“Hmm. And the machine is still turned on,” Tom remarked thoughtfully.
Presently the gunfire died away as the Sea Hound flew off and submerged, in accordance with Tom’s orders, to await the hydronauts’ return.
“Those two guards will be coming back, skipper,” Arv said. “We’d better get set for them!”
Tom issued quick orders. “Bud, you and Carlow get back on your chairs.
We’ll fix the ropes to look as if you’re still tied-just in case the guards glance through the window before they come in. Arv and I will stand behind the door.”
A few minutes later the door opened and the two guards walked in unsuspectingly. Tom and Arv pounced on them. Bud and Carlow promptly threw off their ropes and joined the fray. In a second the guards were overpowered and disarmed.
Tom recognized one of them immediately. “He’s the guy who posed as that reporter, Venuto Giraud, and later arranged to have me kidnapped in London,”
Tom said to his friends.
Bud chuckled at the furious Giraud. “Tables turned, eh?”
176 AQUATOMIC TRACKER
Just as they finished tying the prisoners’ hands to the chairs, the telephone rang. “You answer it,” Tom said to the fake reporter.
The man started to refuse sullenly. But his expression changed as Bud applied a painful grip to his arm. “You heard what my friend said, pal-get moving!”
The man, his hands still tied, was released from the chair and marched to the telephone under Bud’s persuasive grip. Tom lifted the phone from its cradle and held it up to the prisoner.
“Krajenko here.”
Vaxilis’ voice replied curtly, “What has happened up there? I can hear no more gunfire over our listening equipment at the surface.”
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