第36章

THE SERPENT WEED

All waited eagerly for Tom Swift to verify the statement of the other mathematician, and the young inventor was not long in doing this, for he had what is commonly known as a "good head for figures.""Yes, I see the mistake," said Tom."The wrong logarithm was taken, and of course that threw out all the calculations.I should say we were nearer three miles off our supposed location than two miles.""Does that mean," asked Mr.Damon, "that we began a search for the wreck of the Pandora three miles from the place Hardley told us she was"That's about it," Tom said."No wonder we couldn't find her." "What are you going to do?" Ned wanted to know.

"Get to the right spot as soon as possible and begin the search there," Tom answered."You see, before we submerged as nearly as possible at the place where we thought the Pandora might be on the ocean bottom.From there we began making circles under the sea, enlarging the diameter each circuit.

"That didn't bring us anywhere, as you all know.Now we will start our series of circles with a different point as the center.It will bring us over an entirely different territory of the ocean floor.""Just a moment," said Ned, as the conference was about to break up."Is it possible, Tom, that in our first circling that we covered any of the ground which we may cover now? I mean will the new circles we propose making coincide at any place with the previous ones"They won't exactly coincide," answered the young inventor."You can't make circles coincide unless you use the same center and the same radius each time.But the two series of circles will intersect at certain places.""I guess intersect is the word I wanted," admitted Ned."What's the idea?" Tom wanted to know.

"I'm thinking of Hardley," answered his chum."He might assert that we purposely went to the wrong location with him to begin the search, andif we afterward find the wreck and the gold, he may claim a share." "Not much he won't!" cried Tom.

"Bless my check book, I should say not!" exclaimed Mr.Damon."Hardley broke off relations with us of his own volition," said Tom.

"He 'breached the contract,' as the lawyers say.It was his own doing.

"He has put me to considerable expense and trouble, not to say danger.He was aware of that, and yet he refused to pay his share.He accused me of incompetence.Very well.That presuggested that I must have made an error, and it was on that assumption that he said I did not know my business.Instead of giving me a chance to correct the error, which he declared I had made, he quit--cold.Now he is entitled to no further consideration.

"An error was made--there's no question of that.We are going to correct it, and we may find the gold.If we do I shall feel I have a legal and moral right to take all of it I can get.Mr.Hardley, to use a comprehensive, but perhaps not very elegant expression, may go fish for his share.""That's right!" asserted Mr.Damon.

"I guess you're right, Tom," declared Ned."There's only one more thing to be considered.""What's that?" asked the young inventor.

"Why, Hardley himself may find out in some way that we were barking up the wrong tree, so to speak.That is, learn we started at the wrong nautical point.He may get up another expedition to come and search for the gold and--""Well, he has that right and privilege," said Tom coolly."But I don't believe he will.Anyhow, if he does, we have the same chance, and a better one than he has.We're right here, almost on the ground, you might say, or we shall be in half an hour.Then we'll begin our search.If he beats us to it, that can't be helped, and we'll be as fair to him as he was to us.This treasure, as I understand it, is available to whoever first finds it, now that the real owners, whoever they were, have given it up.""I guess you're right there," said Mr.Damon."I'm no sea lawyer, but I believe that in this case finding is keeping.""And there isn't one chance in a hundred that Hardley can get anothersubmarine here to start the search," went on Tom."Of course it's possible, but not very probable.""He might get an ordinary diving outfit and try," Ned suggested.

"Not many ordinary divers would take a chance going down in the open sea to the depth the Pandora is supposed to lie," Tom said."But, with all that, we have the advantage of being on the ground, and I'm going to make use of that advantage right away."He gave orders at once for the M.N.1 to proceed, and this she did on the surface.It was decided to steam along on the open sea until the exact nautical position desired was reached.This position was the same Mr.Hardley had indicated, but that position was not before attained, owing to an error in the calculations.

As all know, to get to a certain point on the surface of the ocean, where there is no land to give location, a navigator has to depend on mathematical calculations.The earth's surface is divided by imaginary lines.The lines drawn from the north to the south poles are called meridians of longitude.They are marked in degrees, and indicate distance east or west of the meridian of, say, Greenwich, England, which is taken as one of the centers.The degrees are further divided into minutes and seconds, each minute being a sixtieth of a degree and each second, naturally, the sixtieth of a minute.