”This fellow too,” Bud said.
The third crew member was also found to be alive. All three had been cracked on the head from behind.
“We’d better carry them to the Sky Queen,” Tom suggested.
Gently they lifted Jones first and carried him out of the compartment and down the ramp. Arv Hanson and Hank rushed up to offer assistance.
“Hurry and bring out the other two in the cargo compartment,” Tom instructed. “I don’t know how badly they’re injured.”
Five minutes after the men had been laid on cots in the Queen’s infirmary, they opened their eyes and looked about. Jones was the first to speak.
“It must have been a stowaway,” he explained. “I didn’t see his face. Heard footsteps coming up behind. Turned to look and everything went black.”
Tom wondered whether the stowaway had been someone working at Enterprises or an outsider who had managed to slip aboard the plane. Bud ventured a guess that it had been Raymond Turnbull or a member of the Briggin gang working under him.
“Tom gave the guys who tried to steal the arm gadget a good scare with the jets,” Bud told Jones. “I don’t think they’ll try another attack.”
When the other two men revived, they insisted
A CLEVER FOIL 181
upon continuing the flight. Tom, hoping they would be all right, gave an okay but insisted that Hank go along to help pilot the cargo ship.
With Arv Hanson and Bud he watched it take off. Then the three re-entered the Flying Lab, eager to pursue their search for the other missing plane.
A wide sweep of the skies covered many additional square miles of open land, but there was no sign of the lost ship.