THE ROCKET LAUNCHING
53
ventor said, “Let’s find Ames and see what he and his men have learned from those other engineers.”
The whole group was still in the barracks, talking excitedly. Each engineer had told the same story: Eskot had shown them an order, apparently forged, stating that the twelve were to make a final test that evening on the first three stages of the rocket.
“Presumably,” said Ames, “Eskot wanted a cover-up for himself. When no one was looking, he slipped into the payload stage and wrecked the transmission and recording machines. What are you going to do, Tom?”
“Install the models that are locked in my lab.” A faint smile appeared on Tom’s face as he added, “It’s fortunate Eskot didn’t know about them.”
Feverish activity was the order of the day on Fearing Island. A group of Tom’s loyal co-workers, intent on making up for the damage caused by Eskot, went
Tom pursued the fanatical saboteur
54 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROCKET SHIP
over every inch of the dummy rocket ship, checking for damaged equipment elsewhere than in the nose. But they found none.
Others removed the broken instruments while still a third crew, under Tom’s direction, installed a new set of recording devices. By late evening the dummy rocket ship was ready for flight.
As Tom relaxed for the first time in eighteen hours, he thought of Eskot, and immediately ordered a heavy guard to be placed around the ship. Wondering whether the treacherous engineer had regained consciousness and had confessed, Tom hurried to the infirmary.