“Tom,” the officer said, “there’s another clue from the pirates you might like to have. Something to do with a girl named Jane Pitt. One of them laughed and whispered to another pirate, Til certainly be glad to see her.’ “
Bud’s eyes widened. “Maybe they’re going into the kidnaping business on a big scale.”
“I don’t think it’s kidnaping this time,” Tom said. “My hunch is Jane Pitt is the name of a ship that’s going to be the pirate’s next victim.” He turned to Captain White. “Have you a ship registry on board?”
The captain said he did and hurried to the cabin. Tom followed. Quickly running down the list of ships, his finger came to the name Jane Pitt. She was of Panamanian registry and plied the sea lanes between the Caribbean and eastern Atlantic ports. Even the sea lane she traveled was given.
“If we can locate the Jane Pitt before the pirates attack-” Tom said excitedly.
“You mean face those pirates almost single-handed!” Bud cried.
“There’s no other way,” Tom declared. “And not a minute to lose, Bud. Come on!”
Captain White tried his utmost to dissuade the boys from going.
“You’ll be so outnumbered,” he insisted, “those pirates won’t have much trouble getting you out of the Caribbean-as they’ve threatened.”
156 TOM SWIFT AND HIS JETMARINE
“I’ll take that chance,” Tom replied. “The distorter is the only way to stop them. This is my big opportunity to follow the pirates to their hideout and capture them.”
The others did not argue longer. The boys said good-by and returned to the jetmarine. Once the lines were cast off, Tom headed toward the shipping lane in which the Jane Pitt would be traveling. While Bud took over the controls, Tom again sent a scrambled message to Shopton, asking Hanson to find out about the ship’s location from the company which owned it.