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

“Robert Turnbull!” Tom exclaimed. “Are you sure?”

“Positive, Tom!”

“Let’s have a look at the relay panel,” Tom said quietly.

The boys found a small secondary control board wired into the main panel feed line. A single shunt enabled its operator to disconnect Tom’s wiring and substitute his own, completely by-passing the con-THE GIANTS CLASH 197

trol-house wires. The evidence against Turnbull was overwhelming. Tom immediately ordered a building-by-building search. But the scientist had completely disappeared. Meanwhile, Radnor called a security-police conference to outline a plan of action. With no idea where Turnbull would strike next, every precaution had to be taken to protect the plant.

“We’ll need a key man at each vital point,” Radnor said. “Hank will watch the entrance gate. Arvid Hanson can guard the robots. I’ve already alerted the radar technicians to put a double watch on the patrolscopes.”

Mr. Swift suggested that he remain in the control house to work the robots if the need arose.

While the men completed their plans, Tom, who had been deep in thought, startled the group by suddenly remarking, “I don’t think that I’ve ever met the real Robert Turnbull. I think that Raymond-not Robert-has been working for us, here, for the past few weeks at least.”

“What makes you think that?” Radnor asked in amazement.

“It all begins to tie in, Rad,” Tom replied. “For instance, it explains Stan Lee’s mysterious failure on that first test run out here and the way our enemies always knew our plans in advance, even after we discovered the recorder in the Flying Lab model.”