d slumped over on the bench that ran around three sides of
the room.

"Are we free?" cried Mr. Hardley.

"We have come loose from the mud bank," said Tom quietly. "By boring
into it the hole was enlarged sufficiently to enable us to pull loose.
There is no more danger!"

His announcement was received in momentary silence, and then Ned
exclaimed:

"Hurray!"

"Bless my accident policy!" voiced Mr. Damon.

Mr. Hardley appeared dazed, and then, as the submarine was again moving
through the water, seemingly none the worse for the accident, the gold
seeker approached Tom Swift.

"I want to apologize, Mr. Swift, for my actions and words," said Mr.
Hardley frankly. "I admit that I lost my head. But it's my first trip
in a submarine."

"I realize that," said Tom, equally frank, "and we'll forget all about
it. It was a strain on you--on all of us--though there really was no
very great danger. Now, are you game enough to continue the trip?"

"Try me!" exclaimed the adventurer. "You won't find me acting so like a
baby again."

Nor did he, even when the craft reached the open ocean and went down to
a considerable depth, where, had any accident occurred, there would
have been grave danger to all. But Mr. Hardley seemed to enjoy it.

"Maybe I've misjudged him," Tom said to Ned, when they were getting
ready to go back.

"It's possible," agreed the financial manager. This trial, which so
nearly ended disastrously, was only one of several. No damage resulted
from the collision with the river mud bank, and that trip and the ones
following gave Tom some new ideas in interior construction which he
followed out.

About a month later all was ready for the trip to the West Indies to
look for the ill-fated Pandora. Tom's affairs were put in shape, the
submarine was laden with stores and provisions, the new diving bell and
other wonderful apparatus were put aboard, and the crew and officers
picked. Ned, Mr. Damon, Koku, and Tom were, of course, together, and
though Mr. Hardley was a stranger, he seemed to become more friendly as
the days passed.

"Well, we start in the morning," said Tom to Ned one evening. "I'm
going over to tell Mary goodbye."

"Give her my regards," requested Ned, and Tom said he would.

CHAPTER X

STARTLING REVELATIONS

"Oh, Tom! And so you are really ready to start on that perilous trip!"
exclaimed Mary Nestor, a little later that same evening, when Tom
called at Mary's house in his speedy