“What happened to us?” Bud cried out.
“I have an idea,” Tom replied, “that Dansitt dropped a gigantic link net on top of us.”
“We’ve got to get out of here!” Bud exclaimed, his eyes on the thermometer.
The red marker had risen past the danger point.
183
184 TOM SWIFT AND HIS JETMARINE
Tom quickly shut off the power. He and Bud might be suffocated by the heat, and there was also great danger that the craft itself would explode.
“We can’t even send a message out of here on our radio,” Bud moaned.
As he said this, there came a faint tapping on the hull of the Sea Dart. Tom listened carefully.
“International code,” he said, and both boys’ lips began to move.
The message was from Dansitt. Figuring it out letter by letter, they translated it:
“You are helpless, Tom Swift. We had this steel net designed especially to catch anyone who got past the mines. It will hold you at the bottom until you agree to surrender. When we lift the net, you will surface and come out of the hatch with your hands up. One false move and we will set off an explosion that will blow you and your sub out of the water.”
Bud looked discouraged. “What’s the verdict, Tom?”
“There’s no choice. We couldn’t even escape in the Fat Men with a steel net around us. By the time we might cut through it, Dansitt would capture us.”
“Then you’ll surrender?”
Tom nodded. “Perhaps we can outwit them once we’re topside.”
“I’m with you!”
Tom took a wrench and tapped out a return message on the side of the jetmarine.
“We surrender.”
While the net was being lifted from the jetmarine, SEA RAIDERS’ HIDEOUT 185