Tom Swift And His Undersea Search (汤姆斯威夫特和他的海底研究)

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TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH

TOM SWIFT AND HIS

UNDERSEA SEARCH

(OR The Treasure on the Floor of the Atlantic)

VICTOR APPLETON

TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH

CHAPTER I

UNTOLD MILLIONS

"Tom, this is certainly wonderful reading! Over a hundred million

dollars' worth of silver at the bottom of the ocean! More than two hundred

million dollars in gold! To say nothing of fifty millions in copper, ten

millions in--"

"Say, hold on there, Ned! Hold on! Where do you get that stuff; as the

boys say? Has something gone wrong with one of the adding machines, or

is it just on account of the heat? What's the big idea, anyhow? How many

millions did you say?" and Tom Swift, the talented young inventor, looked

at Ned Newton, his financial manager, with a quizzical smile.

"It's all right, Tom! It's all right!" declared Ned, and it needed but a

glance to show that he was more serious than was his companion. "I'm not

suffering from the heat, though the thermometer is getting close to ninety-

five in the shade. And if you want to know where I get 'that stuff' read

this!"

He tossed over to his chum, employer, and friend--for Tom Swift

assumed all three relations toward Ned Newton--part of a Sunday

newspaper. It was turned to a page containing a big illustration of a diver

attired in the usual rubber suit and big helmet, moving about on the floor

of the ocean and digging out boxes of what was supposed to be gold from

a sunken wreck.

"Oh, that stuff!" exclaimed Tom, with a smile of disbelief as he saw

the source of Ned's information. "Seems to me I've read something like

that before, Ned!"

"Of course you have!" agreed the young financial manager of the

newly organized Swift Construction Company. "It isn't anything new. This

wealth of untold millions has been at the bottom of the sea for many years-

-always increasing with nobody ever spending a cent of it. And since the

Great War this wealth has been enormously added to because of the

sinking of so many ships by German submarines."

"Well, what's that got to do with us, Ned?" asked Tom, as he looked

TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH

over some blue prints and other papers on his desk, for the talk was taking

place in his office. "You and I did our part in the war, but I don't see what

all this undersea wealth has to do with us. We've got our work cut out for

us if we take care of all the new contracts that came in this week."

"Yes, I know," admitted Ned. "But I couldn't help calling your

attention to this article, Tom. It's authentic!"

"Authentic? What do you mean

"Well, the man who wrote it went to the trouble of getting from the

ship insurance companies a list of all the wrecks and lost vessels carrying

gold and silver coin, bullion, and other valuables. He has gone back a

hundred years, and he brings it right down to just before the war. Hasn't

had time to compile that list, the article says. But without counting the

vessels the Germans sank, there is, in various places on the bottom of the

ocean today, wrecks of ships that carried, when they went down, gold,

silver, copper and other metals to the value of at least ten billions of

dollars!"

Tom Swift did not seem to be at all surprised by the explosive

emphasis with which Ned Newton conveyed this information. He gazed

calmly at his friend and manager, and then handed the paper back.

"I haven't time to look at it now," said Tom. "But is there anything new

in the story? I mean has any of the wealth been recovered lately--or is it in

a way to be?"

"Yes!" exclaimed Ned. "It is! A company has been formed in Japan for

the purpose of using a new kind of diving bell, invented by an American, it

seems. The inventor claims that in his machine he can go down deeper

than ever man went before, and bring up a lot of this lost ocean wealth."

"Well, every so often an inventor, or some one who calls himself that,

crops up with a new proposal for cleaning up the untold millions on the

floor of the Atlantic or the Pacific," replied Tom. "Mind you, I'm not

saying it isn't there. Everybody knows that hundreds of ships carrying gold

and silver have gone down in storms or been sunk in war. And some of the

gold and silver has been recovered by divers--I admit that. In fact, if you

recall, my father and I perfected a new style diving dress a few years ago

that was successfully used in getting down to a wreck off the Cuban coast.

TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH

A treasure ship went down there, and I believe they recovered a large part

of the gold bullion--or perhaps it was silver.

"But this diving bell stunt isn't new, and it hasn't been successful. Of

course a man can go down to a greater depth in a thick iron diving bell

than he can in a diving suit. That's common knowledge. But the trouble

with a diving bell is that it can't be moved about as a man can move about

in a diving suit. The man in the bell can't get inside the wreck, and it's

there where the gold or silver is usually to be found."

"Can't they blow the wreck apart with dynamite, and scatter the gold

on the bottom of the ocean?" asked Ned.

"Yes, they could do that, but usually they scatter it so far, and the

ocean currents so cover it with sand, that it is impossible ever to get it

again. I admit that if a wreck is blown apart a man in a diving bell can

perhaps get a small part of it. But the limitations of a diving bell are so

well recognized that several inventors have tried adjusting movable arms

to the bell, to be operated by the man inside."

"Did they work?" asked Ned.

"After a fashion, yes. But I never heard of any case where the gold and

silver recovered paid for the expenses of making the bell and sending men

down in it. For it takes the same sort of outfit to aid the man in the diving

bell as it does the diver in his usual rubber or steel suit. Air has to be

pumped to him, and he has to be lowered and raised."

