“Say, who knows about the islands in that area?” Bud asked.
“Kane has spent a lot of time around Guantanamo Bay,” Tom answered.
“Knows that whole area. I’ll call him.”
“After we’ve had some grub, please,” Bud begged.
When they reached the kitchenette in the laboratory, Chow Winkler took one look at Tom and cried, “Brand my lariat, you sure ran into a tough critter. Who was he?”
“A pirate with a bolo punch.”
“You jest don’t know how to stay out o’ trouble, do you?” The cook wagged his head.
He prepared a hearty lunch for the boys, telling Tom a good square meal was the best way to restore one’s fighting strength.
“But what do you do when it hurts to move your jaw?” Tom countered.
“You hand your plate over to me,” Bud spoke up with a grin. “Three squares a day is hardly enough to keep me up to fighting strength.”
After lunch Tom went to the videophone in his 54 TOM SWIFT AND HIS JETMARINE
laboratory and got in touch with Kane. After the young inventor had asked several questions, the telecaster said:
“I never heard of a place named Dog Island. About the closest thing to it is Cat Island.” He chuckled. “But that’s not in the region you’re referring to.”
Tom, bitterly disappointed by this information, was about to switch off the set when Kane almost shouted into the mike:
“I just remembered! There’s a narrow channel running through the middle of a small island north of Porto Madre, actually making two islands. The channel is called the Dog’s Collar!”
CHAPTER 7
IN ENEMY TERRITORY
TOM WATCHED the videophone screen intently as Kane sketched from memory a charcoal diagram of the island with the channel called Dog’s Collar.