“It’s a wonder they don’t begin shooting,” mused Tom. “A crowd of men like that, with two of them masked, won’t stop at shooting. Maybe I’d better get down a bit.”
He had been standing up in the boat, the better to make adjustments to the motor, but now, as he thought of the possibility of being fired upon, he crouched down to give less of a target to the men.
This move of his seemed to be misinterpreted by the pursuers, for one of them cried:
“There he goes overboard! One of you take after him!” This was shouted by one of the masked men, whose identity Tom Swift could only guess at, though he judged all of them to be some of his enemies.
But the young inventor had no intention of jumping out of the boat to swim for safety. He knew he would soon be overtaken and captured. His only chance lay in beating the scoundrels in a race. Besides, he was in no physical condition to endure a long swim. He had been in a most uncomfortable, cramped position all night, and the exertion of filing off the chain and going through the tunnel to emerge on Barn Door Island had tired him. He had had no breakfast, and this lack was now beginning to make itself felt more than at first.
But as he crouched down in the boat, where only a small part of his body showed above the rail, he remembered that he had in his pocket some chocolate candy. He had bought it the night before on his trip to town.
“I’ll make a breakfast on that,” mused Tom.
So as he crouched there in the boat he reached into his pocket, got out the cake of chocolate, and began to nibble it. In a few minutes he felt decidedly better. That “gone” feeling had left his stomach, and he began to relish, rather than fear, the outcome of the impending struggle.
The pursuit had started at the end of the lake where there was no town or other settlement, but at the pace it would not be more than half an hour before he would sight his home town.
For a few moments after the wild chase began Tom could hear the men in the other boat shouting after him: