Walter was hoisted, head first, through a hatch in the underside of the fuselage and put in a large storage locker. Tom and Bud took their places in the forward pilot’s compartment, then taxied the Sky Queen to a special quarter-mile square of glazed brick that could withstand the blast of its take-off exhaust.
Tom opened the throttle. With a roar the jet lifters let loose their blast. The great craft shook once and began to lift.
Reaching a good cruising height in the overcast sky, Tom switched off the lifters and sent the forward jets into action. The Sky Queen rapidly reached the area where the plane kidnaping had occurred. The sky was deserted.
“Let’s cruise around for a while,” Bud suggested.
‘Til swing her in a wide circle,” said Tom, “so it won’t be too obvious that we’re playing decoy for that mechanical buzzard.”
“Crow,” Bud chided.
“Well, it has a buzzard’s habits,” said Tom. “I wish it would come out of its nest.”
The gleaming plane swept back and forth in a lazy circle through the leaden sky for almost an hour
38 TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT ROBOT
without incident. Tom prepared to return to the base.
“That was a wild-crow chase, if I ever saw one,” Bud commented.
“I’m afraid so,” said Tom, swinging the ship to avoid a large gray cloud. “I think we’ll drop under that air smudge.”
He reached for the vertical controls.
“Tom!” cried Bud. “Look what’s coming out of that cloud! The crow!”
“And it’s coming straight at us!” Tom said. “Now for the capture!”
“Watch out, Tom, there are two of them this time!”