“This cinches itl” Tom exclaimed. “Vaxilis must be the mastermind who-”
His words were cut short by a cry from Bud. Tom whirled around just in time to see a steel partition slide down with a thud over the doorway. They were trapped in the vault!
A moment later a peephole opened in the partition. Vaxilis’ face grinned in at them!
CHAPTER XV
PRISONERS
“FORGIVE me, gentlemen, if I find the situation amusing.” Vaxilis leered at the imprisoned boys. “You see, whenever the wall section opens to this crypt, it flashes an alarm to several points around the villa-including my bedroom. A hidden microphone also picked up your voices.”
“Of all the rotten luckl” Bud muttered between clenched teeth.
Vaxilis laughed. “You would have been trapped even if no one were in the villa. This steel partition comes down automatically minutes after the vault is opened, unless the person who enters presses a concealed ‘safe’ button.”
“You don’t seem surprised,” Tom remarked.
“No, indeed,” Vaxilis replied. “Three days ago I learned from an Italian firm, of which I am a director, that the police had been making inquiries about a certain undersea lamp. Then I received a call from you-the brilliant young hydronaut in charge of salvaging the Centurion-and the per-129
130 AQUATOMIC TRACKER
son most likely to have found the lamp that was stupidly left behind. You wished to see me on a trumped-up excuse. It was not difficult to put two and two together.”
Tom clenched his fists bitterly. What a fool he had been not to realize that Vaxilis would be watching his every movel