第33章

"Koku do!" murmured the big man.Striding to the piece of machinery, the legs of which were bolted to the floor, Koku got his arms under it.Bending over, and arching his back, so as to take full advantage of his enormous muscles, the giant strained upward.

There was a cracking of bone and sinew, a rasping sound, but the machinery did not leave the floor.

"Him must come!" gasped the giant."One more go!"He took a hold lower down.Tom's eyes were dim now, and he could not see well.Some of the men were unconscious.

Then, suddenly, there was a loud, breaking sound, and something tinkled on the steel floor of the submarine engine room.It was the heads of the bolts which Koku had torn loose.Like hail they fell about the giant, and in another instant the big man had pulled loose the machine, weighing several hundreds of pounds.In another moment he shoved it across the floor, toward the elevated side of the craft.

For a second or two nothing happened.Then slowly, very slowly, theM.N.1 began to heel over.

"She's turning!" some one gasped.

An instant later, freed by this turning motion from the grip of the sand bank, the submarine shot to the surface.Up and up she went, breaking out on the open sea as a great fish darts upward from the hidden depths.

It was the work of only a few seconds for the man nearest it to open the hatch, and then in rushed the life-giving air.Tom and his companions were saved, and by Koku's strength.

"Me say him machine got to come up--him come up!" said the giant, smiling in happy fashion, when, after they had all gulped down great mouthfuls of the precious oxygen, they were talking of their experience.

"Yes, you certainly did it," said Tom, and due credit was given to Koku.

"Never again will I travel without a gyroscope," declared Tom."I'm almost ready to go back and have one installed now.""No, don't!" exclaimed the gold-seeker."We are almost at the place of the wreck.""Well, I suppose we can travel more slowly and not run a risk like that again," decided Tom."I'll put double valves on the emergency air tank, so no accident will release our supply again."This was done, after the broken valves had been repaired, and then, when the machine Koku had torn loose was fastened down again, and the submarine restored to her former condition, a consultation was held as to what the next step should be.

They were in the neighborhood of the West Indies, and another day, or perhaps less, of travel would bring them approximately to the place where the Pandora had foundered.The latitude and longitude had been computed, and then, with air tanks filled, with batteries fully charged, and everything possible done to insure success, the craft was sent on the last leg of her journey.

For two days they made progress, sometimes on the surface, and again submerged, and, finally, on the second noon, when the sun had been "shot," Tom said:

"Well, we're here!"

"You mean at the place of the wreck?" asked Mr.Hardley."At the place where you say it was," corrected Tom.

"Well, if this is the place of which I gave you the longitude and latitude, then it's down below here, somewhere," and the gold-seeker pointed to the surface of the sea.It was a calm day and the ocean was the proverbial mill pond.

"Let's go down and try our luck," suggested Tom.

The orders were given, the tanks filled, the rudders set, and, with hatches closed, the M.N.1 submerged.Then, with the powerful searchlight aglow, the search was begun.Moving along only a few feet above the floor of the ocean, those in the submarine peered from the glass windows for a sight of the sunken Pandora.

All the rest of that day they cruised about below the surface.Then theymoved in ever widening circles.Evening came, and the wreck had not been found.The search was kept up all night, since darkness and daylight were alike to those in the undersea craft.

But when three days had passed and the Pandora had not been seen, nor any signs of her, there was a feeling of something like dismay.

"Where is it?" demanded Mr.Hardley."I don't see why we haven't found it! Where is that wreck?" and he looked sharply at Tom Swift.