Using a large leaf, Bud made a cup and brought her a drink of spring water.
“If you feel like talking now, Sis,” Tom said, after she had sipped the water, “we’d like to find out exactly what happened.”
“I’m all right,” Sandy answered, breathing more normally. “But that awful man and woman”
“Start at the beginning,” Tom urged.
“All right. I’d just ridden into the woods when I noticed a car behind me. It came right onto the trail and almost bumped into my horse! He went wild and bolted off among the trees.”
“Then what?” Bud prompted as Sandy paused.
“Then a man and a woman got out of the car and came after me. I tried to make Jumper gallop away from them, but he was still frightened and reared and went in circles.”
“That gave the man a chance to pull you off the horse,” Tom prompted.
“Yes, and Jumper ran away.”
80 TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLYING LAB
“He’s home,” Tom told her. “What happened then?”
“They tied my hands and bound me to a tree. When I started to shout for help, they gagged me. I could hardly breathe.”
“They’ll pay for this!” Tom muttered. “Did they say why they were tying you up?”
“Oh, yes, the man said the Swifts had been warned about interfering in other people’s business. You hadn’t paid any attention to the warnings, and now the police were after a friend of theirs. He said maybe this would teach the Swifts a lesson.”
“The rat!” Bud burst out. “I’ll beat him to a pulp!”
“That dreadful woman was just as bad,” Sandy went on. “She said no one would ever find me, and I would starve to death!”
“What do they look like?” Tom asked.
“The man is heavy set. Has a big face but a very small chin. Ugly looking, with eyes like a pig. I don’t know what nationality.”
“And the woman?”
Sandy stood up. “Tall, reddish hair, and freckles. Sort of washed-out looking.
I’m awfully tired, Tom. Let’s go home.”
“Pronto.”
When they reached the house, Mrs. Swift and Phyl came running to meet them. They hugged Sandy and asked what had happened. After hearing the story, Mrs. Swift exclaimed:
“This must be reported at once! Tom, call headquarters.”
A THREAT COMES TRUE 81
The police captain, greatly concerned with this latest development in the Swift mystery, said he would come to the house personally to question Sandy about the details. While waiting for him, Sandy suddenly laughed.
“Mother, believe it or not, I’m hungry.”
Tom, glancing at the clock, realized that his father and Senor Berg were quite late for lunch. Mrs. Swift, sensing his thoughts, suggested that Tom phone his father. The inventor, like his son, sometimes became so absorbed in his work that he forgot about food.
“Hello, Miss Trent,” Tom said. “Dad around?”
“He went to the Flying Lab some time ago with Mr. Berg,” the secretary answered. “I’ll see if he’s there.”
A mechanic on the Flying Lab said Mr. Swift was not there, and persistent ringing of the underground-office phone brought no response. A general inquiry throughout the plant did not reveal Mr. Swift’s whereabouts, so finally Tom hung up.
After ten minutes had gone by, Tom became uneasy. Where was his father?
The threat against the Swifts might have been carried out a second time!
In the family’s town car Tom drove quickly to the plant and let himself into the underground hangar. He could hear hammering in the distance; otherwise, everything was quiet.
A quick glance into the office showed that his father was not there. Deciding to question the workmen, Tom climbed the steps to the first level of the Sky Queen, but no mechanics were there.
82 TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLYING LAB
As Tom was about to ascend the inner stairway, he suddenly became aware of a persistent ticking noise nearby. A clock? But there was no mechanical clock in the Sky Queen. The only timepieces were noiseless electronic clocks of Tom’s own design.
What was the ticking, anyway?
Tom’s eyes swept the dimly lighted area. At first he could see nothing out of the ordinary. Then he sighted a small, round object. Quickly he leaped toward it.
One glance was enough to confirm his fears. A time bomb!
CHAPTER XI
SPY HUNT
TOM KNEW that he had to act fast. Snatching the bomb, he raced down the steps, noting that the mechanism had been set to go off at one-thirty.
