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

by Victor Appleton

  CHAPTER XVI

  GASPING FOR AIR

  For an instant after the electrical charge had been fired nothing seemto happen. The giant starfish still enveloped Ned Newton in its grip,while Tom and his two companions stood tensely waiting and those in thesubmarine looked anxiously out through the thick glass windows.

  Then, as the powerful current made itself felt, those watching saw oneof the arms slowly loosen its grip. Another floated upward, as a strandof rope idly drifts in the current. Tom saw this, and called throughhis telephone:

  "He's feeling it! Go to him, boys! Koku, you with the axe!"

  They needed no second urging.

  Springing toward the monster, Koku with upraised axe and Norton withthe lance, they attacked the starfish. Hacking and stabbing, theycompleted the work begun by Tom's electric gun. With one powerfulstroke, even hampered as he was by the heavy medium in which heoperated, Koku lopped off one of the legs. Norton thrust his lance deepinto the body of the monster, but this was hardly needed, for thestarfish was now dead, and gradually the remaining arms relaxed theirhold.

  Pushing with their weapons, the giant and the sailor now freed Ned fromthe bulk of the creature, which floated away. It was almost immediatelyattacked by a school of fish that seemed to have been waiting for justthis chance. Ned Newton was freed, but for a moment he staggered abouton the floor of the sea, hardly able to stand.

  "Are you all right, Ned? Did he pierce your suit?" asked Tom, anxiouslythrough the telephone.

  "Yes, I'm all right," came back the reassuring answer. "I'm a bitcramped from the way he held me, but that's all. Guess he found thissuit of rubber and steel too much for his digestion."

  Slowly, for Ned was indeed a bit stiff and cramped, they made their wayback to the submarine, passing through a vast horde of small fisheswhich had been attracted by the dismemberment of the monster that hadbeen killed.

  "There'll be sharks along soon," said Tom to Ned through the telephone."They're not going to miss such a gathering of food as these small frypresent. And sharks will present a different emergency from starfish."

  Tom spoke truly, for a little later, when they were all once moresafely within the submarine, looking through the windows, they saw aschool of hungry sharks feeding on the millions of small fish thatgathered to eat the creature that had attacked Ned.

  "What did you think was happening to you out there?" asked Tom, whenthe diving suits had been put away.

  "I didn't know what to think," was the answer. "I was prospectingaround, and I leaned over to pick up a particularly beautiful bit ofcoral. All at once I felt something over me, as a cloud sometimes hidesthe sun. I looked up, saw a big black shape settling down, and then Ifelt my arms pinned to my sides. At first I thought it was an octopus,but in a moment I realized what it was. Though I never thought beforethat starfish grew so large."

  "Nor I," added Tom. "Well, you've had an experience, to say the least."

  They remained a little longer in the vicinity, Tom and his officersmaking observations they thought would be useful to them later, andthen the submarine went up to the surface.

  They cruised in the open the rest of that day, recharging the storagebatteries and getting ready for the search which, Tom calculated, wouldtake them some time. As he had explained, it would not be easy tolocate the Pandora in the fathomless depths of the sea.

  Ned and Mr. Damon did some fishing while they were on the surface, and,as their luck was good, there was a welcome change from the usual foodof the M. N. 1. Though, as Tom had installed a refrigerating plant,fresh meat could be kept for some time, and this, in addition to thetinned and preserved foods, gave them an ample larder.

  "When are we going to begin the real search for the gold?" asked Mr.Hardley that evening.

  "I should say in another day or two," Tom answered, after he hadconsulted the charts and made calculations of their progress sinceleaving their dock. "We shall then be in the vicinity of the placewhere you say the Pandora went down, and, if you are sure of yourlocation, we ought to be able to come approximately near to thelocation of the gold wreck."

  "Of course I am sure of my figures," declared Mr. Hardley. "I had themdirectly from the first mate, who gave them to the captain."

  "Well, it remains to be seen," replied Tom Swift. "We'll know in a fewdays."

  "And I hope there will be no more taking chances," went on thegold-seeker. "I don't see any sense in you people going out in divingsuits to fight starfish. We need those suits to recover the gold with,and it's foolish to take needless risks."

  His tone and manner were dictatorial, but Tom said nothing. Only whenhe and Mr. Damon were alone a little later the eccentric man said:

  "Tom will you ever forgive me for introducing you to such a pest?"

  "Oh, well, you didn't know what he was," said Tom good-naturedly."You're as badly taken in as I am. Once we get the gold and give himhis share, he can get off my boat. I'll have nothing more to do withhim!"

  Not wishing to navigate in the darkness, for fear of not being able tokeep an accurate record of the course and the distance made Tomsubmerged the craft when night came and let her come to rest on thebottom of the sea. He calculated that two days later they would be inthe vicinity of the Pandora.

  The night passed without incident, situated, as they were, on the sandabout three hundred feet below the surface; and after breakfast Tomannounced that they would go up and head directly for the place wherethe Pandora had foundered.

  The ballast tanks were emptied, the rising rudder set, and the M. N. 1began to ascend. She was still several fathoms from the surface whenall on board became aware of a violent pitching and tossing motion.

