Tom smiled wryly as the others explained about the accident and his rescue.
The engineers, meanwhile, had searched feverishly for the cause of the mishap. Hanson came up with the answer-a crimp in the copper tubing had cut off the oxygen supply.
“We’d better get you right home for some rest, son,” Mr. Swift said. “You’ve had a mighty narrow escape.”
At the others’ insistence Tom spent the evening quietly, but after a good night’s sleep he was ready for further tests on the jetmarine and the distorter. To his delight, he found that the distorter had withstood the assault of both the water and the pressure perfectly.
As Bud ambled into the laboratory and was about to ask when the periscopic camera would be installed on the submarine, the videophone signal flashed on.
42 TOM SWIFT AND HIS JETMARINE
“Might be another call from Rick Dalton,” Tom remarked, walking over to the control board.
The sound came through before the picture cleared. A voice was saying excitedly:
“Hello! Hello! Tom! Come in!”
When the picture tumbled into place, it did not reveal Dalton. Instead, it was Ted Elheimer, the Swifts’ Western telecaster.
“Hi, Ted!” Tom began. “What’s all the excitement about?”
“I’m in New Mexico-in the desert!” was the tense reply. “Got a sensational story! Only two hours ago a whole construction crew of sixty men was knocked colder than a row of ice cubes! They were out for about twenty minutes.
Everybody’s wondering if there’s any connection between this mysterious attack and the ones on those ships.”