122 TOM SWIFT AND HIS JETMARINE
For minutes Bud stood fascinated, watching schools of mackerel, blues, and other coastal fish scoot through the yellow-green water as the Sea Dart passed by them.
“I’m going to give her a high-speed run right now!” Tom called, and Bud quickly joined his friend midships.
A quick release of the cadmium rods and the jetmarine shot ahead. Tom’s hand moved slowly forward against the second bank of rods. Faster and faster and with no vibration the Sea Dart picked up momentum.
The speed indicator went higher and higher. Finally Bud exclaimed, “This is almost twice as fast as anyone has traveled underseas before!”
Tom’s face creased into a pleased grin.
After sustaining the same speed for fifteen minutes, he said: “Now comes the most important test. She’s passed her first dive and underwater run. But how will she surface?”
As Tom inched the gear to the Up position, a look of strained anticipation appeared on the two adventurers’ faces.
CHAPTER 15
1
UNDERSEA FIREWORKS
WITH THE SAME smooth performance that she had shown in her dive, the atomic sub responded to her young skipper’s control and nosed upward in a seemingly effortless glide.
“What a dream!” Bud murmured enthusiastically. “I can hardly wait now to take her out into really deep water so that we can submerge to where no man has ever been.”
“Yes,” Tom replied, “I even hope to solve the mystery of the phantom bottom.”
Bud scratched his head and was about to query Tom when the young inventor continued:
“But first we have to locate the Spray Cloud.”