“Boy, we’re really in a fix,” Bud said slowly.
“We’ll be in a worse one if we don’t hurry!” Tom shouted as he wheeled about. “Look at that heat gauge. The steam chambers will blow up if we don’t shut off the pile!”
Tom dashed to the control room and flipped a lever which stopped the atomic reaction.
Bud followed him, his face pale with anxiety. “How are we going to clear out those jammed intake ports so we can move the Sea Dart, Tom?”
“I’m not sure,” Tom replied slowly.
“You’re not stumped, are you?” Bud asked anxiously.
“Let me think about it for a while,” Tom replied.
Together, the boys went forward to examine the intake ports. They found them matted shut by masses of sodden green plant life.
Tom ran his fingers through his hair. “You see, Bud, what an inventor’s up against? Our atomic plant is powerful enough to propel us through this mass, but if we lack one ingredient-sea water-the jets won’t work.”
Tom pondered in silence for several minutes. Then he snapped his fingers and said:
“There are two possibilities for our escape, Bud.”
“Name them, professor,” Bud replied grimly.
142 TOM SWIFT AND HIS JETMARINE
“First, we could blow our ballast tanks and try to float up through the mass of weeds. But we’d have to use most of our oxygen to do it.”
“It would be mighty risky,” Bud reasoned.
“Right. Which leads to another proposition. I have an idea there’s enough seepage through the ports to fill our water chambers after a while. We could wait for this to happen, then start the pile, and give her one big blast of propulsion.”