On the hangar floor was a large drum of lubricating oil. He dropped the bomb into it. After being saturated for a few seconds, the devilish mechanism would no longer be able to send them sky-high!
“Whew!” The young inventor whistled. “That was a close call!”
Once more Tom ascended the steps to the Flying Lab, determined to get to the bottom of this latest fiendish move by the enemy. As Tom reached the floor level of the first deck, he saw a figure staggering toward him.
“Dad, what’s the matter?” Tom cried, springing forward to assist his father down the steps and into their private office.
“II was gassedby that scoundrel Berg.”
“Berg? He’s a phony?” Tom exclaimed.
83
84 TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLYING LAB
“Yes.”
When they reached the office, Tom stepped up the air conditioner and trained one of the vents directly on his father.
“That’s better, son. I feel stronger already. Guess I’m lucky not to have passed out for good in that closet where Berg left me.”
“How long ago did he gas you? It’s one-thirty now.”
“It must have been just before one, because the men weren’t back from lunch.”
Tom told his father about the bomb, saying it must have been Berg who had set it to explode at
Snatching the bomb, Tom dashed out of the Sky Queen SPY HUNT 85
one-thirty. But why at that time? It would not have taken him that long to escape. The impostor must have planned to stay around a few minutes. Tom had a sudden idea.
“Dad, the office was open when we came in. Do you have your key?”
Mr. Swift felt in his pocket. “It’s gone!”
;Tm sure Berg took it then,” Tom said. “He hoped to find something in this office.”
Rapidly he pulled out one filing-cabinet drawer after another. It was not long before he had the answer to Berg’s intentions.
“The sketch for the Damonscope is missing!” Tom cried.
He telephoned the guard at the main entrance, asking if Berg had checked out.
“At one-twenty. And left the amulet he had on,” the guard replied. “Is something wrong?”
Tom told him what had happened.
“Did Berg leave in a car?” Tom asked.
“Yes, a taxi from Riverton.”
“You got the license number, of course.”
“I have it written downit’s 06-392,” the guard said.
“Good! It’s a clue!” Tom hung up.
As he was about to call the police, Bud knocked on the office door. Tom opened it.
“Hey, skipper, don’t inventors ever starve to death?” he said. “Your mother”
Tom interrupted and told Bud of the attack on Mr. Swift.
“Wow! Those spies are getting bolder,” the co—
86 TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLYING LAB
pilot said, and asked Mr. Swift how he was feeling now.
“Stronger. But I’ll feel much better when Berg’s in jail.”
While Tom was phoning details to Captain Rock at headquarters, Bud declared he was going after Berg himself. He asked his friend for a description of the man.
“Take a couple of plant guards with you,” Mr. Swift directed. “You may run into trouble.”
As Tom hung up, he realized that his mother was still waiting for him and his father to bring a guest home to lunch, so he hastened to inform her by telephone of the unusual circumstance, but assured her that his father was all right.
“I think we’d better have lunch in the office,” Tom said. “Chow will fix something for us.”
When Chow heard what had happened he was furious. “Brand my bones, Mr.
Swift!” he cried. “I’d like to tie that attacker o’ yours to the meanest bronc in Texas an’ let him run all the way to South America!”
The Swifts smiled at Chow’s vehemence. Then Tom asked the irate cook to prepare some lunch. While waiting, he put in a long-distance call to Sefior Ricardo at his hotel in Riverton. When the scientist heard the news, he shouted:
“Of course that Mr. Berg was an impostor! Our Sefior Berg does not fit that descriptionhe does not even wear eyeglasses.”
Upon learning that the impostor knew the password Bapcho, the senor was even more disturbed.
SPY HUNT 87
“There must be a spy among the members of Hemispak!” he cried. “I’ll take steps to correct this at once!”
Tom thought it was too late to do any good, but merely asked the senor if he had sent the telegram about a visitor coming from his country.