Tom cut the jet lifters a notch and the Sky Queen settled onto the takeoff disk.
As he dashed down the steps past the first deck, where Hanson was coming from the hangar, Tom called:
“Great job! You handled the beeper like a veteran!”
Hanson grinned. Together, they ran over to the captured plane where Ames joined them. The pilot sat in stony silence. He was black-mustached and thin, about forty years of age.
“What’s your name?” Tom demanded, pushing back the plastic cowling.
The answer was a glare of hate.
95
96 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROCKET SHIP
“I’ll look for identification,” Ames spoke up, and as soon as the pilot had climbed out of the plane he went through the man’s pockets. But the security officer found nothing.
“There may be something in his plane,” Tom suggested. “Take our visitor to the hangar office.”
While Arvid Hanson and several others accompanied the prisoner, Tom and Ames climbed into the jet to make a thorough search. Ten minutes later they were about to admit defeat on every count exv cept fingerprints-and Ames felt these probably were not listed with the FBI-when Tom cried: “Wait! Just a minute!”
He had noticed that the jet’s fuselage was built of an aluminum sheathing over a laminated plywood shell. Upon investigation, Tom found that the combined thicknesses added up to only an eighth of an inch. Near the floor of the cockpit a black line of trimming ran along the wall.
As Tom inched his fingers over the area his nails suddenly caught on the trim. Over it was a thin strip of tape which he quickly tore off.
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