and
Pete Bailey, made trouble for Tom, chiefly because Tom
managed to beat Andy twice in boat races.
It was while in his motor-boat, Arrow, that Tom formed the
acquaintance of John Sharp, a veteran balloonist. While
coming down Lake Carlopa on the way to the Swift home, which
had been entered by thieves, Tom, his father and Ned Newton,
saw a balloon on fire over the lake. Hanging from a trapeze
on it was Mr. Sharp, who had made an ascension from a fair
ground. By hard work on the part of Tom and his friends the
aeronaut was saved, and took up his residence with the
Swifts.
His advent was most auspicious, for Tom and his father
were then engaged in perfecting an airship, and Mr. Sharp
was able to lend them his skill, so that the craft was soon
constructed.
In the third volume, called "Tom Swift and His Airship,"
there was set down the doings of the young inventor, Mr.
Sharp and Mr. Damon on a trip above the clouds. They
undertook it merely for pleasure, but they encountered
considerable danger, before they completed it, for they
nearly fell into a blazing forest once, and were later fired
at by a crowd of excited people. This last act was to effect
their capture, for they were taken for a gang of bank
robbers, and this was due directly to Andy Foger.
The morning after Tom and his friends started on their
trip in the air, the Shopton Bank was found to have been
looted of seventy-five thousand dollars. Andy Foger at once
told the police that Tom Swift had taken the money, and when
asked how he knew this, he said he had seen Tom hanging
around the bank the night before the vault was burst open,
and that the young inventor had some burglar tools in his
possession. Warrants were at once sworn out for Tom and Mr.
Damon, who was also accused of being one of the robbers, and
a reward of five thousand dollars was offered.
Tom, Mr. Damon and Mr. Sharp sailed on, all unaware of
this, and unable to account for being fired upon, until they
accidentally read in the paper an account of their supposed
misdeeds. They lost no time in starting back home, and on,
the way got on the track of the real bank robbers, who were
members of the Happy Harry gang.
How the robbers were captured in an exciting raid, how Tom
recovered most of the stolen money, and how he gave Andy
Foger a deserved thrashing for giving a false clue was told
of, and there was an account of a race in which the Red
Cloud (as the airship was called) took part, as well as
details of how Tom and his friends secured the reward, which
Andy Foger hoped to collect.
Those of you who care to know how the Red Cloud was
constructed, and how she behaved in the air, even during
accidents and when struck by lightning, may learn by reading
the third volume, for the airship was one of the most
successful ever constructed.
When the craft was finished, and the navigators were ready
to start on their first long trip, Mr. Swift was asked to go
with them. He declined, but would not tell why, until Tom,
pressing him for an answer, learned that his father was
planning a submarine boat, which he hoped to enter in some
trials for Government prizes. Mr. Swift remained at home to
work on this submarine, while his son and Mr. Sharp were
sailing above the clouds.
On their return, however, and after the bank mystery had
been cleared up, Tom and Mr. Sharp, aided Mr. Swift in
completing the submarine, until, when the present story
opens, it needed but little additional work to make the
craft ready for the water.
Of course it had to be built near the sea, as it would
have been impossible to transport it overland from Shopton.
So, before the keel was laid, Mr. Swift rented a large
cottage at a seaside place on the New Jersey coast and
there, after, erecting a large shed, the work on the
Advance, as the under-water ship was called, was begun.
It was soon to be launched in a large creek that extended
in from the ocean and had plenty of water at high tide. Tom
and Mr. Sharp made several trips back and forth from Shopton
in their airship, to see that all was safe at home and
occasionally to get needed tools and supplies from the
shops, for not all the apparatus could be moved from Shopton
to the coast.
It was when returning from one of these trips that Tom
brought with him the paper containing an account of the
wreck of the Boldero and the sinking of the treasure she
carried.
Until late that night the three fortune-hunters discussed
various matters.
"We'll hurry work on the ship," said Mr. Swift it length.
"Tom, I wonder if your friend, Mr. Damon, would care to try
how it seems under Water? He stood the air trip fairly
well."
"I'll write and ask him," answered the lad. "I'm sure
he'll go."
Securing, a few days later, the assistance of two
mechanics, whom he knew he could trust, for as yet the
construction of the Advance was a secret, Mr. Swift prepared
to rush work on the submarine, and for the next three weeks
there were busy times in the shed next to the seaside
cottage. So busy, in fact, were Tom and Mr. Sharp, that
they only found opportunity for one trip in the airship, and
that was to get some supplies from the shops at home.
"Well," remarked Mr. Swift one night, at the close of a
hard day's work, "another week will see our craft completed.
Then we will put it in the water and see how it floats, and
whether it submerges as I hope it does. But come on, Tom. I
want to lock up. I'm very tired to-night."
"All right, dad," answered the young inventor coming from
the darkened rear of the shop. "I just want to--"
Ne paused suddenly, and appeared to be listening. Then he
moved softly back to where he had come from.
"What's the matter?" asked his father in a whisper.
"What's up, Tom?"
The lad did not answer Mr. Swift, with a worried look on
his face, followed his son. Mr. Sharp stood in the door of
the shop.
"I thought I heard some one moving around back here," went
on Tom quietly.
"Some one in this shop!" exclaimed the aged inventor
excitedly. "Some one trying to steal my ideas again! Mr.
Sharp, come here! Bring that rifle! We'll teach these
scoundrels a lesson!"
Tom quickly darted hack to the extreme rear of the
building. There was a scuffle, and the next minute Tom cried
out:
"What are you doing here?"
"Ha! I beg your pardon," replied a voice. "I am looking
for Mr. Barton Swift."
"My father," remarked Tom. "But that's a queer place to
look for him. He's up front. Father, here's a man who wishes
to see you," he called.
"Yes, I strolled in, and seeing no one about I went to the
rear of the place," the voice went on. "I hope I haven't
transgressed."
"We were busy on the other side of the shop, I guess,"
replied Tom, and he looked suspiciously at the man who
emerged from the darkness into the light from a window. "I
beg your pardon for grabbing you the way I did," went on the
lad, "but I thought you were one of a gang of men we've been
having trouble with."
"Oh, that's all right," continued the man easily. "I know
Mr. Swift, and I think he will remember me. Ah, Mr. Swift,
how do you do?" he added quickly, catching sight of Tom's
father, who, with Mr. Sharp, was coming to meet the lad.
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10