CHAPTER XV
TOM TO THE RESCUE
Mr. Damon came to a pause in the compartment from which the divingchamber gave access to the ocean outside. Tom, standing before thesliding steel door, had summoned to him several of his men and wasrapidly 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 thegrip of some strange monster of the sea. What it is I don't know, butI'm going to find out. Koku, you come with me!"
"Yes, Master, me come!" said the giant simply, as if Tom had told himto go for a pail of water instead of risking his life.
"Barnes, the electric gun!" cried the young inventor to one of hishelpers, 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, andattack it with a gun?" asked Mr. Hardley.
"That's what I'm going to do!" answered Tom, as he began to put on thesuit of steel and rubber, an example followed by Koku.
"But you may be attacked by the monster! You may be killed! You arerisking 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 noone to navigate this boat to the place of the wreck! You can't desertthis way!"
Tom gave the man one look of contempt. "You need have, no fears," hesaid. "This submarine is under international maritime laws. If I die,Captain Nelson, the next in command, takes charge, and the originalorders will be carried out. If it is possible to get the gold for youit 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 withHardley. "If I were a bit younger I'd go out with you myself and helpsave Ned."
"Koku and I can do it--if he's still alive!" murmured the younginventor. "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 toshooting under the water we may hit one another. Quick, now! Thehelmets. 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 givemust come through the telephone, and it was by that same medium that hemust listen to the talk of his friends. It was possible for the diversto talk and listen to one another while in the water by means of thesepeculiarly 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 waterhaving been pumped out of the chamber since Ned and the sailor hademerged, it was ready for Tom and Koku. They entered, the door wasclosed, 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 thecrew and officers went into the forward chamber to observe the underseafight against the monster that had attacked Ned.
Suddenly the waters glowed with a greatly increased light, and in thisillumination it was seen that the monster, whatever it was, had almostcompletely 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 itinstalled at the last moment. It's the same kind he invented and gaveto the government, but he retained the right to use it himself."
"It's a good thing he did!" exclaimed the eccentric man. "Now he cansee what he's doing! Poor Ned! I'm afraid he's done for!"
"Look!" exclaimed one of the crew. "Norton, the sailor who went outwith 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 hadlashed a knife, was stabbing and jabbing at the black form which almostcompletely hid Ned from sight. But the efforts of the sailor seemed toproduce little effect.
"What in the world can it be?" asked Mr. Damon. "Tom says it isn't anoctopus, and it can't be, unless it has lost three of its arms. Butwhat sort of monster is it?"
No one answered him. The powerful searchlight continued to glow, and inthe gleam Ned could be seen trying to break away from the grip of theAtlantic beast. But his efforts were unavailing. It was as if he wasenveloped in a sort of sack, made in segments, so that they opened andclosed 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 hereand 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 thediving chamber, walked around the submarine as it rested on the oceanfloor, and were now advancing to the rescue. Tom carried his electricrifle, and Koku an axe.
So desperately was Norton engaged in trying to kill the sea beast thathad attacked Ned, that for the moment he was unaware of the approach ofTom and Koku. Then, as a swirl of the water apprised him of this, heturned and, seeing them, hastened toward them.
"What is it?" Tom asked through the telephone, this information beinggiven to the watchers in the submarine later, as all they could gatherthen was by what they saw. "What sort of monster is it?"
"A giant starfish!" answered Norton, speaking into his mouthpiece andthe water serving as a transmitting medium instead of wires. "I neverknew 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 atthe monster from closer quarters, he saw that Norton had spoken thetruth.
Small starfish, or even large ones, two feet or more in diameter, maybe seen at the seashore almost any time. Nearly always the specimenscast up on the beach are in extended form, either limp, or dead anddried. In almost every instance they are spread out just as their nameindicates, in the conventional form of a star.
But a starfish alive, and at its business of eating oysters or othershell animals in the sea, is not at all this shape. Instead, itassumes the form of a sack, spreading its five radiating arms aroundthe object of its meal. It then proceeds to suck the oyster out of itsshell, and so powerful a suction organ has the starfish that he canpull 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 hadever seen, that had Ned in its grip. The creature had doubtless takenthe diver for a new kind of oyster, and was trying to open it. Anoctopus has suckers on the inner sides of its eight arms. A starfishhas little feelers, or "fingers," arranged parallel rows on the innerside of its arms--thousands of little feelers, and these exert a sortof sucking action.
The gigantic starfish had attacked Ned from above, settling down on himso 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 thearms held tightly.
"Come on, Koku, and you, too, Norton!" called Tom through his headpiecetelephone. "We'll all attack it at once. I'll fire, and then you beginto hack it. The electric charge ought to stun it, if it doesn't killthe beast!"
Tom's new electric gun, unlike one kind he had first invented, did notfire an electrically charged bullet. Instead it sent a powerful chargeof electricity, like a flash of lightning, in a straight line towardthe object aimed at. And the current was powerful enough to kill anelephant.
Bracing his feet on the white sand, which gleamed and sparkled in theglare of the searchlight
, Tom aimed at the gigantic starfish which hadenveloped Ned. Standing on either side of him, ready to rush in andattack with axe and lance, were Koku and Norton.
For an instant Tom hesitated. He was wondering whether the powerfulelectric charge might not penetrate the body of the starfish and killhis chum.
"But the rubber suit ought to insulate and protect him," mused theyoung inventor. "Here goes!"
Taking quick aim, Tom pulled the switch, and the deadly charge shot outof the rifle toward the sea monster.
Tom Swift and His Undersea Search; Or, the Treasure on the Floor of the Atlantic Page 15