Tom Swift and His Undersea Search; Or, the Treasure on the Floor of the Atlantic

by Victor Appleton

  CHAPTER VII

  THE TRIAL TRIP

  "This is my busy day!" announced the young inventor as he went into theNestor sitting room, where the telephone was installed.

  "Perhaps it is some one else who wants you to come to their rescue,"suggested Mary.

  But it was not, as Tom related a little later when he had finished histalk over the wire.

  "Just a business matter," he announced to Mary and her mother, when herejoined them. "A gentleman with whom I expect to make a submarine tripis at the house, and wants to consult with me about details. He isgetting anxious to start. Mr. Damon is there, too."

  "Blessing every thing he lays eyes on, I suppose," remarked Mrs.Nestor, with a smile.

  "Yes, and some things he doesn't see," agreed Tom. "He is going with uson this submarine trip."

  "Oh, Tom, are you going to undertake another of those dangerousvoyages?" asked Mary, in some alarm.

  "Well, I don't know that they are particularly dangerous," replied Tom,with a smile. "But we expect to make a search for a sunken treasureship in a submarine. That's the vessel I'm working on now," he added."We're rebuilding the Advance, you know, making her more up-to-date,and adding some new features, including her name--M. N. 1."

  "I suppose Mr. Damon's friend is getting anxious to make a start,particularly as he has already invested several thousand dollars in theproject," went on the young inventor. "He formed a company to pay halfthe expenses of the search, and they will share in the treasure--if wefind it," Tom said. "I wish Mr. Damon, who holds most of the shares thepromoter let out of his own hands, had not gone into it, but, since hehas, I'm going to do the best I can for him."

  "Then aren't you friendly with the other man?" asked Mary.

  "I don't especially care for him," the young inventor admitted. "Heisn't just my style--too fond of himself, and all that. Still I may bemisjudging him. However, I'm in the game now, and I'm going to stick.I'll have to be traveling on," he said. "Mr. Damon and his friend areat my house, and they've been telephoning all over to find me. I guessthis was one of the first places they tried," he said with a smile,referring to the fact that he spent considerable time at Mary's home.

  "Well, I'm glad they found you, but I'm sorry you have to go," Marysaid with a smile.

  A little later Tom Swift, with Ned, for whom he called, was on his wayback home in his Air Scout, having said goodbye to Mary and her motherand expressing the hope that Mr. Keith would soon be over his businesstroubles.

  "Oil wells are queer, anyhow," mused Tom.

  Then Tom got to thinking about Dixwell Hardley: "I don't like the man,and the more I see of him the less I like him. But I'm in for it now,and I'll stick to the finish. I only wish I could locate the treasureship, give him his share, and get back to my work. I'm going to try toturn out an airship that a man can use as handily as he does a flivvernow."

  Musing on the possibilities in this field, Tom, having left Ned at thelatter's home, soared down from aloft, and a little later, having toldKoku to look after the Air Scout, much to the delight of the giant andthe discomfiture of Rad, the young inventor was closeted with Mr. Damonand Dixwell Hardley.

  "Bless my straw hat, Tom!" exclaimed the eccentric man, "but we justcouldn't wait any longer. How are you coming on, and when can we starton this treasure-hunting trip? I declare it makes me feel young againto think about it!"

  "Well, it won't be long now," was the answer. "The men are working hardto get the submarine in shape, and I should say that in another week,or two weeks at the most, we could set off!"

  "Good!" exclaimed Mr. Hardley. "I have received additionalinformation," he went on, "to the effect that the amount of gold onboard the Pandora was even greater than we at first thought."

  "That sounds encouraging," replied Tom. "It only remains to find thesunken ship now. But what interests me greatly is whether, after wehave gotten this gold, supposing we are successful, we shall be allowedto keep it."

  "Bless my bank book! why not?" asked Mr. Damon. "Isn't it wealthabandoned at the bottom of the sea, and isn't finding keeping?"

  "Not always," answered Tom. "There are certain rules and laws abouttreasure, and it might happen that after we got this--if we do--itcould be taken away from us."

