he
young inventor, Ned, and Mr. Damon were gathered in Tom's office. "You
may satisfy yourself."

And, with Ned's help, Tom did.

There was no question but what the Pandora had sailed from a certain
port on a certain date. The official reports proved that. And that she
did carry a considerable treasure in gold was also established to the
satisfaction of Tom Swift. Because the gold was to be used for
furthering ends against one of the South American governments, the gold
shipment was not insured and, in consequence, no recovery could be made.

"Then you are satisfied, are you, Mr. Swift, that the ship, set out
with over two millions in gold on board?" asked Mr. Hardley.
"Yes, that seems to be proved," Tom admitted, and Ned nodded.
"The next thing to prove is that she foundered in a storm about
the position I am going to tell you," went on Mr. Damon's friend.

"He doesn't tell you the exact location now, Tom," explained Mr. Damon,
"because it might leak out. He'll disclose it to us as soon as we are
out of sight of land in the submarine."

"I'm willing to agree to that proposition," Tom said. "But I want to be
sure she really did sink."

This was proved to him by official records. There was no question but
that the Pandora had gone down in a big storm. And Mr. Hardley was on
board. He proved that, too, a not very difficult task, since the
official passenger list was open to inspection.

Mr. Hardley repeated his story about having overheard the exact
location of the ship a few minutes before she sank, and he also told of
the captain and several members of the ship's company having been
drowned. This, too, was confirmed.

"Then," went on Mr. Hardley, "all that remains for me to do is to
deposit at some bank my half of the expenses and await your word to go
aboard the submarine."

"I believe that is all," returned Tom. "But, on my part, it will take
some little time to fit the submarine out as I want to have her. There
are some special appliances I want to take along which will aid us in
the search for the gold, if we find the place where the Pandora is
sunk."

"Oh, we'll find that all right," declared Mr. Hardley, "if you will
only follow my directions."

Tom looked slightly incredulous, but said nothing.

Then followed busy days. The submarine Advance, which had made several
successful trips, as related in the book bearing the title, "Tom Swift
and His Submarine Boat," was hauled into dry dock and the wo