bot’s camera “eyes.” It was midafternoon when Mr. Swift radioed his son that the cargo planes were overdue.
“Our radio operator here lost contact with them over an isolated area,” he reported, giving Tom the location. “I’m afraid they’re in trouble.”
Tom went into action. Picking up the intercom, he called Bud, Sterling, and Hanson.
“I’m taking off on a search flight,” he told them. “How about meeting me at the Sky Queen and going along?”
Hank Sterling and Bud were at the Flying Lab’s hangar five minutes after the report had been received. The ground crew, following a prearranged emergency procedure, had the ship fueled, aboveground, and ready for a take-off. When Tom and Hanson arrived, the young inventor explained to the others the reason for the hurried trip and added:
“I have the exact position of the missing planes at the time contact was broken.” He held up a map. “The tower has marked the beam they were supposed to follow after that point.”
“I’ll call the tangents, boy,” Bud offered, swinging up through the belly hatch of the Flying Lab.
Sterling and Hanson took observational posts, while Bud plotted the route that would carry them along the precise course taken by the missing aircraft.
Tom gave the elevators a quick lift. This was no time for gentle flight maneuvering. Tom was in a
TWIN TROUBLE 175
hurry and called upon the Sky Queen for every bit of thrust its engines possessed. Pushed to the limit, the Flying Lab shrieked across the sky at more than twelve hundred miles an hour.