The sailor hesitated, then murmured, “Aye, aye, sir,” and turned to obey. But suddenly he halted as if he had spotted something on the deck. He beckoned Tom toward him and exclaimed excitedly in some foreign language.
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Tom froze for a moment, wondering how to respond. To stall for time he took a few steps closer. Too late he realized the sailor’s ruse. As Tom came within the glow of light from the radio shack, the man lunged and grabbed him!
“You are not Vaxilis!” the sailor hissed. Then he shouted: “Help! Tom Swift is escaping!”
CHAPTER XVI
A GRUESOME FOE
TOM reacted like lightning. There was no longer any chance to free Bud-at best he could only hope to fight his own way to freedom. Tom wrenched his arms loose and brought both fists up hard under the man’s jaw with a bone-cracking thud. The sailor staggered backward and fell.
The radioman had already rushed out of his shack, and other crewmen were running to the scene. Tom leaped over the rail and dived headfirst into the water!
He surfaced to tighten his mask and shove his air-lung mouthpiece between his teeth. Shouts rang out through the darkness as the Naiad reversed her engines. A moment later came a ragged volley of gunfire, and bullets began spraying the water. But Tom had submerged again and was stroking away from the yacht at high speed.
The young hydronaut was swimming in total darkness, except for occasional patches of luminescence that lighted up the water. Tom avoided 139
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these, for fear of pursuit by skin divers from the Naiad armed with spear guns.
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