TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH
OR
The Treasure on the Floor of the Atlantic

BY
VICTOR APPLETON

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

    I  UNTOLD MILLIONS

   II  A STRANGE OFFER

  III  THINKING IT OVER

   IV  AGAINST HIS WILL

    V  BUSY DAYS

   VI  MARY'S ODD STORY

  VII  THE TRIAL TRIP

 VIII  THE MUD BANK

   IX  READY TO START

    X  STARTLING REVELATIONS

   XI  BARTON KEITH'S STORY

  XII  IN DEEP WATERS

 XIII  THE SEA MONSTER

  XIV  IN STRANGE PERIL

   XV  TOM TO THE RESCUE

  XVI  GASPING FOR AIR

 XVII  WHERE IS IT?

XVIII  A SEPARATION

  XIX  THE SERPENT WEED

   XX  THE DEVIL FISH

  XXI  A WAR REMINDER

 XXII  STUDYING CURRENTS

XXIII  AN UNDERSEA COLLISION

 XXIV  THE TREASURE SHIP

  XXV  THE STEEL BOX

TOM SWIFT AND HIS UNDERSEA SEARCH

CHAPTER I

UNTOLD MILLIONS

"Tom, this is certainly wonderful reading! Over a hundred
million dollars' worth of silver at the bottom of the ocean! More
than two hundred million dollars in gold! To say nothing of fifty
millions in copper, ten millions in--"

"Say, hold on there, Ned! Hold on! Where do you get that stuff;
as the boys say? Has something gone wrong with one of the adding
machines, or is it just on account of the heat? What's the big
idea, anyhow? How many millions did you say?" and Tom Swift, the
talented young inventor, looked at Ned Newton, his financial
manager, with a quizzical smile.

"It's all right, Tom! It's all right!" declared Ned, and it
needed but a glance to show that he was more serious than was his
companion. "I'm not suffering from the heat, though the
thermometer is getting close to ninety-five in the shade. And if
you want to know where I get 'that stuff' read this!"

He tossed over to his chum, employer, and friend--for Tom Swift
assumed all three relations toward Ned Newton--part of a Sunday
newspaper. It was turned to a page containing a big illustration
of a diver attired in the usual rubber suit and big helmet,
moving about on the floor of the ocean and digging out boxes of
what was supposed to be gold from a sunken wreck.

"Oh, that stuff!" exclaimed Tom, with a smile of disbelief as
he saw the source of Ned's information. "Seems to me I've read
something like that before, Ned!"

"Of course you have!" agreed the young financial manager of the
newly organized Swift Construction Company. "It isn't anything
new. This wealth of untold millions has been at the bottom of the
sea for many years--always increasing with nobody ever spending a
cent of it. And since the Great War this wealth has been
enormously added to because of the sinking of so many ships by
German submarines."

"Well, what's that got to do with us, Ned?" asked Tom, as he
looked over some blue prints and other papers on his desk, for
the talk was taking place in his office. "You and I did our part
in the war, but I don't see what all this undersea wealth has to
do with us. We've got our work cut out for us if we take care of
all the new contracts that came in this week."

"Yes, I know," admitted Ned. "But I couldn't help calling your
attention to this article, Tom. It's authentic!"

"Authentic? What do you mean

"Well, the man who wrote it went to the trouble of getting from
the ship insurance companies a list of all the wrecks and lost
vessels carrying gold and silver coin, bullion, and other
valuables. He has gone back a hundred years, and he brings it
right down to just before the war. Hasn't had time to compile
that list, the article says. But without counting the vessels the
Germans sank, there is, in various places on the bottom of the
ocean today, wrecks of ships that carried, when they went down,
gold, silver, copper and other metals to the value of at least
ten billions of dollars!"

Tom Swift did not seem to be at all surprised by the explosive
emphasis with which Ned Newton conveyed this information. He
gazed calmly at his friend and manager, and then handed the paper
back.

"I haven't time to look at it now," said Tom. "But is there
anything new in the story? I mean has any of the wealth been
recovered lately--or is it in a way to be?"

"Yes!" exclaimed Ned. "It is! A company has been formed in
Japan for the purpose of using a new kind of diving bell,
invented by an American, it seems. The inventor claims that in
his machine he can go down deeper than ever man went before, and
bring up a lot of this lost ocean wealth."

"Well, every so often an inventor, or some one who calls
himself that, crops up with a new proposal for cleaning up the
untold millions on the floor of the Atlantic or the Pacific,"
replied Tom. "Mind you, I'm not saying it isn't there. Everybody
knows that hundreds of ships carrying gold and silver have gone
down in storms or been sunk in war. And some of the gold and
silver has been recovered by divers--I admit that. In fact, if
you recall, my father and I perfected a new style diving dress a
few years ago that was successfully used in getting down to a
wreck off the Cuban coast. A treasure ship went down there, and I
believe they recovered a large part of the gold bullion--or
perhaps it was silver.

"But this diving bell stunt isn't new, and it hasn't been
successful. Of course a man can go down to a greater depth in a
thick iron diving bell than he can in a diving suit. That's
common knowledge. But the trouble with a diving bell is that it
can't be moved about as a man can move about in a diving suit.
The man in the bell can't get inside the wreck, and it's there
where the gold or silver is usually to be found."

"Can't they blow the wreck apart with dynamite, and scatter the
gold on the bottom of the ocean?" asked Ned.

"Yes, they could do that, but usually they scatter it so far,
and the ocean currents so cover it with sand, that it is
impossible ever to get it again. I admit that if a wreck is blown
apart a man in a diving bell can perhaps get a small part of it.
But the limitations of a diving bell are so well recognized that
several inventors have tried adjusting movable arms to the bell,
to be operated by the man inside."

"Did they work?" asked Ned.

"After a fashion, yes. But I never heard of any case where the
gold and silver recovered paid for the expenses of making the
bell and sending men down in it. For it takes the same sort of
outfit to aid the man in the diving bell as it does the diver in
his usual rubber or steel suit. Air has to be pumped to him, and
he has to be lowered and raised."

"Well, isn't there any way of getting at this gold on the floor
of the ocean?" asked Ned, his enthusiasm a little cooled by the
practical "cold water" Tom had thrown.

"Oh, yes, of course there is, in a way," was the answer of the
young inventor. "Don't you remember how my father and I, with Mr.
Damon and Captain Weston, went in our submarine, the Advance, and
discovered the wreck of the Boldero?"

"I do recall that," admitted Ned.

"Well," resumed Tom, "there was a case of showing how much
trouble we had. An ordinary diving outfit never would have
answered. We had to locate the wreck, and a hard time we had
doing it. Then, when we found it, we had to ram the old ship and
blow it apart before we could get inside. Even after that we just
happened to discover the gold, as it were. I'm only mentioning