"Try the hydrophones, Arv, and see if you can hear 'em."
The chief modelmaker slipped on the earphones and listened intently. For
another ten or fifteen minutes they probed about with no sound trace of
the "invisible" jetmarine.
But presently Arv snapped his fingers to catch Tom's attention. "Got
her, skipper!"
Tom took over the hydrophones. Sure enough, his ears could make out the
faint hum of the jetmarine's atomic turbines. Tom directed Hank toward
the sound, then ordered him to switch on the _Sea Hound_'s powerful
search beam.
The light cut a path of radiance through the murky dark-green waters.
Dead ahead, the jetmarine could be seen gliding across their field of
view.
"Your system blinded our sonar okay, skipper," Hank commented, "but this
proves she could still be spotted by enemy listening devices."
Tom refused to be discouraged. He ordered Hank to return to base and
wait for Bud. Meanwhile, the young inventor applied himself to the
problem of how to mask the sub's noise.
"How about it, pal?" Bud asked, when he reported aboard the seacopter a
while later.
Tom explained the results of the test and the need for an added
safeguard against hydrophone detection. "Think I see a simple way out,
though," he added with a pleased chuckle.
"Natch! With a brain like yours, it's a cinch," Bud quipped.
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