Appleton, Victor – Tom Swift Jr 03 – And His Rocket Ship

“Yes,” Tom answered. “But he’s in bad shape.”

Gates bent forward and clutched his head with both hands, as if overcome with remorse. He kept muttering, “It’s all my fault, it’s all my fault!”

“Why did you fail to enter your friend’s name in the log?” Tom asked.

“Because he wanted to keep the trip a secret from his family,” Gates said quickly.

“What’s your passenger’s name and where’s he from?” Tom asked.

12 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROCKET SHIP

“Arthur Drayton-a salesman from Chicago,” the flier replied. “I’ve flown him several times.”

“Have you your license and other credentials?”

“Right here,” the pilot said, slapping his right hand against an oilskin pouch inside his soaking wet shirt.

“Good. We’ll have a look at them soon,” Tom said. “By the way, why did you both bail out? That wasn’t necessary.”

“We thought so. A plane came right at us, so we parachuted,” Gates replied.

Since Gates apparently had not tried to dodge the robot, Tom’s suspicions were aroused again. As they drove into the hangar, the flier appeared to be very nervous. His hand trembled as he passed over his credentials to Tom.

Everything seemed to be in order, except that there was no photograph of the man. When Tom queried him about this, he replied that he was having a new one made and had thrown the old picture away.

“I’ll leave at once and take Drayton with me,” Gates announced as soon as he had been given dry clothing.

Tom told him that the island’s doctor was taking care of his friend Drayton, who would be moved to the mainland as soon as he was able to travel.