CHAPTER 2
THE FUEL KICKER
TOM AND BUD jumped from the jeep and ran toward the half-hidden, bedraggled figure. The man held up his hands in a gesture of surrender.
“I know I’m on restricted ground,” he said in a deep voice with a slight foreign accent. “But my life is more important than anything else.”
The boys were a bit taken aback by this speech. If the man had made an honest error he had nothing to fear.
“Are you Ed Gates?” Tom asked sharply.
The stranger gave a start, then replied, “Why-uh-yes. How did you know?”
“From your log.”
“My plane crashed on the island?” the pilot questioned as if he could not believe it.
“We brought it in,” Tom replied, without explaining how. “Why were you flying in a restricted air zone?”
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THE FUEL KICKER 11
“Something went wrong. I couldn’t bank away, so I bailed out.”
Tom and Bud exchanged quick looks. Had the stranger really flown toward the island by accident? The young inventor gave the flier his sweater and helped him into the jeep.
“We’ll see that you get transportation to the mainland,” Tom said. “Where are you from?”
“Cincinnati. I fly business planes for the Midwest Steel Corporation.”
As the jeep approached the airstrip, Gates asked, “What happened to my plane?”
“Don’t worry about your plane,” Tom replied. “Aren’t you interested in what happened to your passenger?”
Gates’ face quivered. He gulped. “Passenger?” he repeated.
“Yes. You had another person aboard, although you neglected to log his name.”
The pilot hesitated for several seconds before asking, “Was he picked up?”