Bud watched in amazement. “Say, that’s quite a trick! What’s the secret?”
“The electricity polarizes the colloidal particles in a way that opposes any infiltration of water molecules.”
Bud blinked and grinned. “Great! That tells
ROCKET CHASE 137
me nothing, but I’ll take your word for it.”
Tom explained that a huge quantity of the electrogel could be compressed into a small steel tank or cylinder for easy handling and then released underwater at the Lake of Kali inlet.
Preparations for the expedition were made by the weekend, and early Monday morning the two boys took off in the Sky Queen with Prince Jahan and the other student engineers. Due to time-zone difference, it was almost six o’clock in the evening when they swooped down over the Chullagar airfield in Vishnapur.
“Shri Swift,” the tower operator radioed, “there is a man waiting to see you.
Please come to the airfield office after you land.”
The pilot and copilot exchanged puzzled glances. While Jahan and the others were disembarking with their luggage, Tom and Bud hurried to the office.
The airfield manager, who had served in the Indian Air Force, met them at the doorway. “Your caller is inside, sir.”
Entering the office, the boys saw a burly, fur-hatted Tibetan seated on the floor in a corner, sound asleep. The manager prodded him awake and explained, “He is a yak driver and came to Chullagar this morning with a caravan. Said he had an important message for Tom Swift-that he would give it to no one else.”
The yak driver stood up, yawned, grinned, and pulled a folded piece of paper from his quilted
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jacket. Tom read the message, then showed it to Bud. The note was from Hugh Mortlake and read:
7 have information about the poison lake that may interest you. Chullagar radio says you are due back on Monday. Please call me.
Tom paid the driver a handsome tip and hurried back to the Sky Queen with Bud. The boys tried repeatedly to contact Mortlake over the plane’s radio but could get no response.
Tom frowned worriedly. “I hope nothing has happened to him, Bud!”
When Tom explained the situation to Jahan, the prince offered to fly with him at once to Shankaru and investigate. With Bud they took off in the Queen. When they reached the lonely site, Tom hovered low over the ancient ruins but could make out no sign of life below.
Alarmed, the three youths landed and began searching among the crumbled fragments of the long-dead civilization. They found the spot where the archaeologist had camped, but his tent and supplies were gone.
Suddenly Bud’s face went pale. He pointed to a heap of stones. “Something awful must have happened to Mortlake, Tom! Look over there!”
CHAPTER XVI
THE LAKE MONSTER
AMONG the stones lay Mortlake’s radio, smashed beyond repair 1
Tom, Bud, and Prince Jahan rushed over to examine it. The small portable transceiver had been pounded into a tangle of plastic, metal, and electronic parts.
“This is terrible!” Jahan said in a shocked voice. “He must have been attacked by bandits!”
“Why would bandits smash a valuable radio?” Bud objected. “They seem to have taken everything else-including Mortlake himself.”
“Perhaps the men were superstitious and became frightened at the noise from the speaker,” Jahan suggested, “so they broke it.”
Tom looked grim. “You may be right.” But he was not convinced that Jahan’s theory was correct. “We might have a clue to the mystery if we knew what Mortlake wanted to tell me.”
139
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The young inventor recalled Rakshi’s angry outburst when he had learned that the archaeologist was coming to Shankaru. Did the crumbled ruins hold some secret connected with the spy plot? Perhaps Mortlake had stumbled on the secret and paid with his life!
On the other hand, the information mentioned in Mortlake’s letter referred to the Lake of Kali. Was it just a coincidence that he should disappear before he could tell Tom what he had learned?
“We must inform my uncle of this at once,” Jahan said.
By now, dusk was beginning to close in over the eerie spot. Shivering, the three youths climbed aboard the Flying Lab and flew back to Chullagar. The other trainees had already gone to the palace.
At dinner Gopal assured Tom he would investigate fully the fate of the missing American. “I fear this is another sign of the dangerous unrest in Vishnapur,” the dewan added.
“By the way,” Tom said, “I understand that Rakshi was deported back to this country.”
