"Appleton, Victor - Tom Swift Jr 07 - And His Diving Seacopter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Appleton Victor)

gunned the nuclear engines into life. The huge ship rose straight up into the air,
then sped eastward to the Atlantic.
"Where are we going for the test?" asked Bud, who was seated alongside
Tom.
"About a hundred miles from shore, just beyond the continental shelf. I want
to make the test in really deep water."
"The land does slope outward pretty gradually under water," Bud agreed.
Just off the continental shelf, Tom turned the controls over to Slim. "Ease her
down and stand right over the waves," he ordered.
He and Bud, accompanied by a crewman, went to the ship's hangar where
the seacopter compartment sat in a cradle. Tom and Bud climbed in through a
round hatch at the top. When this was sealed and the boys were seated side by
side at the controls in the bow, Tom flashed a red signal light in the tail. The
crewman clicked a wall switch which controlled the hatch in the hangar's floor.
Compartment B was released from its cradle and lowered on a hydraulic winch
into the sea.
"Hang on, flyboy!" Bud chuckled as Tom nosed his small craft bottomward.
"This is some deep-sea roller coaster!"
Down, down they plunged. Outside the quartz windows of the cabin, the
greenish ocean water
THE STOLEN CODE 11
grew darker and darker. The boys watched in awe as fish of various sizes
and shapes came into view.
Finally it became so dark Tom switched on the interior lights. Reading the
depth gauge, he said, "We're a hundred fathoms down, Bud!"
"That's six hundred feet," Bud mused. "Tom, this is great! You'll revolutionize
underwater travel."
Suddenly Bud felt a spray of water against his wrist. Looking down, he
exclaimed in horror, "Tom! The cabin's leaking!"
A moment later water began to gush in at a terrifying rate!
CHAPTER 2
ESCAPE FROM THE DEEP
"BREAK OUT the diving suits!" Tom cried in alarm as water poured in along
one of the seams.
While Bud dashed to a locker to pull out the rigid, space-suit type of gear,
Tom rammed the jet power to maximum output and threw the dive control to up
position. Compartment B started toward the surface, but the water was already
several inches deep.
"We'll have to abandon ship!" Bud exclaimed, as he tossed a suit to Tom.
The young inventor had no intention of giving up yet. He had been in tight
spots before in his many hazardous adventures, beginning with a South
American trip in his Flying Lab. Recently, while building a space station, Tom had
weathered the attacks of mysterious enemies and the terrifying forces of nature.
Now, as he watched the depth gauge and the
12
ESCAPE FROM THE DEEP 13
fast-mounting water, Tom began to doubt that the compartment could rise
much farther. At any moment the flooded motors and the electrical system might
conk out.
"How long are you going to wait?" Bud cried' frantically as they clamped on