Half an hour later, the girls and Bud were talking to a pleasant young doctor who had just finished examining Tom.
“He definitely was drugged,” the doctor told them, “but his respiration is normal, and he seems in good shape, so we’ll let him sleep it off. By tomorrow he should be right as rain.”
Inspector Raeburn arrived before they left.
“Good thing you thought of that radio signal, Miss Swift. The crate would have been loaded aboard ship this evening. By midnight she’d have been out of the Thames, bound for Calais.”
“Any clues to the shipper?” Bud asked.
“Not yet. The name given was false.” The inspector shot Bud a shrewd glance. “Do you know of anyone with a grudge against Tom Swift?”
“How about that guy Carlow who accused us of faking our ocean crossing?”
Bud suggested. “Oh yes, we found out his name,” Bud said in answer to the inspector’s look of surprise. “Do you think he’s mixed up in this?”
Raeburn nodded. “First man we thought of. However, his hotel says he checked out this morning to return to the States.”
THE UNDERSEA MESA 77
Next morning Tom was completely recovered. When Bud and the girls got to the hospital, they found him up and dressed, talking to Inspector Raeburn.
“Tell us what happened, Tom,” Bud begged.
Tom recounted how the two fake van men had come to his room and knocked him out. He also told about the man in the lobby. “He probably heard everything I told the desk clerk about the truck coming to pick up the wax figure,”
Tom went on. “Then he phoned his accomplices and arranged everything while I was eating lunch.”
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