“We don’t know yet,” Tom said grimly.
At this moment the guard who had been stationed on the beach ran up excitedly.
“Come quick!” he shouted. “Someone’s crying for help in the surf.”
The three raced in the direction toward which he was pointing.
“I’ll bet it’s the man I stationed in the boat,” Tom said. “The blast probably knocked him out of it.”
He and Bud could now hear the anguished cries of the struggling swimmer.
They plunged into the surf and in a few minutes were beside the bobbing head of the guard.
“I’ll tow him in,” Bud offered, and with powerful strokes guided the man toward the beach.
The boys carried him out of reach of the combers and waited a few moments until the man could catch his breath.
“What happened?” Tom asked him.
The guard related that he had seen a prowling submarine. He had just started to broadcast a warning to Tom when he had been hurled from the skiff by the backwash of the explosion.
THE SHAKEDOWN RUN 117
“Did you see where the blast was?” Bud asked eagerly.
“Yes,” the man replied, pointing up the shore. “It hit there.”
“I’ll go up pronto,” Bud offered.
“And I’ll go with you,” Tom declared, “as soon as we get this chap back to the hut.” The swimmer was shaking like a leaf from his cold plunge.
The two boys carried the man to the hut, arriving just as a squad car pulled up. Police Chief Slater and another officer hopped out. Tom introduced himself and Bud.
The police chief was excited. “I thought we might get some fireworks around here after what you told me yesterday,” he said. “But I didn’t expect an atomic bomb! Where was the explosion?”
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