"You mean in hopes of getting us to reveal whether or not we have an antidetection system ourselves?" As his father nodded, Tom scowled. "If so, that sub yesterday may have been observing our tests."
The telephone rang and Tom leaped to answer it. The caller was Dan Perkins of the Shopton Evening Bulletin.
"You can guess why I'm calling, Tom," the editor said. "How about a statement from you Swifts on this Brungarian sub story?"
"We found it very interesting," Tom said politely but noncommittally. Parrying further questions, he hung up as soon as possible.
Mr. Swift approved Tom's policy of silence. Almost immediately the phone began ringing again with a succession of calls from other newspapers and wire services. Tom dashed off a brief, general statement and instructed Miss Trent to give it to all further callers.
"Maybe this is a good time to make a private announcement to you fellows," Mr. Swift said to the two boys, his eyes twinkling. "Do you recall my telling you that Doc Simpson had isolated an unknown vitamin from the space plants? Well, we've now discovered that this vitamin can condition the human body to stay under water indefinitely. Doc is putting some up in capsule form."
Both Tom and Bud gave whoops of glee at this news.
"Dad, you've helped overcome one of the big problems in our search for the lost missile!" Tom exclaimed.