  "I think there will be no difficulty on this score," said Mr. Hardley."In the first place, two attempts were made to get this wealth, andwere unsuccessful. Then it was practically abandoned, and I believeunder the law the persons who now find it will be entitled to keep it.Besides the persons who gathered it together did so for an unlawfulpurpose--that of starting a revolution in a friendly country--and theywould not dare claim it for fear of giving their secret away."

  "Well, perhaps you are right," assented Tom. "We'll make a try for it,anyhow."

  "You say the submarine is nearly ready?" asked Mr. Hardley.

  "She will be ready for a trial trip at the end of this week," said Tom,"and be fitted up for the voyage within another seven days, I hope.Then for the great adventure!" and he laughed, though, truth to tell,he had no real liking for his task. The more he saw of Mr. Hardley theless he liked him.

  "I shall begin getting my affairs in shape," said the latter, as hegathered up some papers he had brought to attempt to prove to Tom thatthe wealth of the Pandora was greater than had been supposed. "I havemany large interests," he went on, rather pompously, "and they needlooking after; especially if I undertake anything so extra hazardous asa submarine trip."

  "Yes, there always is some danger," admitted Tom. "But then there isdanger walking along the street."

  "Oh, there's no danger with Tom Swift!" exclaimed Mr. Damon. "I'vebeen under the sea and above the clouds with him, and, bless myrainbow! he always brought us safe home."

  "And I'll try to do the same this time," said the young inventor.

  Busy days followed for Tom Swift and his friends. The force at work onthe submarine turned night into day to rush her completion, and in dueseason she was set afloat in the dry dock basin and formallyrechristened the M. N. 1.

  Mary blushed as she gave the boat her new name, and there was a littlecheer from the group of workmen gathered at the dock. There was nolaunching in the real sense of the word, since as the Advance thatceremony had been gone through with for the undersea craft.

  She had been greatly changed interiorly and outwardly. Her skin, orplates, having been doubled and strengthened. For Tom proposed to go toa much greater depth than ever before.

  In addition to using the submarine herself in a search for the gold onthe Pandora, Tom had installed on board some new kinds of divingapparatus and also a diving bell. If one would not serve, the othermight, he reasoned.

  "Well, Tom," remarked his aged father the night before they were tostart on the trial trip, "I understand you have practically rebuilt theAdvance."

  "Yes; and I think she's a much better craft, too, Father."

  "Glad to hear that, Tom. Of course you kept the gyroscope rudderfeature?"

  "No, I didn't," replied Tom. "If I had left that installed it wouldhave meant carrying a smaller diving bell, and I think that last willbe more useful than the gyroscope. I put in a set of double-actingdepth rudders instead."

  Mr. Swift shook his head.

  "I'm sorry for that, Tom," he remarked. "There's nothing like thegyroscope rudder in a tight pinch--say when there's a storm. And forholding the boat steady, if you have to make a sudden turn under water,to avoid an obstruction you come upon unexpectedly, a gyroscope can'tbe improved on. It holds you steady and prevents your turning turtle."

  "I've put side fin-keels to correct that," Tom explained.

  But still his father was not satisfied.

  "I'd rather you had kept the gyroscope," he said, and the time was tocome when Tom Swift wished that himself.

  But it was too late to make the change now, and so, with more thanusual confidence in his own designing abilities, the next day the younginventor and his friends went aboard the M. N. 1 for the trial trip.


  "You don't easily get seasick, do you?" Tom asked Mr. Hardley, as theydescended the hatchway into the interior of the craft.

  "No, I'm considered a good sailor."

  "Well, you'll need to be," went on Tom, with a smile. "Not that we arelikely to strike any rough water now, though the reports say a stiffbreeze is blowing in the bay. But when we once start for the WestIndies you are likely to experience a new sensation. I've knownsailors who never had any qualms, even in terrible storms, to get illin a submarine when she went through only a small blow. The motion isdifferent from that on a surface boat."

  "I can imagine so," returned Mr. Hardley. "But I'll be thinking of themillions in gold on the Pandora, and that will keep my mind off beingseasick."

  "Let us hope so," murmured Tom.

  He gave the word, they all descended, the hatch covers were closeddown, and the M. N. 1 was ready to start on a trial trip.