“Stop!” the young inventor shouted.
The fugitive paid no attention to the command. As Tom narrowed the gap, he realized that the man probably had a car parked on the side road and hoped to make a getaway in it.
A minute later there was the roar of a motor. A 26 TOM SWIFT AND HIS JETMARINE
car hidden among the trees was starting up as Tom dashed out of the woods.
Tom hurled himself at the rear bumper. At the same moment the driver, applying frantic acceleration, spun the rear wheels. Dirt and leaves were flung into the young inventor’s face. He missed the bumper by inches and lay panting on the ground as the car bounced onto the road and raced off.
“Tom, Tom, are you hurt?” Sandy cried, running up and bending over her brother.
“Nothing but a face full of mud,” he replied ruefully. “The worst of it is, I didn’t see the license plate of that sneak thief. Well, we may as well return the dogs to the kennel.”
After locking them up, Tom and his sister walked slowly back to the house, discvissing the eventful day. Uncle Ned’s capture; Tom’s and Sandy’s narrow escapes; the run-in with Sidney Dansitt; the finding and losing of the dog’s-head coin; the theft of the submarine sketches; and now the fleeing thief.
The next morning at breakfast Tom was still on the subject.
“I’m sure there’s a tie-in between the place where Uncle Ned is and that stolen dog’s-head coin,” he told his father. “I’ll bet the thief who was here last night is one of the pirates!”
“You mean if he were Dansitt, the student is a pirate?” Mr. Swift asked.