Bud was a handsome, dark-haired youth with a well-built, supple body. He had worked with Tom at the Enterprises plant for a couple of years. Just now he was watching the radityper, an instrument which picked up and decoded radio messages. At this moment it was beamed on the Caribbean sector.
“Hi, Bud!” Tom greeted him. “Glad you’re back.” Then, looking at the clock, he said, “I’m supposed to meet Sandy at the Swift Construction airfield about now. How about coming along?”
“Sure, but what’s this about Uncle Ned?”
Tom repeated the story and Bud said, “I figured you might be needing me for a search in the Caribbean, so I came here right away.”
Tom smiled appreciatively. “Since Dad and I didn’t get a clue on our trip down there, maybe you and I will have to go. Sorry you weren’t here to search with us.”
“I might have known. A fellow would have to be swinging on the Swifts’
coattails not to be left behind,” Bud remarked, then added seriously, “Tom, we’d better get started to meet Sandy and break the news about Uncle Ned to her.”
Sandra Swift, called Sandy by her family and friends, was a year younger than her brother and an excellent pilot. Both Tom Sr. and Tom Jr. had taught her how to fly.
8 TOM SWIFT AND HIS JETMARINE
The boys left the laboratory and set off in the jeep for the commercial airfield at the old Swift Construction Company. Part of the plant there manufactured aircraft and test flights were made daily.
“A swell day for flying,” Bud remarked. “There’s nothing that can beat flying.”
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