It was exactly twelve minutes since the second stage had broken off. Now the tracker showed that the rocket was going into free flight.
“She ought to start back now!” Tom said, holding his breath.
“She has! She has!” Bud exclaimed a minute later.
The indicators showed that the nose section was arcing back toward the earth. Would the rocket carry through on the flight plan? Or would it crash somewhere, perhaps in a thickly populated area?
CHAPTER 7
A CRACK-UP
AS THE TIME approached for the rocket to become visible, all eyes on Fearing Island scanned the sky.
“We should see stage four within five minutes,” Tom muttered, his fingers clenched tightly in the palms of his hands.
He glanced at his watch again-it was seven thirty. He heard a commotion in the crowd and then a shout. He looked up again and there it was-a pin point in the sky.
“It’s coming!” Bud almost screamed the words.
Straight toward them the rocket hurtled, spitting long tongues of blue flame.
Involuntarily, everyone prepared to run. Then, as if by magic, its speed decreased. Hundreds of feet above the watchers, Tom’s invention actually slowed to a snail’s pace and glided in to a stop not ten yards from where it had taken off.
61
62 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROCKET SHIP
Now, only one third its original length, the rocket stood there as mute evidence of Tom’s success. The young inventor ran to it and gazed fondly at the stubby red-and-silver ship that had traveled so speedily to where no man yet had been. For a short while Tom hardly heard the acclaim he was receiving, but finally he became aware of the shouts of praise, and acknowledged them with a pleased grin.