“He’s still over here?” Tom asked in surprise.
“You mean you don’t know he crashed?” Mr. Foster exclaimed, amazed.
Tom explained that he and Bud had been blacked out, then said they would look for Chilcote. Mr. Foster pointed out the direction where the plane had gone down and the boys hurried across the marshy shore front to where Tom’s stolen jet lay, half in the water and half on land.
While coming in for a landing on the sandy runway, the plane apparently had swerved off the beach. The jet upended and flipped over on its back.
“What could have gone wrong?” Bud asked.
Tom thought that perhaps the pulsator had been jarred loose from its safety catch and had swung around on its pivot, knocking the pirate unconscious.
Reaching the damaged plane, Tom forced open the door. Chilcote lay face down, unconscious. The boys lifted him onto the sandy shore.
“The pulsator was put out of commission in the crash,” Bud said. “And a good thing, too.”
Tom quickly examined Chilcote but could find no injuries except a bump on his forehead. In a few minutes the man revived and looked around. Seeing his captors, the scientist grew sullen and cursed his ill fortune.
The boys rowed him across the channel. He was put into one of the vacant cells and Mr. Foster said he would remain on guard.
“Now for Dansitt,” Bud said grimly.
102 TOM SWIFT AND HIS JETMARINE
He and Tom made their way with Mr. Swift and Ned Newton to the beach and scanned the ocean with binoculars they had picked up in Chilcote’s laboratory.
“The Sea Dart ought to be here soon,” said Tom. Minutes went by, then suddenly he shouted, “I see something!”