"Well, isn't there any way of getting at this gold on the floor of the

ocean?" asked Ned, his enthusiasm a little cooled by the practical "cold

water" Tom had thrown.

"Oh, yes, of course there is, in a way," was the answer of the young

inventor. "Don't you remember how my father and I, with Mr. Damon and

Captain Weston, went in our submarine, the Advance, and discovered the

wreck of the Boldero?"

"I do recall that," admitted Ned.

"Well," resumed Tom, "there was a case of showing how much trouble

we had. An ordinary diving outfit never would have answered. We had to

locate the wreck, and a hard time we had doing it. Then, when we found it,

we had to ram the old ship and blow it apart before we could get inside.

TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH

Even after that we just happened to discover the gold, as it were. I'm only

mentioning this to show you it isn't so easy to get at the wealth under the

sea as writers in Sunday newspaper supplements think it is."

"I believe you, Tom. And yet it seems a shame to have all those

millions going to waste, doesn't it?" And Ned spoke as a banker and

financial man, who is not happy unless money is earning interest all the

while.

"Well, a billion of dollars is a lot," Tom admitted. "And when you

think of all that have been sunk, say even in the last hundred years, it

amazes one. But still, all the gold and silver was hidden in the earth before

it was dug out, and now it's only gone back where it came from, in a way.

We got along before men dug it out and coined it into money, and I guess

we'll get along when it's under water. No use worrying over the ocean

treasures, as far as I'm concerned."

"You're a hopeless proposition!" laughed Ned. "You'd never make a

banker, or a Napoleon of finance."

"That's why my father and I got you to look after our financial affairs,"

and Tom smiled. "You're just the one--with your interest-bearing mind--to

keep us off the shoals of business trouble."

"Yes, I suppose I can do that, while you and your father go on

inventing giant cannons, great searchlights, submarines, and airships,"

conceded Ned. "But this, to me, did look like an easy way of making

money."

"How's that, Ned?" asked Tom, a new note coming into his voice.

"Were you thinking of going to Japan and taking a hand in the undersea

search?"

"No. But stock in this company is being sold, and shareholders stand

to win big returns--if the wrecks are come upon."

"That's just it!" exclaimed Tom. "If they find the wrecks! And let me

tell you, Ned, that there's a mighty big 'if' in it all. Do you realize how

hard it is to find anything on the ocean, to say nothing of something under

it?"

"I hadn't thought of it."

"Well, you'd better think of it. You know on the ocean sailors have to

TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH

locate a certain imaginary position by calculation, using the sun and stars

as guides. Of course, they have navigation down pretty fine, and a good

pilot can get to a place on the surface of the ocean and meet another craft

there almost as well as you and I can make an appointment to meet at

Main and Broad streets at a certain hour.

"But lots of times there are errors in calculations or a storm comes up

hiding the sun and stars, and, instead of a captain getting to where he

wants to, he's anywhere from one to a hundred miles out. Now the location

of Broad and Main Streets doesn't change even in a storm.

"And I'm not saying that a location on an ocean changes. I'm only

saying that the least disturbance or error in calculation makes it almost

impossible to find the exact spot. And if it's that hard on the surface, where

you can see what you're doing, how much harder is it in regard to

something on the bottom of the sea? So don't take any stock in these ocean

treasure recovering companies. They may not be fakes, but they're mighty

uncertain."

"Oh, I don't know that I was really going to buy any stock in this

Japanese concern, Tom. I only thought it would be interesting to think

about. And perhaps you might sell them a submarine or some of your

diving apparatus."

"Nothing doing, Ned. We've got other plans, my father and I. There's

that new tractor for use in the big wheat-growing belt, to say nothing of--"

Tom's remarks were interrupted by voices outside his office door. One

voice, in particular, rose above the others. It said:

"No can go in! The Master he am busily! No can go in!"

"Nonsense, Koku!" exclaimed a man, and at the sound of his voice

Tom and Ned smiled. "Nonsense! Of course I can go in! Why, bless my

watch fob, I must go in! I've got the greatest proposition to lay before Tom

Swift that he ever heard of! There's at least a million in it! Let me pass,

Koku!"

"Mr. Damon!" murmured Tom Swift. "I wonder what he has on his

mind now

As he spoke the door opened rather violently and a short, stout man,

evidently much excited, fairly burst into the room, followed, more

TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH

sedately, by a stranger.

TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH

CHAPTER II

A STRANGE OFFER

"Hello, Tom Swift! Hello, Ned! Glad to see you both! Busy, as usual,

I'll wager. Bless my check book! I never saw you when you weren't busy

at some scheme or other, Tom, my boy. But I won't take up much of your

time. Tom Swift, let me introduce my friend, Mr. Dixwell Hardley. Mr.

Hardley, shake hands with Tom Swift, one of the youngest, and yet one of

the greatest, inventors in the world! I've told you a little about him, but it

would take me all day to tell you what he really has done and--"

"Hold on, Mr. Damon!" laughed Tom, as he shook hands with the man

whom Mr. Damon had named Dixwell Hardley. "Hold on, if you please.

