“I don’t know,” answered the young inventor. “It’s some big fish evidently. I must get to the diving chamber!”
He gave a quick glance through the observation windows. Ned and the giant were moving as fast as they could toward the side of the craft where they could enter. The black, shadowy form was nearer now, but its nature could not be made out.
Calling to his force of assistants, Tom stood ready to let his chum and Koku out of the diving chamber as soon as the water should have been pumped from it.
A little later, as they all stood waiting in tense eagerness, there came a signal that the two divers had entered the side chamber. Quickly Tom turned the lever that closed the outer door.
“They’re safe!” he exclaimed, as he started the pumps to working. But even as he spoke they felt a jar, and the submarine rolled partly over as if she had collided with some object. Yet this could not be, as she was stationary on the floor of the ocean.
“Bless my cake of soap, Tom!” cried Mr. Damon, “what in the world is that?”
“If it’s an accident!” exclaimed Mr. Hardley, “I think it ought to be prevented. There have been too many happenings on this trip already. I thought you said your submarine was safe for underwater trips!” he fairly snapped at Tom.
The young inventor gave one look at the irate man who was coming out in his true colors. But it was no time to rebuke him. Too much yet remained to be done. Ned and Koku were still in the chamber and protected from some unknown sea monster by only a comparatively thin door. They must be inside to be perfectly safe.
Tom speeded up the pumps that were forcing the water from the chamber so the inner door could be opened. Eagerly he and his men watched the gauges to note when the last gallon should have been forced out by the compressed air. Not until then would it be safe to let Ned and Koku step into the interior of the craft.
The submarine had not ceased rolling from the force of the blow she had received when there came another, and this time on the opposite side. Once more she rolled to a dangerous angle.
“Bless my tea biscuit!” cried Mr. Damon, “what is it all about, Tom Swift?”
“I don’t know,” was the low-voiced answer, “unless a pair of monsters are attacking us on both sides alternately. But we’ll soon learn. There goes the last of the water!”
The gauge showed that the diving chamber was empty. Quickly the inner doors were opened, and, with their suits still dripping from their immersion in the salty sea, Ned and Koku stepped forth. In another moment their helmets were loosed from the bayonet catches, and they could speak.
“What was it, Ned?” cried Tom.
“Big fish!” answered Koku.
“Two monster whales!” gasped Ned. “We barely got away from them! They’re ramming the sub, Tom!”
As he spoke there came a blow on the port side, greater than either of the two preceding ones. Those in the M. N. 1 staggered about, and had to hold on to objects to preserve their footing.
“Both at the same time!” cried Ned. “The two whales are coming at us both at once!”
This was evidently the case. Tom Swift quickly hurried to the engine room.
“What are you going to do?” asked Mr. Hardley. “You ought to do something! I’m not going to be killed down here by a whale. You’ve got to do something, Swift! I’ve had enough of this!”
Tom did not deign an answer, but hurried on. Mr. Damon followed him, having seen that some of the sailors were helping Ned and Koku out of the diving suits.
“Are we in any danger, Tom?” asked the eccentric man.
“Yes; but I think it is easily remedied,” was the answer. “We’ll go up to the surface. I don’t believe the whales will follow us. Or, if they do, they can’t do much damage when we are in motion. It’s because we are stationary and they are moving that the blows seem so violent. Unless they collide head on with us, in the opposite direction to ours, we ought to be able to get clear of them. If they persist in following us—”
He paused as he pulled over the lever that would send the M. N. 1 to the surface.
“Well, what then?” asked Mr. Damon.
“Then we’ll have to use some weapon, and I have several,” finished the young inventor.
A few moments later the craft was in motion, not before, however, she was struck another blow, but only a glancing one.
“We’re puzzling them!” cried Tom.
Having done all that was possible for the time being, Tom hurried to the observation chamber, followed by the ethers. There Tom switched on the powerful lights. For a moment nothing was to be seen but the swirling, green water. Then, suddenly, a great shape came into view of the glass windows, followed by another.
