This, too, was vetoed on the grounds that a shrewd espionage agent would guess that such a valuable prize would never be entrusted to a slow and vulnerable method of transport.

“Then what about an air flight?” Hank Sterling suggested.

“Brand my six-guns, that’d be jest beggin’ to git yourself shot down!” Chow fumed.

“Not if we used a plane like the Sky Queen, equipped with jet lifters,” Hank argued.  “If any hijack planes jumped us, they’d have to let us come down safely in order to get their hands on Exman.  We could land on the water or just hover while they made the transfer.”

“And after they had it safe aboard their own plane, they’d blast yours to smithereens!” Chow retorted.

Tom, too, thought a plane flight unwise, but for different reasons.  It might look suspicious to the Brungarians after the Swifts had been warned by one aerial hijack attempt.  Also, they might be deterred by fear of war, thinking that the United States Air Force would doubtless be alerted to the possibility of attack.

“So right,” Ames agreed.  After a thoughtful pause, he added, “Tom, what about transporting Exman by submarine?  We know that every spy apparatus in this hemisphere is constantly trying to probe what goes on at Fearing Island, where our subs are based.”

“No doubt about that,” Tom conceded.

“So,” Ames continued, “any move to Fearing would certainly make the Brungarian agents prick up their ears.  Their own spy subs probably would come prowling around the island and detect the departure of a Swift sub.  And they might feel that an undersea hijack attempt would be a fairly safe gamble.”

The others looked thoughtful, then slowly nodded in agreement.  Ames’s reasoning sounded highly logical.

“Tom, you’ll insist on going, I suppose,” Mr. Swift said somberly.

“Of course, Dad.  After all, the kidnap plan was my own idea,” Tom replied.  “Another thing I’ll insist on is that you don’t go.  We have Mother and Sandy to think of, and it’s not right that both of us risk our necks.”

Realizing that it was hopeless to dissuade his son, and realizing the basic fairness of Tom’s position, Mr. Swift did not argue.  Bud, Hank, Chow, and Arv immediately volunteered to accompany the young inventor on his dangerous mission.

Tom gratefully accepted their help.  He asked all hands to assemble on the Enterprises airfield at six the next morning for the flight to Fearing.

After the others had left, Tom and his father resumed their experiments with Exman.  Mr. Swift suggested adding a device to the radio equipment to make it disintegrate if tampered with.  “Before those rebel Brungarians can learn the secret of your electronic spy.”

“Good idea, Dad.  And how about our doing the job with Swiftonium?” This was an unusual radioactive ore which Tom had discovered in South America.

Mr. Swift nodded as he began work.