“You are coming with us?” Rakshi inquired.
“Tom Swift has kindly promised to drop me at Shankaru,” Mortlake explained.
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“Shankaru?” Rakshi’s eyes blazed. “Nahin, my friend-you are mistaken! That site is closed to pilfering foreign treasure hunters!”
“Chup raho!-Ee silent!”
Rakshi turned and found himself confronting Jahan, whose face was flushed with anger.
“Mr. Mortlake has my permission to investigate the ruins at Shankaru,” Jahan said icily. “Apologize to him at once-and never again speak with such discourtesy to a royal guest!”
Rakshi obeyed sullenly.
Tom and his crew warmed up the atomic jet and the huge plane soon took off. After a short flight from Chullagar, the ship settled down over the desolate gray-brown valley near the Lake of Kali. While Bill Harper was unloading his equipment, Tom remarked to Prince Jahan:
“It’ll take Bill a while to plant his receivers and make his soundings. Want to come along while I fly Mr. Mortlake to Shankaru? After that, I’d like to cruise over the mountains and try to spot the river that feeds this lake.”
Jahan was thrilled at the chance to view the mighty Himalayan ramparts from the air. “Parts of the range around Chogyal have never been mapped,” he told Tom. “The exact frontier is disputed by our northern neighbor.”
It was arranged that the other student engineers and Bud would remain at the lake to help Bill. Before the Queen took off, Bud drew Tom aside.
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“Something tells me you’re going to scout for more than a river,” he said.
Tom nodded. “Maybe a rocket-ship base, too.”
“Good luck, pal. And watch your step!”
Skimming over the rugged crags and valleys, Tom soon landed Mortlake at Shankaru. The only remains at the ancient site were crumbling walls and columns. Aside from a few distant herdsmen’s huts, the spot seemed deserted.
“Sure you’ll be all right here?” Tom asked.
“Quite sure, thank you,” Mortlake replied as they shook hands in farewell. “I have a tent and enough supplies for several weeks.”
“Caravans often pass by,” Prince Jahan added.
“Well, I’m leaving you a two-way radio,” Tom told the archaeologist, “so if you get in trouble, you can always contact Chullagar.”
Again the Flying Lab took off. Shankaru lay in northeastern Vishnapur, while the Lake of Kali was in the northwest. Tom decided to cruise back along a curving arc that would carry them over the heart of the soaring Chogyal range.
Tom was filled with awe at the mountain scenery. The giant peaks, glistening white with snow and ice, seemed to stretch out endlessly before them in stark majesty.
“What a sight!” Tom murmured.
“Now you can see why many of my people worship the spirits of these mountains,” Jahan replied.
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Tom nodded and dipped through cloud layers to probe the gorges, valleys, and ridges. From time to time he spotted a lonely mountaineers’ camp or village.
Otherwise, there was no sign of life.
Suddenly a whistling roar split the air! Tom jerked his head around. A glowing exhaust trail was streaking across the sky, disappearing far behind them toward the left.
“A missile!” Tom gasped. He gunned the elevator jets and the Queen zoomed upward.
Jahan’s eyes widened in fear. “Here comes another!” he cried, pointing to four o’clock.
Tom banked into a shrieking turn.
Bo-o-o-oom! A dazzling burst of fiery light filled the sky. The missile had crossed their hot exhaust trail and exploded! The Sky Queen shuddered, then steadied again on course.
Neither Tom nor Jahan spoke as the young inventor poured on speed.
Moments later, the prince murmured in relief, “A narrow squeak! … We must have intruded over the airspace of our neighbor to the north!”
Inwardly Tom was jubilant as he glanced at his flight charts. They were well south of the disputed border area. He felt sure they had drawn the missile fire for a different reason. The Sky Queen must have passed close to the enemy secret rocket-ship base!
As they flew on, Tom scanned the terrain closely. The peaks and ridges became gentler.
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Presently Tom’s eye caught the silver glint of flowing water. He swooped down and studied the scene through electronic binoculars.
“Ten to one we’ve found the water source for the Lake of Kali!”