“Whales!” cried Tom Swift. “And the largest I’ve ever seen.”
It was true. Two immense specimens of the cetacean species were in front of the submarine, one on either bow, evidently much puzzled over the glaring lights. They were bow-heads, and immense creatures, and it would not take many blows from them to disable even a stouter craft than was the submarine.
But the motion of the undersea ship, the bright lights, and possibly the feel of her steel skin was evidently not to the liking of the sea monsters. One, indeed, came so close to the glass that he seemed about to try to break it, but, to the relief of all, he veered off, evidently not liking the look of what he saw.
Just once again, before the craft reached the surface, was there another blow, this time at the stern. But it was a parting tap, and none others followed.
“They’ve gone!” exclaimed Mr. Damon, as the whales vanished from the sight of those in the forward cabin.
“Have you any adequate protection against these monsters of the deep?” asked Mr. Hardley in a fault-finding voice. “I should think you would have taken precautions, Swift!”
He had dropped the formal “Mr.” and seemed to treat Tom as an inferior.
“We have other protection than running away,” said the young inventor quietly. “There are guns we can use, and, if the whales had been far enough away, I could have sent a small torpedo at them. Close by it would be dangerous to use that, as it would operate on us just as the depth bombs operated on the German submarines. However, I fancy we have nothing more to fear.”
And Tom was right. When the surface was reached and the main hatch opened, the sea was calm and there was no sight of the whales. They evidently had had enough of their encounter with a steel fish, larger even than themselves.
“But they surely were monsters,” said Ned, as he told of how he and Koku had sighted the animals; for a whale is an animal, and not a fish, though often mistakenly called one.
“Koku was for attacking them with his axe,” went on Ned, “but I motioned to him to beat it. We wouldn’t have stood a show against such creatures. They were on us before we noticed their coming, but I presume the big submarine attracted them away from us.”
“It might have been the lights you carried that drew them,” suggested Tom. “I am glad you came out of it so well.”
Mr. Hardley seemed to recover some of his former manners, once the peril was passed, but his conduct had been a revelation to Mr. Damon.
“Tom,” said the eccentric man in private to the young inventor, “I’m disgusted with that fellow. I don’t see how I was ever bamboozled into taking up his offer.”
“I don’t, either,” replied Tom frankly. “But we’re in for it now. We’ve agreed to do certain things, and I’ll carry out my end of the bargain. However, I won’t put up with any of his nonsense. He’s got to obey orders on this ship! I know more than he thinks I do!”
The next two days the M. N. 1 progressed along on the surface, and nothing of moment occurred. Then, as they neared southern waters, and Tom desired to make some observations of the character of the bottom, it was decided to submerge. Accordingly, one day the order was given.
Not until the gauge showed a hundred fathoms, or six hundred feet, did the craft cease descending, and then she came to r
est on the bottom of the sea—a greater depth than she had yet attained on this voyage.
“How beautiful!” exclaimed Mr. Damon, when Tom turned on the lights and they looked out of the forward cabin windows. “How wonderful and beautiful!”
Well might he say that, for they were resting on pure white sand, and about them, growing on the bottom of this warm, tropical sea were great corals, purple and white, of wondrous shapes, waving plants like ferns and palms, and, amid it all, swam fish of queer shapes and beautiful colors.
“This is worth waiting for!” murmured Ned. “If only moving pictures of this could be taken in colors, it would create a sensation.”
“Perhaps I may try that some day,” said Tom with a smile. “But just now I have something else to do. Ned, are you game for another try in the diving dress? I want to see how it operates with a new air tank I’ve fitted on. Want to try?”
“Sure I’ll go out,” was the ready answer. “It’s nicer walking around on this white sand than on the black mud where we saw the whales. You can see better, too.”
A little later he and one of the sailors were outside the submarine, walking around in the diving dress, while Tom and the others watched through the glass windows. The new air tank seemed to be working well, for Ned, coming close to the window, signaled that he was very comfortable.
