to hear that the time for the launching had been moved up. Mrs. Swift was very quiet and Tom knew she was fighting tears. He put his arm around her.
“Don’t worry, Momsy,” he said, using his childhood name for her. “I’ll be back before you get used to my being away.”
“Be careful, son, and good luck,” she managed to answer. Then, with a faint smile, she added, “We’ll meet you in San Francisco. You know I don’t like speed, but the Sky Queen is going to make the West Coast in less than two hours so we can be there when you come down.”
Chow, who had been standing by, lifted his eyebrows. “Well, brand my geography lessons, I thought you were figurin’ on goin’ clean ‘round the world, Tom-not landin’ a couple o’ thousand air miles or more from here.”
“I’ll circle the globe, all right,” Tom said. “But don’t forget that while I’m traveling, the earth will be turning at the rate of over a thousand miles an hour.”
“You mean,” the cook asked, “that in a little while San Francisco will be here?”
“That’s about it. So actually Bud and I will start and stop at this point.”
Chow consulted his watch and grinned. “We been expressin’ along for several miles while we been standin’ still an’ talkin’?”
“Sure thing, Chow.”
Tom now told his family and the three Newtons that he had arranged for the rocket to be christened
164 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROCKET SHIP
and had chosen his mother to perform the honors.
“Since it wouldn’t be safe for you to get close to the Star Spear at the time of launching and break the traditional bottle on it,” he said, “I’ve arranged something else. There’s a certain button on the tracking platform for you to push. By remote control it will uncover the name and the symbol on the Star Spear.”