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

THE FIRST TEST 37

boys. The older inventor and his son closely resembled each other. Mrs.

Swift, who was dainty and pretty, was intensely interested in their inventions, but frankly admitted that she understood little about them.

“How is the rocket project going?” she asked.

“Very well, Mother,” Tom replied. “We’ll show you the one Bud and I are taking into space.”

Mrs. Swift shivered a little but said she was ready for the tour. The group drove toward the launching area. Tom’s mother and the girls were amazed to see how built-up the island was.

“I had no idea it was so complete,” Mrs. Swift commented, as they passed the dock area with its numerous boats and the playfields for tennis, baseball, and other sports.

Then came the long barracks, the construction building, and finally the very modern-looking laboratory building.

“We’ll show you the interiors after a while,” Tom promised, turning the car up a road in the very center of the island. “The launching area is directly ahead.”

Before the visitors loomed two gigantic rocket ships about a quarter of a mile apart. Each was painted silver gray with a red nose and at the base were three red fins on which the rockets seemed to be poised.

“The one farther over is the dummy,” Tom explained, driving up to the launching area of the passenger rocket.

38 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROCKET SHIP

Set on an enormous concrete platform, it was enclosed all the way up to the nose with light-metal scaffolding. A small open elevator operated within the scaffolding.