He walked around with the sailor, breaking off bits of odd-shaped coral to bring back to Tom. Suddenly, as those inside the craft looked out, they saw the sailor turn from Ned’s side, and with a warning hand, point to something evidently approaching. The next instant a queer shape seemed to envelope Ned Newton, coming out from behind a ledge of weed-draped coral. And a cry went up from those in the submarine as Ned was seen to be enveloped in long, waving arms.
“An octopus!” cried Mr. Damon. “Bless my soul, Tom, an octopus has Ned!”
“No, it isn’t that!” cried the young inventor hoarsely. “It’s some other monster. It has only five arms—an octopus has eight! I’ve got to save Ned!”
And he hurried toward the diving chamber, while the others, in fascinated horror, looked at the diver who was in such strange peril.
CHAPTER XV
TOM TO THE RESCUE
Mr. Damon came to a pause in the compartment from which the diving chamber gave access to the ocean outside. Tom, standing before the sliding steel door, had summoned to him several of his men and was rapidly giving them directions.
“What are you going to do, Tom Swift?” asked the eccentric man.
“I’m going out there to save Ned!” was the quick answer. “He’s in the grip of some strange monster of the sea. What it is I don’t know, but I’m going to find out. Koku, you come with me!”
“Yes, Master, me come!” said the giant simply, as if Tom had told him to go for a pail of water instead of risking his life.
“Barnes, the electric gun!” cried the young inventor to one of his helpers, while others were getting out the diving suits.
“The electric gun!” exclaimed the man. “Do you mean the small one?”
“No, the largest. The improved one.”
“Right, sir! Here you are!”
“Do you mean to say you are going out there, where that monster is, and attack it with a gun?” asked Mr. Hardley.
“That’s what I’m going to do!” answered Tom, as he began to put on the suit of steel and rubber, an example followed by Koku.
“But you may be attacked by the monster! You may be killed! You are risking your life!” cried the gold seeker.
“I know it.” Tom spoke simply. “Ned would do the same for me!”
“But hold on!” cried Mr. Hardley. “If you are killed there will be no one to navigate this boat to the place of the wreck! You can’t desert this way!”
Tom gave the man one look of contempt. “You need have, no fears,” he said. “This submarine is under international maritime laws. If I die, Captain Nelson, the next in command, takes charge, and the original orders will be carried out. If it is possible to get the gold for you it will be done. Now let me alone. I’ve got work to do!”
“Bless my apple cart, Tom, that’s the way to talk!” exclaimed Mr. Damon, and he, too, for the first time, seemed ready to break with Hardley. “If I were a bit younger I’d go out with you myself and help save Ned.”
“Koku and I can do it—if he’s still alive!” murmured the young inventor. “Lively now, boys! Is that gun ready?”
“Yes, and doubly charged,” was the answer. “Good! I may need it. Koku, take a gun also!”
“Me take axe, Master,” replied the giant.
“Well, perhaps that will be better,” Tom agreed. “If two of us get to shooting under the water we may hit one another. Quick, now! The helmets. And, Nash, you work the big searchlight!”
“Aye, aye, sir!” answered the sailor.
The helmets were now put on, and any further orders Tom had to give must come through the telephone, and it was by that same medium that he must listen to the talk of his friends. It was possible for the divers to talk and listen to one another while in the water by means of these peculiarly constructed telephones.
“All ready, Koku?” asked Tom.
“All ready, Master,” answered the giant, as he grasped his keen axe.
The inner door of the diving chamber was now opened, and, the water having been pumped out of the chamber since Ned and the sailor had emerged, it was ready for Tom and Koku. They entered, the door was closed, and presently they felt the pressure of water all about them, the sea being admitted through valves in the outer door.
While this was going on Mr. Damon, the gold-seeker, and some of the crew and officers went into the forward chamber to observe the undersea fight against the monster that had attacked Ned.
Suddenly the waters glowed with a greatly increased light, and in this illumination it was seen that the monster, whatever it was, had almost completely enveloped Tom’s chum with its five arms.
