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The four took off in one of the Swifts' Whirling Ducks, which was standing by loaded and ready. Soon they landed on Fearing Island, where Tom would try out his antidetection invention. "What'll we use for a test sub, skipper?" Hank asked as they drove toward the docks. "A jetmarine," Tom replied. A truck with engineers and technicians was following the jeep.
Before leaving the base, Tom called the Coast Guard and the Navy to cancel his search request. He also telephoned a full report on the enemy submarines to Admiral Walter. After hanging up, Tom decided on another move. "Our antidetection gear seems to have panned out pretty well," he told Hank. "I think we should make use of it right away.
With this new antidetection gear we're invisible to them. At least as long as they don't run into us or we into them," he added. "Or unless they have superdetection equipment we don't know about," cautioned Mel Flagler. As they talked, the unidentified submarine was bearing steadily toward the mainland. Fathometer soundings showed it was on a steep upward slope of the continental shelf.
"Your antidetection gear worked so well we vanished right out of the ocean!" Bud replied with a chuckle. Turning serious, he reported how his jetmarine had trailed the mysterious intruder and how he and Mel had captured the two Brungarian frogmen and their shore contact. "Nice going, pal!" Tom exclaimed. "But here's the catch," Bud went on.
Tom returned happily to base, feeling that the antidetection problem was now solved. The jetmarine, however, failed to appear. "That's funny. The test was over at four-fifteen," Tom murmured. "Maybe Bud surfaced out at sea somewhere," Arv Hanson suggested. Repeated radio calls brought no response.
Tom, now seriously worried, took the seacopter down again for another search, hoping that Bud would have switched off the antidetection gear by this time. But neither sonarscope nor listening devices revealed the slightest clue. Tom, Hank, and Arv exchanged fearful glances. Had the jetmarine foundered on the ocean bottom perhaps fouled somehow by Tom's new invention?
Tom questioned. Zimby grinned wryly. "We might not be here if they had detected us. But I'm pretty sure they didn't. Anyhow, they gave no sign." Tom was doubly elated at the news. His antidetection gear had evidently worked perfectly in a showdown test with the enemy, even at close range.
Rather than lose time trying to contact Bud, Tom decided to let him find the Sea Hound. Accordingly, he switched off the antidetection system and ordered all ships to submerge. Arv's seacopter and Mel's jetmarine were to maintain close formation and stand guard while Tom's craft did the actual searching. Now the missile hunt began.
Besides the Sea Hound and the other diving seacopter which had already been rigged with antisonar and antidetection equipment, Tom ordered a large cargo jetmarine to be similarly equipped. Then he drew up a list of supplies and underwater search gear needed for the missile hunt. Tom phoned orders to a dozen different departments.
"Or it might be intended to force our hand." "You mean in hopes of getting us to reveal whether or not we have an antidetection system ourselves?" As his father nodded, Tom scowled. "If so, that sub yesterday may have been observing our tests." The telephone rang and Tom leaped to answer it. The caller was Dan Perkins of the Shopton Evening Bulletin.
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