Appleton, Victor – Tom Swift Jr 04 – And His Giant Robot

This rate of speed was maintained until they approached the locality from which the cargo planes had last reported. Here Tom throttled back while the observers scanned the terrain with high-powered binoculars.

The land was desolate. Several times the intent group thought they had the planes spotted. But upon descending for a closer look, they discovered that shadows from rock formations were what had fooled them.

Almost at the point of discouragement, Bud suddenly spotted a sight that left no doubt in his mind. A silver “T,” formed by the wings and fuselage of one of the cargo planes, was bobbing up and down in his binoculars.

“There’s one of them, Tom!” he called excitedly. “Move in for a better look.”

The lifters dropped them to within five hundred feet of the ground. Below was a scene that made the Swift group gasp angrily. One of the mechanical hand-and-arm sets was being loaded aboard a trailer truck by a group of men. They were working with great haste, gesturing and glancing up constantly at the huge Sky Queen now threatening overhead. Other men were backing a cab up to the trailer.

“They’re stealing it!” Hank shouted.

176 TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT ROBOT

“Not for long!” said Tom.

The Flying Lab shifted its position until it was hovering directly over the men on the ground. Tom released the throttle. Blasts of flame and heat poured TWIN TROUBLE 177

from the jet lifters, scattering the men before a withering rain of exhaust.

At the same time, the plane shot up a thousand feet. Before the group on the ground had recovered from the first attack, Tom was dropping down for a second try at scaring them off. This time the drivers and their helpers scrambled for the cab and raced away over the desert, abandoning the trailer, the stolen cargo, and the plane.