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

Tom made a few calculations, then announced that they were about four minutes behind schedule, due to the delay in getting around the magnetic field.

“Well, can’t we go faster and make up the time?” Bud inquired.

“We can go faster all right by turning on the

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motors for a few seconds,” Tom assured him. “But that won’t solve our problem. If we go any faster, the earth can’t hang on to us and we’ll float up out of our orbit. Then we’ll have that much farther to go-”

Bud nodded comprehendingly and asked, “Well, what can we do?”

“The only thing I can figure out,” Tom answered, “is to set the steering motors to fire in such a way that they will compensate for our increased centrifugal force and hold us down. I’ve just calculated what the settings ought to be. We’d better strap ourselves down. Everything that isn’t fastened is literally going to hit the ceiling.”

As soon as the boys were secured on their racks, Tom opened the kicker wide. The Star Spear accelerated and sustained the burst for ten seconds.

Sliding his rack forward, Tom closed the arc and looked at the speed gauge.

Twenty-four thousand miles an hour!

When the pressure let up, Bud and Tom took their regular positions.

Watching the screens intently as they swept the skies, the boys noted faint blips appearing on the radarscope.

“We sure made up the distance!” Bud gloated. “Man, that rival of ours won’t have a chance against us now! We’ll be back home collecting the prize before he gets out of orbital flight! That is,” he added, “if Rotzog doesn’t show up.”