  "Bless my postage stamp, Tom!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, "what's the matternow?"

  "Has anything gone wrong?" demanded Mr. Hardley.

  "Nothing, except that we are coming up into a storm," answered theyoung inventor. "The wind is blowing hard up above and the waves arehigh. The swell makes itself felt even down here."

  Tom's explanation of the cause of the pitching and rolling of thesubmarine proved correct. When they reached the surface and anobservation was taken from the conning tower, it was seen that aterrific storm was raging. It was out of the question to open thehatches, or the M. N. 1 would have been swamped. The waves were high,it was raining hard and the wind blowing a hurricane.

  "Well, here's where we demonstrate the advantage of traveling in asubmarine," announced Tom, when it was seen that journeying on thesurface was out of the question. "The disturbance does not go far belowthe top. We'll submerge and be in quiet waters."

  He gave the orders, and soon the craft was sinking again. The deepershe went the more untroubled the sea became, until, when half way tothe bottom, there was no vestige of the storm.

  "Are we going to lie here on the bottom all day, or make some progresstoward our destination?" asked the gold-seeker, when Tom came into themain cabin after a visit to the engine room. "It seems to me," went onMr. Hardley, "that we've wasted enough time! I'd like to get to thewreck, and begin taking out the gold."

  "That is my plan," said Tom quietly. "We will proceed presently--justas soon as navigating calculations can be made and checked up. If wetravel under water we want to go in the right direction."

  His manner toward the gold-seeker was cool and distant. It was easy tosee that relations were strained. But Tom would fulfill his part of thecontract.

  A little later, after having floated quietly for half an hour or so,the craft was put in motion, traveling under water by means of herelectric motors. All that day she surged on through the salty sea, nomore disturbed by the storm above than was some mollusk on the sandybottom.

  It was toward evening, as they could tell by the clocks and not by anychange in daylight or darkness, that, as the submarine traveled on,there came a sudden violent concussion.

  "What's that?" cried Mr. Damon.

  "We've struck something!" replied Tom, who was with the others in thecabin, the navigation of the
craft having been entrusted to one of theofficers. "Keep cool, there's no danger!"

  "Perhaps we have struck the wreck!" exclaimed Mr. Hardley.

  "We aren't near her," answered the young inventor. "But it may be someother half-submerged derelict. I'll go to see, and--"

  Tom's words were choked off by a sudden swirl of the craft. She seemedabout to turn completely over, and then, twisted to an uncomfortableangle, so that those within her slid to the side walls of the cabin,the M. N. 1 came to an abrupt stop. At the same time she seemed tovibrate and tremble as if in terror of some unknown fate.

  "Something has gone wrong!" exclaimed Tom, and he hurried to the engineroom, walking, as best he could with the craft at that grotesque angle.The others followed him.

  "What's the matter, Earle?" asked Tom of his chief assistant.

  "One of the rudders has broken, sir," was the answer. "It's thrown usoff our even keel. I'll start the gyroscope, and that ought tostabilize us."

  "The gyroscope!" cried Tom. "I didn't bring it. I didn't think we'dneed it!"

  For a moment Earle looked at his commander. Then he said:

  "Well, perhaps we can make a shift if we can repair the broken rudder.We must have struck a powerful cross current, or maybe a whirlpool,that tore the main rudder loose. We've rammed a sand bank, or stuck hernose into the bottom in some shallow place, I'm afraid. We can't goahead or back up."

  "Do you mean we're stuck, as we were in the mud bank?" asked Mr.Hardley.

  "Yes," answered Tom, and Earle nodded to confirm that version of it.

  "But we'll get out!" declared Tom. "This is only a slight accident. Itdoesn't amount to anything, though I'm sorry now I didn't take myfather's advice and bring the gyroscope rudder along. It would haveacted automatically to have prevented this. Now, Mr. Earle, we'll seewhat's to be done."

  All night long they worked, but when morning came, as told by theclocks, they were still in jeopardy.

  And then a new peril confronted them!

  Earle, coming from the crew's quarters, spoke to Tom quietly in themain cabin.

  "We'll have to turn on one of the auxiliary air tanks," he said. "We'veconsumed more than the usual amount on account of the men working sohard, and we used one of the compressed air motors to aid theelectrics. We'll have to open up the reserve tank."

  "Very well, do so," ordered Tom.

  But a grim look came to his face when Earle, returning a little later,reported with blanched cheeks:

  "The extra tank hasn't an atom of air in it, sir!"

  "What do you mean?" asked Tom, in fear and alarm.

  "I mean that the valve has been opened in some way--broken perhaps byaccident--and all the air we have is what's in the submarine now. Notan atom in reserve, sir!"

  "Whew!" whistled Tom, and then he stood up and began breathing quickly.

  Already the atmosphere was beginning to be tainted, as it alwaysbecomes in a closed place when no fresh oxygen can enter. Without morefresh air the lives of all in the submarine were in imminent peril. Andeven as Tom listened to the report of his officer, he and the othersbegan gasping for breath.