“This is your Singing Merman, coming to you over the Atlantic Network. Our tortoise trio, assisted by the Ollie Octopus combo, will now render that popular Southern Blues number, ‘Away Down Yonder with Davy Jones’!”
A droning one-man rendition followed, pepped up with assorted instrument imitations. Red-faced, the captain strode to the underwater telephone and barked into the mike, “Captain Frost speaking. Who’s out there? What’s going on?”
Tom could not help laughing as he visualized the amazed reaction inside the submarine to Bud’s joke. He waved his pal to silence, then replied, “Sorry, sir. I apologize for the nonsense. This is Tom Swift Jr. and that Singing Merman you heard was my pal, Bud Barclay. We’re one day out of Fearing Island, en route to Southampton, England, in electronic hydrolung suits.”
The response from the sub was a roar of good-natured mirth. “Apology accepted-but Mer-36 AQUATOMIC TRACKER
man really had us going for a while,” the skipper said. “I’m Captain Frost of the U.S.S. Trident, out of Norfolk, bound for Scotland. Care to come aboard and visit?”
Tom declined, in order not to affect his and Bud’s underwater survival experiment. Instead, a frogman emerged from the Trident to inspect and marvel at the two hydronauts. Later, after an exchange of good wishes, the submarine proceeded on its way, heading on a somewhat more northerly course than Tom and Bud were following.
By their third day at sea, the boys felt well attuned to their fishlike existence and went to a lower depth. As they cruised along that afternoon, they noticed a sonar blip which painted almost their whole scopes but narrowed toward the top.