Then the boys wheeled the robot to the center of the stage and took off the cover. Tom quickly reviewed the instructions for operating Herbert and turned the panel over to the girls. Then he and Bud took their places in the center of the second row in the audience.
Bud was smiling because he and another engineer had secretly made a few additions to the mechanical man. They had rigged up a secondary signal receiver that cut into the robot’s main circuit. In Bud’s pocket was a miniature control panel. When the girls finished their show, he planned to make the robot do a few tricks that were not on the program.
The master of ceremonies walked out. “And now,” he said, chuckling, “we present a surprise number in place of the one on your program. World-renowned vaudeville trio: Swift, Newton-and Herbert the Robot.”
The band struck up “Yankee Doodle.” The cur—
64 TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT ROBOT
tains parted and an amber spotlight revealed the inanimate Herbert standing between the two girls. They all bowed and the mechanical man lighted up in several places. As the audience broke into applause, the girls hurried to the wings to take over the controls.
Herbert began to jig across the stage. The crowd broke into uproarious laughter. As the girls worked the regulating dials, the robot launched into a series of disjointed acrobatics. His lights blinked on and off, and his big eyes rolled from side to side. The applause was deafening.
“Now we’ll make him sing,” said Sandy, and turned on the tape for this part of the act.
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