Tom allowed the craft to drift its length before he headed it back to the right bank. His heart was pounding as he felt the submarine gently touch the rock again.
“Nothing ahead now,” Bud called. “We must be almost in there!”
“Don’t be too sure,” Tom warned him.
He had hardly finished saying this when Bud shouted, “Tom, a submarine net! It’s right in front of us.”
Tom halted the jetmarine and went forward to take a look himself. A heavy cable made of thick wire barred his passage up the channel.
“They probably slipped this into place after the Devilfish went in,” Bud said.
“Exactly,” Tom said. “But it won’t stop us. Get me the undersea cutting equipment while I put on a Fat Man,” he requested.
“That will be my assignment,” Bud insisted. He wriggled into one of the escape suits and picked up the cutting torch in his pantograph hands. Tom saluted his friend and ushered him into the compression chamber.
A few minutes later Bud was on the sloping bottom, walking cautiously toward the cable net. In an-PERILOUS WATERS 181
other few moments flames shot to the tip of the cutter and Bud nipped through the heavy wire as easily as if it had been a spider web.
He returned to the Sea Dart, doffed his Fat Man, and took his station in the window of the bow.
“Okay, Tom, I guess we can proceed.”
Tom moved slowly ahead, clearing the sunken net skillfully. Once through, he halted his craft again. The transducer detected the Devilfish not far ahead of them.
“That’s all I have to know,” Tom remarked. “They do have an underwater and underground hideout. I’m going to come up a bit and raise the periscope to take one quick look at this!”