Tom hurried into the shed and picked up the receiver. The speaker was Mrs.
Newton.
“I have news about Ned!” she exclaimed. “Two
94 TOM SWIFT AND HIS JETMARINE
men called here-the captain and the purser of the Nantic.”
“What did they say?” Tom asked excitedly.
“Ned’s alive but a prisoner. The-the men wouldn’t come right out and say, but I think they believe his captors are trying to get him to reveal information about your secret inventions and plans, then-then kill him!” Mrs. Newton burst into tears. “Oh, Tom, we must do something quick!”
“We will!” Tom cried. “Please try to bear up. Bud and I will be ready to leave for the Caribbean day after tomorrow, and Dad has already gone to do what he can.”
‘We caught the guard unawares.
THE MYSTERIOUS PRISONER
95
“Oh, that’s so good to hear,” Mrs. Newton said. “Tom, I almost forgot to tell you. I asked those men to come over and relate the whole story to you.”
“I’ll meet them at the gate.”
Ten minutes later Tom was escorting the ship’s officers to the waiting room in the gatehouse. They introduced themselves as Captain Wellman and Purser Hange.
“Everyone on the Nantic suddenly blacked out,” the captain reported. “But Mr. Newton, Hange, and I came to almost at once. Several men were climbing over the ship’s rail, and they began to go through the passengers’ pockets.”
That’s how we escaped.”
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“By that time,” Range took up the story, “we three were sufficiently recovered to go after those pirates. We fought them all right until reinforcements arrived and then we were overpowered.”