“These guys must be foreigners!” Bud whispered to Tom. “They probably didn’t want to give away their nationality by talking!”
Tom nodded. “That’s my opinion. And, if the gang has a test base this size,”
he said, “I suspect that they must have a super rocket like our own somewhere.”
“Who are they then?” Bud asked. “And where’s their main base?”
“Two man-sized questions!” Tom replied. “I wish I could answer them.”
He surveyed their prison. It was a sparsely furnished, one-room building of strong wooden construction. Two windows, one in front and one in back, high in the walls, were barred.
“Boost me up to this front window, Bud, and I’ll take a look outside,” Tom said.
His friend swung him upward with an easy movement.
“We’re at the edge of the woods,” Tom reported in a whisper. “There’s a big cargo seaplane at the dock being unloaded. Oh-oh, a bearded character’s heading this way!”
“Let me see him!” Bud said softly, and they exchanged places.
The man, holding a rifle, stationed himself at the door of the shack.
Tom, meanwhile, quietly inspected the window.
AN INVENTIVE ESCAPE 81
The frame and the bars were made of aluminum.
“If I only had some mercury and a glass of water, we could get out of here!”
he said, getting down.
“Sure,” said Bud. “If I had a bomb, I could blow us out.”
Tom smiled and continued his examination of the room. Suddenly he stopped.
“Just the thing!” he whispered excitedly. “That thermometer on the wall. Bud, ask the guard for a drink of water.”
“But I don’t see the connection,” Bud said, giving his friend a puzzled look.