“She’s away!” Bud cried.
A cheer went up from the onlookers as the rocket ship moved slowly at first, then zoomed upward. It
58 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROCKET SHIP
became a pin point and finally disappeared into the sky.
Tom glanced from dial to dial. All was going well. A sudden jagged mark appeared on the white paper strip.
“The base stage has been jettisoned with its parachute!” he cried. “Now for the kicker!”
The young inventor kept his eyes glued to the dial. For several seconds there was no activity. Finally the needle flickered, crept forward, and became still. Then it trembled steadily for ten seconds.
“The kicker’s getting it now!” Tom cried. “Getting plenty of solar radiation!”
The needle showed a regular pulsation.
“Bud!” Tom cried. “Come here! Watch this while I write down the figures.
Note the number of degrees the temperature rises above the black line!”
“Does the line indicate the temperature without the kicker?” Bud asked.
“Yes,” Tom grunted. “See what it’s doing now!”
Bud peered at the dials. “It’s streaking past the old mark!” he cried. “Now it’s stopped rising!”
“What’s the reading?” Tom asked excitedly.
“I can’t believe we’ve hit 4900 degrees beyond the old mark!” Bud announced.
“This is fabulous!” Tom exclaimed. “We’ll have power enough to take us anywhere in the universe!”
“When do we push off?” Hank asked.
“Next Friday,” replied Tom.
“Next Friday!” Bud retorted. “I thought you needed another ten days.”
“I did, too,” Tom said. “Until I saw this.”
THE ROCKET LAUNCHING 59
“Boy, I can’t wait!” Bud burst out. “Imagine, Tom, we’ll be the first ones to do what kids have been imagining all these years!” He chuckled. “You’re going to put ‘Gyro George and his Space Raiders’ right out of business!”