Tom nosed the amphibian into a steep but careful descent toward the surface of the water. Luckily the wind had abated and the waves were not high.
As soon as the ship was water-borne, Tom began taxiing in the direction of the lights. Moments later, the lights suddenly vanished.
“Hey! What gives?” Bud cried out in alarm.
It was an unpleasant sensation, moving through the inky darkness with no longer even a pinpoint of light as a guide. Overhead, too, all was dark except for a faint moonglow glimmering through the clouds in one part of the sky.
Again Tom probed the darkness with the plane’s radar. At first the sweep detected nothing.
38 COSMIC ASTRONAUTS
But presently the scope revealed a huge object dead ahead.
“Might be an iceberg!” Bud exclaimed.
Throwing caution to the winds, Tom switched on the amphibian’s powerful searchlights. Sure enough, in the blazing glare, a massive glittering iceberg lay jutting up from the water directly in their course! Within seconds, they would have crashed into it.
Tom gunned the engines and hauled back on the stick. The amphibian soared aloft, barely clearing the huge berg.
“Good night! What a close squeak!” Tom mopped the cold beads of perspiration that had burst out on his forehead.
Even Felix Wong’s voice sounded strained as he murmured, “For a moment I feared we were about to meet our honorable ancestors sooner than expected!”
“What I don’t understand is why the radarscope didn’t pick the doggone thing up sooner,” Bud complained.
“Let’s just be thankful we did spot it in time,” Tom said.
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