Realizing that the kicker now stood exposed as he had left it, Tom stepped quietly into the corridor. Then, treading as softly as he could, he entered his private laboratory.
Gates was bending over the kicker, trying to un* screw one of the pipes with a wrench.
Tom crept toward him noiselessly, tensing every muscle for a lunge at the intruder. Suddenly Gates straightened up and stared at the kicker. In its gleam-18 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROCKET SHIP
ing surface he had seen the young inventor’s reflection!
Tom leaped forward. At the same instant Gates swung around and hurled the wrench. Its handle hit Tom above his left ear.
He pitched to the floor, unconscious!
CHAPTER 3
FOLLOWING A CLUE
“TOM MUST BE in trouble!” Bud thought, as he jumped from bed and pulled on trousers and moccasins. “That warning was from the lab!”
As Bud dashed outside, he could see guards and sleepy-eyed engineers running to various posts. In the distance he could hear the whine of powerboats.
Bud ran straight to Tom’s private workshop. There he found his friend lying limp, and for a horrifying second Bud thought that the young inventor was not breathing.
He bent down and grasped Tom’s wrist lightly in his fingers. Feeling a strong, steady pulse, he whistled softly in relief. Bud broke a vial of aromatic spirits from the first-aid cabinet in the laboratory and waved it slowly under Tom’s nose.
Within a few seconds the young inventor’s eyelids began to flicker. Bud lifted his friend onto a couch. Then Tom groaned, opened his eyes, and sat up.