



Produced by Anthony Matonac








TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT

or

Under the Ocean for Sunken Treasure


by

VICTOR APPLETON




CONTENTS

     I  News of a Treasure Wreck
    II  Finishing the Submarine
   III  Mr. Berg Is Astonished
    IV  Tom Is Imprisoned
     V  Mr. Berg Is Suspicious
    VI  Turning the Tables
   VII  Mr. Damon Will Go
  VIII  Another Treasure Expedition
    IX  Captain Weston's Advent
     X  Trial of the Submarine
    XI  On the Ocean Bed
   XII  For a Breath of Air
  XIII  Off for the Treasure
   XIV  In the Diving Suits
    XV  At the Tropical Island
   XVI  "We'll Race You For It!"
  XVII  The Race
 XVIII  The Electric Gun
   XIX  Captured
    XX  Doomed to Death
   XXI  The Escape
  XXII  At the Wreck
 XXIII  Attacked by Sharks
  XXIV  Ramming the Wreck
   XXV  Home with the Gold




TOM SWIFT AND HIS SUBMARINE BOAT




Chapter One

News of a Treasure Wreck


There was a rushing, whizzing, throbbing noise in the air.  A great
body, like that of some immense bird, sailed along, casting a grotesque
shadow on the ground below.  An elderly man, who was seated on the
porch of a large house, started to his feet in alarm.

"Gracious goodness! What was that, Mrs. Baggert?" he called to a
motherly-looking woman who stood in the doorway.  "What happened?"

"Nothing much, Mr. Swift," was the calm reply "I think that was Tom and
Mr. Sharp in their airship, that's all. I didn't see it, but the noise
sounded like that of the Red Cloud."

"Of course! To be sure!" exclaimed Mr. Barton Swift, the well-known
inventor, as he started down the path in order to get a good view of
the air, unobstructed by the trees. "Yes, there they are," he added.
"That's the airship, but I didn't expect them back so soon. They must
have made good time from Shopton. I wonder if anything can be the
matter that they hurried so?"

He gazed aloft toward where a queerly-shaped machine was circling about
nearly five hundred feet in the air, for the craft, after swooping down
close to the house, had ascended and was now hovering just above the
line of breakers that marked the New Jersey seacoast, where Mr. Swift
had taken up a temporary residence.

"Don't begin worrying, Mr. Swift," advised Mrs. Baggert, the
housekeeper. "You've got too much to do, if you get that new boat done,
to worry."

"That's so. I must not worry. But I wish Tom and Mr. Sharp would land,
for I want to talk to them."

As if the occupants of the airship had heard the words of the aged
inventor, they headed their craft toward earth. The combined aeroplane
and dirigible balloon, a most wonderful traveler of the air, swung
around, and then, with the deflection rudders slanted downward, came on
with a rush.  When near the landing place, just at the side of the
house, the motor was stopped, and the gas, with a hissing noise, rushed
into the red aluminum container. This immediately made the ship more
buoyant and it landed almost as gently as a feather.

No sooner had the wheels which formed the lower part of the craft
touched the ground than there leaped from the cabin of the Red Cloud a
young man.

"Well, dad!" he exclaimed. "Here we are again, safe and sound. Made a
record, too. Touched ninety miles an hour at times--didn't we, Mr.
Sharp?"

"That's what," agreed a tall, thin, dark-complexioned man, who followed
Tom Swift more leisurely in his exit from the cabin. Mr. Sharp, a
veteran aeronaut, stopped to fasten guy ropes from the airship to
strong stakes driven into the ground.

"And we'd have done better, only we struck a hard wind against us about
two miles up in the air, which delayed us," went on Tom. "Did you hear
us coming, dad?"

"Yes, and it startled him," put in Mrs. Baggert. "I guess he wasn't
expecting you."

"Oh, well, I shouldn't have been so alarmed, only I was thinking deeply
about a certain change I am going to make in the submarine, Tom. I was
day-dreaming, I think, when your ship whizzed through the air. But tell
me, did you find everything all right at Shopton? No signs of any of
those scoundrels of the Happy Harry gang having been around?" and Mr.
Swift looked anxiously at his son.

"Not a sign, dad," replied Tom quickly. "Everything was all right. We
brought the things you wanted. They're in the airship. Oh, but it was a
fine trip. I'd like to take another right out to sea."

"Not now, Tom," said his father. "I want you to help me.  And I need
Mr. Sharp's help, too. Get the things out of the car, and we'll go to
the shop."

"First I think we'd better put the airship away," advised Mr. Sharp. "I
don't just like the looks of the weather, and, besides, if we leave the
ship exposed we'll be sure to have a crowd around sooner or later, and
we don't want that."

"No, indeed," remarked the aged inventor hastily. "I don't want people
prying around the submarine shed. By all means put the airship away,
and then come into the shop."

In spite of its great size the aeroplane was easily wheeled along by
Tom and Mr. Sharp, for the gas in the container made it so buoyant that
it barely touched the earth. A little more of the powerful vapor and
the Red Cloud would have risen by itself. In a few minutes the
wonderful craft, of which my readers have been told in detail in a
previous volume, was safely housed in a large tent, which was securely
fastened.

Mr. Sharp and Tom, carrying some bundles which they had taken from the
car, or cabin, of the craft, went toward a large shed, which adjoined
the house that Mr. Swift had hired for the season at the seashore. They
found the lad's father standing before a great shape, which loomed up
dimly in the semi-darkness of the building. It was like an immense
