Chapter Twenty-Two
At the Wreck
"Well," remarked Mr. Damon, as the submarine hurled herself forwardthrough the ocean, "I guess that firing party will have something elseto do to-morrow morning besides aiming those rifles at us."
"Yes, indeed," agreed Tom. "They'll be lucky if they save their ship.My, how that wind did blow!"
"You're right," put in Captain Weston. "When they get a hurricane downin this region it's no cat's paw. But they were a mighty careless lotof sailors. The idea of leaving the ladder over the side, and the boatin the water."
"It was a good thing for us, though," was Tom's opinion.
"Indeed it was," came from the captain. "But as long as we are safe nowI think we'd better take a look about the craft to see if those chapsdid any damage. They can't have done much, though, or she wouldn't berunning so smoothly. Suppose you go take a look, Tom, and ask yourfather and Mr. Sharp what they think. I'll steer for a while, until weget well away from the island."
The young inventor found his father and the balloonist busy in theengine-room. Mr. Swift had already begun an inspection of themachinery, and so far found that it had not been injured. A furtherinspection showed that no damage had been done by the foreign guardthat had been in temporary possession of the Advance, though thesailors had made free in the cabins, and had broken into the foodlockers, helping themselves plentifully. But there was still enough forthe gold-seekers.
"You'd never know there was a storm raging up above," observed Tom ashe rejoined Captain Weston in the lower pilot house, where he wasmanaging the craft. "It's as still and peaceful here as one could wish."
"Yes, the extreme depths are seldom disturbed by a surface storm. Butwe are over a mile deep now. I sent her down a little while you weregone, as I think she rides a little more steadily."
All that night they speeded forward, and the next day, rising to thesurface to take an observation, they found no traces of the storm,which had blown itself out. They were several hundred miles away fromthe hostile warship, and there was not a vessel in sight on the broadexpanse of blue ocean.
The air tanks were refilled, and after sailing along on the surface foran hour or two, the submarine was again sent below, as Captain Westonsighted through his telescope the smoke of a distant steamer.
"As long as it isn't the Wonder, we're all right," said Tom. "Still, wedon't want to answer a lot of questions about ourselves and our object."
"No. I fancy the Wonder will give up the search," remarked the captain,as the Advance was sinking to the depths.
"We must be getting pretty near to the end of our search ourselves,"ventured the young inventor.
"We are within five hundred miles of the intersection of theforty-fifth parallel and the twenty-seventh meridian, east fromWashington," said the captain. "That's as near as I could locate thewreck. Once we reach that point we will have to search about underwater, for I don't fancy the other divers left any buoys to mark thespot."
It was two days later, after uneventful sailing, partly on the surface,and partly submerged, that Captain Weston, taking a noon observation,announced:
"Well, we're here!"
"Do you mean at the wreck?" asked Mr. Swift eagerly.
"We're at the place where she is supposed to lie, in about two miles ofwater," replied the captain. "We are quite a distance off the coast ofUruguay, about opposite the harbor of Rio de La Plata. From now on weshall have to nose about under water, and trust to luck."
With her air tanks filled to their capacity, and Tom having seen thatthe oxygen machine and other apparatus was in perfect working order,the submarine was sent below on her search. Though they were in theneighborhood of the wreck, the adventurers might still have to doconsiderable searching before locating it. Lower and lower they sankinto the depths of the sea, down and down, until they were deeper thanthey had ever gone before. The pressure was tremendous, but the steelsides of the Advance withstood it.
Then began a search that lasted nearly a week. Back and forth theycruised, around in great circles, with the powerful searchlight focusedto disclose the sunken treasure ship. Once Tom, who was observing thepath of light in the depths from the conning tower, thought he had seenthe remains of the Boldero, for a misty shape loomed up in front of thesubmarine, and he signaled for a quick stop. It was a wreck, but it hadbeen on the ocean bed for a score of years, and only a few timbersremained of what had been a great ship. Much disappointed, Tom rang forfull speed ahead again, and the current was sent into the greatelectric plates that pulled and pushed the submarine forward.
For two days more nothing happened. They searched around under thegreen waters, on the alert for the first sign, but they saw nothing.Great fish swam about them, sometimes racing with the Advance. Theadventurers beheld great ocean caverns, and skirted immense rocks,where dwelt monsters of the deep. Once a great octopus tried to dobattle with the submarine and crush it in its snaky arms, but Tom sawthe great white body, with saucer-shaped eyes, in the path of light andrammed him with the steel point. The creature died after a struggle.
They were beginning to despair when a full week had passed and theywere seemingly as far from the wreck as ever. They went to the surfaceto enable Captain Weston to take another observation. It only confirmedthe other, and showed that they were in the right vicinity. But it waslike looking for a needle in a haystack, almost, to find the sunken shipin that depth of water.
"Well, we'll try again," said Mr. Swift, as they sank once more beneaththe surface.
It was toward evening, on the second day after this, that Tom, who wason duty in the conning tower, saw a black shape looming up in front ofthe submarine, the searchlight revealing it to him far enough away sothat he could steer to avoid it. He thought at first that it was agreat rock, for they were moving along near the bottom, but thepeculiar shape of it soon convinced him that this could not be. It camemore plainly into view as the submarine approached it more slowly, thensuddenly, out of the depths in the illumination from the searchlight,the young inventor saw the steel sides of a steamer. His heart gave agreat thump, but he would not call out yet, fearing that it might besome other vessel than the one containing the treasure.
He steered the Advance so as to circle it. As he swept past the bows hesaw in big letters near the sharp prow the word, Boldero.
"The wreck! The wreck!" he cried, his voice ringing through the craftfrom end to end. "We've found the wreck at last!"
"Are you sure?" cried his father, hurrying to his son, Captain Westonfollowing.
"Positive," answered the lad. The submarine was slowing up now, and Tomsent her around on the other side. They had a good view of the sunkenship. It seemed to be intact, no gaping holes in her sides, for onlyher plates had started, allowing her to sink gradually.
"At last," murmured Mr. Swift. "Can it be possible we are about to getthe treasure?"
"That's the Boldero, all right," affirmed Captain Weston. "I recognizeher, even if the name wasn't on her bow. Go right down on the bottom,Tom, and we'll get out the diving suits and make an examination."
The submarine settled to the ocean bed. Tom glanced at the depth gage.It showed over two miles and a half. Would they be able to venture outinto water of such enormous pressure in the comparatively frail divingsuits, and wrest the gold from the wreck? It was a serious question.
The Advance came to a stop. In front of her loomed the great bulk ofthe Boldero, vague and shadowy in the flickering gleam of thesearchlight. As the gold-seekers looked at her through the bull's-eyesof the conning tower, several great forms emerged from beneath thewreck's bows.
"Deep-water sharks!" exclaimed Captain Weston, "and monsters, too. Butthey can't bother us. Now to get out the gold!"
Tom Swift and His Submarine Boat; Or, Under the Ocean for Sunken Treasure Page 22