“It certainly sounds so,” Tom replied. “Was the place robbed?”
“It sure was. I’ll put a couple of the men on to tell you about the attack.”
An alert-looking man in khaki work clothes stepped into view. “I’m an engineer on this job,” he began. “Jerry Wilson’s the name. We’re working on a natural-gas pipe line. Our men were spread out over an area of about a square mile. It was nine o’clock your time when we blacked out. Last thing I remember I was watching some of the men join two sections of pipe.”
“Didn’t you feel anything at all?” Tom asked.
“Absolutely nothing,” Wilson answered.
A PIRATE RAID 43
“Did you see or hear anything?” Tom went on.
“Let’s see now. Yes, I vaguely remember hearing the noise of a jet plane just before I blacked out.”
Elheimer introduced another man. He gesticulated wildly as he shouted: “We’ve been robbed! I had the crew’s pay for a month-nearly fifty thousand dollars-and it’s gone! The money was flown in from Santa Fe not more than an hour ago.”
“And no trace of it?” Tom asked.
“Not one. Every worker was unconscious, so it couldn’t have been an inside job,” the paymaster replied. “We’ve had plenty of robberies out here but this one’s got us beat.”
Elheimer interrupted to say that State Patrol officers were arriving by helicopter and he must sign off. He would let the Swifts know of any further developments.
“Well, mastermind,” Bud said to Tom, “how are you going to figure this one out? It kind of knocks your theory about submarine pirates right up with the birdies.”