There's a limit to it, you know, and already you've said enough about me

to--"

"Bless my ink bottle, Tom, I haven't said half enough!" interrupted the

little, eccentric man. "Wait until you hear what he has done, Mr. Hardley.

Then, if you don't say he's the very chap for your wonderful scheme, I'm

mighty much mistaken! And shake hands with Ned Newton, too. He's

Tom's financial manager, and of course he'll have something to say.

Though when he hears how you are going to turn over a couple of million

dollars or more, why, I know he'll be on our side."

Ned's eyes sparkled at the mention of the money. In truth he dealt in

dollars and cents for the benefit of Tom Swift. Ned shook hands with Mr.

Hardley and Tom motioned Mr. Damon and his friend to chairs.

"Now, Tom," went on the strange little man, "I know you're busy.

Bless my adding machine, I never saw you when--"

At that moment there arose in the corridor outside Tom's private office

a discord of voices, in which one could be heard exclaiming:

"Now yo' clear out oh heah! Massa Tom done tole me to sweep dish

yeah place, an' ef yo' doan let me alone, why--why--"

"Huh! Radicate him big stiff--dat's what! Big stiff! Too stiff for sweep

Master's floor. Koku sweep one hand!"

"Oh, yo' t'ink 'case yo' is sich a big giant, yo' kin git de best ob ole

TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH

black Rad! But I'll show yo' dat--"

"Excuse me a moment," said Tom, with a smile to his guests as he

arose. "Eradicate and Koku are at it again, I'm sorry to say. I'll have to go

out and arbitrate the strike," and he left the room.

While he is settling the differences between his faithful old black

servant and Koku, the giant, I will take the opportunity of telling my new

readers something about Tom Swift.

Those who are familiar with the previous books of this series may skip

this part. But it will give my new audience a better insight into this story if

they will bear with me a moment and peruse these few lines.

As related in the first book, "Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle," the

hero seemed born an inventive genius. It was this inventive faculty which

enabled him to take the motor cycle that tried to climb a tree with Mr.

Wakefield Damon on it and make the wreck into a serviceable bit of

mechanism. Thus Tom became acquainted with Mr. Damon, who among

other eccentricities, was always "blessing" something personal.

Tom Swift lived in the city of Shopton with his father and their faithful

housekeeper, Mrs. Baggert. It was so named because the Swift shops were

an important industry there. Tom's father, as well as Tom himself, was an

inventor of note, and employed many men in building machines of various

kinds. During the Great War the services of Tom and his father had been

dedicated to the government.

There are a number of books dealing with Tom's activities, the list of

titles of which may be found at the beginning of this volume.

Sufficient to say here, that Tom invented and operated motor boats,

airships, and submarines. In addition he traveled on many expeditions with

Mr. Damon, Ned, and others. He went among the diamond makers and it

was when he escaped from captivity that he managed to bring away Koku,

the giant, with him. Since then Koku and Eradicate Sampson, the faithful

colored man, had periodic quarrels as to who should serve the young

inventor.

Besides inventing and using many machines of motive power, Tom

Swift engaged in other industries. He helped dig a big tunnel, he

constructed a photo-telephone, a great searchlight and a monster cannon.

TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH

Occasionally he had searched for treasure, once under the sea, with

considerable success.

Of late his and his father's industries had become so important that a

number of new buildings had been constructed and the plant greatly

enlarged. Ned Newton, who had once worked in a Shopton bank, became

financial manager for Tom and his father, and plenty of work he found

with which to occupy himself.

Just prior to the opening of this story Tom had perfected a noiseless

aeroplane--or one so nearly silent as to justify the name. The details of it

will be found in the book called "Tom Swift and His Air Scout." In this

mechanism of the air Tom had had some wonderful experiences, and they

had not been at home more than a few weeks when New Newton broached

the subject of undersea wealth.

The talk of Tom and his financial manager was interrupted by the

arrival of Mr. Damon and the stranger he had introduced as Mr. Hardley.

Eradicate, or "Rad," and Koku, have been mentioned. Rad was an

ancient colored man who once owned a mule named Boomerang.

Sampson was the colored servant's last name, and he declared he had

chosen the one "Eradicate" because in his younger days he was a great

cleaner and whitewasher, "eradicating" the dirt, so to speak.

Boomerang had, some time since, gone where all good mules go,

though Eradicate declared he would get another and call him Boomerang

II. But, so far, he had not done so.

Rad, though too old to do heavy work, still believed he was

indispensable to the welfare of Tom and his father; and as the giant Koku,

who was physically an immense man, held the same view, it followed

there were frequent clashes between the two, as on the occasion just

mentioned.

"What was the matter, Tom?" asked Ned, when the young inventor

came back into the room.

"Oh, the same old story," replied Tom. "Rad wanted to sweep the hall,

and Koku insisted he was to do it."

"What'd you do, Tom?" asked Mr. Damon.

"I settled it by having Rad sweep this hall and sending Koku to do

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Tom Swift And His Undersea Search (汤姆斯威夫特和他的海底研究)

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