“What makes it possible to see better?” asked Mr. Damon.
“I’ve turned on the big searchlight,” was the answer. “Mr. Swift had it installed at the last moment. It’s the same kind he invented and gave to the government, but he retained the right to use it himself.”
“It’s a good thing he did!” exclaimed the eccentric man. “Now he can see what he’s doing! Poor Ned! I’m afraid he’s done for!”
“Look!” exclaimed one of the crew. “Norton, the sailor who went out with Mr. Newton, is trying to kill the monster with his spear!”
This was so. Ned’s companion, armed with a lone pole to which he had lashed a knife, was stabbing and jabbing at the black form which almost completely hid Ned from sight. But the efforts of the sailor seemed to produce little effect.
“What in the world can it be?” asked Mr. Damon. “Tom says it isn’t an octopus, and it can’t be, unless it has lost three of its arms. But what sort of monster is it?”
No one answered him. The powerful searchlight continued to glow, and in the gleam Ned could be seen trying to break away from the grip of the Atlantic beast. But his efforts were unavailing. It was as if he was enveloped in a sort of sack, made in segments, so that they opened and closed over his head. About all that could be seen of him was his feet, encased in the heavy lead-laden boots. The form of the other sailor, who had gone out of the submarine with him, could be seen moving here and there, stabbing at the huge creature.
“Here comes Tom!” suddenly exclaimed Mr. Damon, and the young inventor, followed by the giant Koku, came into view. They had emerged from the diving chamber, walked around the submarine as it rested on the ocean floor, and were now advancing to the rescue. Tom carried his electric rifle, and Koku an axe.
So desperately was Norton engaged in trying to kill the sea beast that had attacked Ned, that for the moment he was unaware of the approach of Tom and Koku. Then, as a swirl of the water apprised him of this, he turned and, seeing them, hastened toward them.
“What is it?” Tom asked
through the telephone, this information being given to the watchers in the submarine later, as all they could gather then was by what they saw. “What sort of monster is it?”
“A giant starfish!” answered Norton, speaking into his mouthpiece and the water serving as a transmitting medium instead of wires. “I never knew they grew so big! This one has its five arms all around Mr. Newton!”
“A starfish!” murmured Tom. This accounted for it, and, as he looked at the monster from closer quarters, he saw that Norton had spoken the truth.
Small starfish, or even large ones, two feet or more in diameter, may be seen at the seashore almost any time. Nearly always the specimens cast up on the beach are in extended form, either limp, or dead and dried. In almost every instance they are spread out just as their name indicates, in the conventional form of a star.
But a starfish alive, and at its business of eating oysters or other shell animals in the sea, is not at all this shape. Instead, it assumes the form of a sack, spreading its five radiating arms around the object of its meal. It then proceeds to suck the oyster out of its shell, and so powerful a suction organ has the starfish that he can pull an oyster through its shell, by forcing the bivalve to open.
And it was a gigantic starfish, a hundred times as large as any Tom had ever seen, that had Ned in its grip. The creature had doubtless taken the diver for a new kind of oyster, and was trying to open it. An octopus has suckers on the inner sides of its eight arms. A starfish has little feelers, or “fingers,” arranged parallel rows on the inner side of its arms—thousands of little feelers, and these exert a sort of sucking action.
The gigantic starfish had attacked Ned from above, settling down on him so that the head of the diver was at the middle of the creature’s body, the five arms, dropping over Ned in a sort of living canopy. And the arms held tightly.
“Come on, Koku, and you, too, Norton!” called Tom through his headpiece telephone. “We’ll all attack it at once. I’ll fire, and then you begin to hack it. The electric charge ought to stun it, if it doesn’t kill the beast!”
Tom’s new electric gun, unlike one kind he had first invented, did not fire an electrically charged bullet. Instead it sent a powerful charge of electricity, like a flash of lightning, in a straight line toward the object aimed at. And the current was powerful enough to kill an elephant.
The Tom Swift Megapack Page 292
