Appleton, Victor – Tom Swift Jr 03 – And His Rocket Ship

It would be used up in two minutes, leaving none for the Star Spear’s. return to earth!

Tom unstrapped himself and dived aft, telling Bud to get their space suits ready in case they should need them. Yanking open the rear wall panel, Tom saw, to his dismay, that the kicker and its feed lines were a mass of twisted, melted pipes. In spite of the fuel loss involved, Tom was grateful that the automatic valve had opened and diverted the fuel around the burned-out kicker.

Otherwise, the fuel lines

AN UNEXPECTED MISHAP 181

would have been plugged up, and an explosion would have resulted.

Tom pulled on a pair of asbestos gloves. With every moment a race against possible death, he tore out the damaged pipes with one hand and reached over with the other for the spare kicker which was clamped to the wall. Sweating and panting in the stifling heat, he inserted the new piping in a matter of seconds and lessened the opening through which the solar energy was being admitted. Then he called:

“Bud, what’s happening on the gauge now?”

“It’s going down-040-038-035. It’s normal!”

Heaving a sigh of relief, Tom came back and once more strapped himself into the seat. He explained that evidently the excessive amount of solar radiation being admitted to the kicker had caused the overheating.

By this time the cabin had become cooler; the thermometer read 90 degrees.

Tom smiled in relief.

He checked the kicker gauge. It was still at the new figure and the speedometer told him that the rocket had accelerated even with the diminished fuel supply. Everything was working all right at the moment.