He could see a cataract, fed by the mountain snows. It was pouring down a steep slope, only to disappear into a rocky cleft below. Tom suspected its underground flow must carry it somewhere beneath the lake. He pressed a button and an automatic aerial camera began clicking photographs.
Minutes later, the Queen landed near the poison lake. Bill Harper had just finished reading the Geophone tapes.
“Your hunch was right, Tom,” he reported. “The water wells up through a single opening near the center of the lake basin. It’s fed by an underground river channeling through the bedrock. The river must rise to lake level in the hills south of here. That’s what keeps this basin from overflowing.”
Tom’s eyes kindled with excitement. “Then I’m sure the lake can be purified!”
“How?” asked Prince Jahan.
“By vaporizing the poisonous water with a giant burning lens attached to a spaceship!”
CHAPTER XII
TIGER HUNT
TOM’S listeners stared in amazement.
“A giant burning lens in the sky?” Jahan echoed. “Surely such a thing is impossible I”
“I don’t mean a glass lens,” the young inventor said with a smile. “This one would work on electromagnetic principles.”
Before Tom could explain, a crewman came hurrying from the Sky Queen.
He was holding a large, freshly developed photograph.
“Skipper, look at this!”
Tom turned. “Oh, hi, Vic! Got those prints all ready?”
“Not quite-but here’s something odd.”
Tom took the glossy photograph. A baffled frown spread over his face. The picture had been taken with a special Swift aerial camera equipped with a telephoto device that gave tremendous magnification. It was an enlargement showing part
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of the mountain slope near the cataract. In the drifted snow strange tracks could be seen!
“Good night!” Tom muttered. “Who or what leaves tracks like these?”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” Vic replied.
“Let’s see,” Bud said eagerly, peering over Tom’s shoulder. Then he whistled. “Roarin’ rockets! Is it beast, bird, or fish?”
The marks in the snow were somewhat like the footprints of an ape. But the toes were long and clawlike and seemed to be webbed.
“They look huge,” Bud went on. “How big would they be, Vic?”
“Hard to tell,” the crewman answered. “Going by the amount of magnification, I’d guess twice as big as a man’s footprint.”
Jahan and the others peered at the photograph. A strange look came over their faces.
“Yeti tracks!” Gyong murmured.
“What’s that?” Tom asked.
“A yeti is what you in America would call an Abominable Snowman,” Prince Jahan explained.
Tom and Bud exchanged startled glances. Both had often read reports of weird, apelike creatures said to inhabit the high Himalayas. Another thought occurred to Tom. Could these be the tracks of the lake monster?
“Bud, let’s take the Skeeter and see if we can follow these prints!” he proposed.
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“Great! I’ve always wanted to meet an Abominable Snowman!” Bud gulped comically.
The Skeeter, a tiny helicopter, was carried in a hangar compartment aboard the Flying Lab. The two boys wheeled out the craft and took off, heading toward the mountain cataract.
When they reached the area, Tom skimmed low until they picked up the tracks, then followed them downward. The trail was easy to see at first, but as they approached the timber line and the snow thinned out, the strange tracks could no longer be sighted. Tom explained his idea that the creature might be the lake monster reported by local natives.
“This bears out their stories,” Bud agreed.
The Skeeter returned to the lake and the boys told of the results of their flight. Then Bill Harper reported that he had studied the other photographs of the mountain cataract. He, too, felt sure this was the source of the lake.
“You still have not told us, Tom,” Jahan said eagerly, “what you meant by a giant burning lens that works on electromagnetic principles.”
“Remember the electrostatic-field device that I demonstrated?” Tom replied.
“I told you the field can be shaped to serve as a reflector for electromagnetic radiation. Well, by lofting my device into the sun-and by shaping the field with just the right amount of curvature-I’m sure I ran
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beam down enough infrared radiation to vaporize the whole lake.”
“But, Swift Sahib, the lake is large,” said a student named Tundup. “To evaporate so much water would take vast amounts of energy.”
Tom began to jot down some quick calculations. “Let’s take five hundred watts per square centimeter as the power density I will focus on the lake surface.
Now then, assuming the volume of water in the lake to be …”
In a few moments Tom had the answer. “By a conservative estimate, I should be able to boil away all the water in about six hours.”