“I’m with you, jet boy,” Bud replied tersely.
In a few minutes the sonarscope indicated that the freighter was passing directly over the jetmarine.
“You can feel her engines pounding,” Tom said excitedly, and immediately angled the submarine sharply toward the surface. He swung her about in pursuit of the freighter, quickly closing the distance and hovering only two hundred yards astern. Then he rose to periscope depth and Bud turned on the radar.
His face muscles grew taut as he watched the screen. Suddenly he shouted: 158 TOM SWIFT AND HIS JETMARINE
“A plane! It’s on the screen, Tom! Bearing 290 degrees from us, about a mile on our portside.”
Tensely the two waited, their eyes glued on the screen to follow the plane’s approach. The next moment it dived for a blackout attack on the Jane Pitt!
“Now!” Tom cried and pressed the key of his distorter!
CHAPTER 20
BOOMERANG TACTICS
THE MOMENT the pirate plane passed, Tom surfaced and gunned the jetmarine toward the Jane Pitt. Running the submarine close along the portside, he called out through his powered megaphone:
“Ahoy, there!”
No answer. Tom’s heart sank. Could his distorter have failed to short-circuit the assault? But a moment later his fear was dispelled when a booming voice answered:
“This is Captain Jones. What can we do for you?”
“Are you all right?” Tom cried.
“Yes. Why not?”
Tom identified himself and quickly told the skipper what he suspected. The captain, completely flabbergasted by the news that his ship had just escaped attack by pirates, answered: