“Of course. But if our enemies think I’ve disappeared, they may leave us alone.”
“It sure gripes me,” said Bud, “to think that now we can’t win the rocket race among nations. I suppose we’ll only be also-rans.”
“Not if I can help it,” Tom replied. “The Swift Enterprises and Fearing Island are going to work night and day to complete this project.”
“I’m all for it, old-timer,” Bud said enthusiastically. “What’s my part in this operation?”
“To ferry the sections from the plant.”
127
128 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROCKET SHIP
Tom confided that he felt some deception would be necessary to mislead Rotzog. “I have a stratagem in mind,” he added, “but I’ll need the Navy’s cooperation to make it work.”
By this time, the Sky Queen was over Shopton. A few minutes later Tom set the plane down on the airfield of the Swift Enterprises plant. He was greeted by a large group of men who had come to ask for full news of the rocket flight.
“So you’ve heard about it?” Tom remarked.
“All we know,” replied an engineer named Walling, “is that several newspapers have been calling here every half-hour to know what’s been heard from you. All calls to the island received the answer ‘We’re not giving out any information.’ “
“Good,” said Tom. “Next time they phone, tell them it was another test.”
“But they think you were in the rocket, Tom,” Walling said.
“Let them think so,” the young inventor answered. “Give out no information.”
He called a meeting of the entire Enterprises engineering personnel, and after telling the full story, pledged them to secrecy. Tom then told of his plan to speed up the assembling of another rocket.
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