“Yes,” Prince Gopal said. “So far he is being stubborn-but we have methods to insure that he will talk sooner or later.”
Next morning a radio message picked up by the Sky Queen informed Tom that his diving seacopter, the Sea Hound, was on its way and would proceed straight to the Lake of Kali. This sleek jet
THE LAKE MONSTER 141
craft could operate in the air and under the sea. A reversible rotor, enclosed amidships and spun by atomic turbine, enabled it to hover like a helicopter or plunge to the deepest ocean trenches. Tom had purposely not flown it to Vishnapur so the trainees would not see the top-secret underwater gear which the seacopter carried aboard.
Tom and Bud took off with Jahan’s group in the Queen. As they swooped low over the lake valley, Bud exclaimed, “There’s the good old Sea Hound! That hot rock, Arv, beat us.”
Soon the two boys were shaking hands with the hulking, genial craftsman from Enterprises.
“Don’t know if you’ve met Arv Hanson yet,” Tom said, introducing him to the trainees. “He’s our machine-shop maestro in charge of turning blueprints into pilot models. Arv, did you bring those electrogel tanks?”
“Sure thing, skipper. And the spectromarine selector, too. They’re all in the seacopter.”
“Doc” Simpson, Enterprises’ young medic, greeted the boys. Then Chow’s roly-poly figure elbowed forward with a grin. “An’ I’m right here to dish up some poison lake fish, boss!”
Tom chuckled. “I’ll bet you could do it too!”
The young inventor decided to let Prince Jahan make the dive with him and Bud on the Sea Hound while the other students observed from shore. He ordered a sonarphone with a loud-142 POLAR-RAY DYNASPHERE
speaker to be set up on the beach so the onlookers could listen to a running account of what was happening below and also ask questions.
As the gear was being rigged, Tom outlined his plan of action to the students.
He explained how he and Bud would leave the seacopter, wearing electronic hydrolung suits, and plant the cylinders of electrogel.
“But, Swift Sahib, are you not afraid of the poisonous water?” Tundup asked anxiously.
“Our suits should protect us,” Tom replied. “The hydrolung gear will manufacture our oxygen supply, and we’ll be encased in plastic.”
Presently the Sea Hound took off and hovered out over the deadly lake. Arv brought the ship down gently. Then he eased the control wheel forward and the seacopter began her plunge as everyone stared through the big quartz pane.
“Boy, this water’s really murky,” Arv muttered. “I’d better turn on our beam.”
Waving fronds and tendrils of the plants which had poisoned the lake could be seen all around. Fifty feet down, the growth was so thick Tom became alarmed.
“Better not go any deeper, Arv, or we may foul our rotors. Hover here, while Bud and I go down the rest of the way in our suits.”
They donned their hydrolung gear of black plastic with torpedo-shaped drive jets in back and antennaed hoods. Each boy took a tank of elec-THE LAKE MONSTER 143
trogel under one arm and started out through the ship’s air lock.
“All set, chum?” Tom asked by sonarphone.
“Right with you, fish-boy!” Bud chuckled. “This’ll be like diving into a sea of spinach!”
Pressing their density controls, they started downward, groping their way among the weeds. Their suit lights shed yellow cones of radiance through the gloomy water.
“We’re in a regular jungle down here,” Tom reported to the students on shore. “No signs of fish or any other underwater life, except the plant growth. The lake inlet should be directly below us.”
Moments later he went on, “Yes, I think I can see it now-a good-sized opening. Looks like a vertical channel about ten feet in diameter, straight down through bedrock.”
Bud’s voice cut in sharply over the sonarphone. “Tom! Over there-look!”
Tom turned his head. Through the murky waters he could make out a weird form. “Good night! It’s the lake monster!”
A babble of excited queries came over the sonarphone, both from the Sea Hound and the students on shore.
“Can’t see it too well,” Tom reported slowly. “Four limbs, I think… . Yes… .
Seems to be scaly… . Two large round eyes… . Doesn’t seem aggressive-just watching so far… . Luck-144 POLAR-RAY DYNASPHERE
ily there’s a fair amount of jungle growth between us if-if-”