"And get this, skipper!" Mack Avery put in. "The other sub was
undetectable! We were close enough to get a peek at it, but we couldn't
ping it on the sonarscope."
"That figures," Tom said grimly. "Those frogmen were apparently
Brungarians."
Zimby Cox related that a man had transferred from the undetectable
submarine to the one they had been following. The first sub had then
headed out to sea, as if to cross the ocean back to its home base. The
other had departed on a course toward the South Atlantic.
"Probably back to the lost missile area. At least that's the way we
figured it," Zimby added.
"And neither sub spotted you?" Tom questioned.
Zimby grinned wryly. "We might not be here if they _had_ detected us.
But I'm pretty sure they didn't. Anyhow, they gave no sign."
Tom was doubly elated at the news. His antidetection gear had evidently
worked perfectly in a showdown test with the enemy, even at close range.
Moreover, if the second sub was returning to the South Atlantic, it
seemed likely that the enemy, too, had not yet located the precious
missile with its data from Jupiter.
"You guys rate Navy medals," Tom told Zimby and Mack jubilantly. "Come
on back to Shopton with me and I'll buy you the juiciest steaks in
town!"
Before leaving the base, Tom called the Coast Guard and the Navy to
cancel his search request.
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