When all was in readiness, the girls asked where Chow was.
“At your service,” the cook replied, running up in the loudest shirt the onlookers had ever seen.
“Wow!” Bud cried. “You trying to set the plane on fire again?”
Chow grinned and looked down at his bright-red luminous shirt. “Why, brand my Texas general store, I think this here is right purty! But don’t you make fun o’
my southwest buyin’. Look what I picked up right in Shopton.”
From his bag he pulled out a brilliant gold-and-green plaid shirt. “That’s what held me up.”
“It would stop anything!” Bud needled.
The travelers waved good-by to their families and 104 TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT ROBOT
friends and went aboard. The Sky Queen blasted its exhaust fire at the ground. The silver body quivered and ascended in a direct line until it was ten thousand feet over Shopton. Then Tom cut in the forward power and headed for the West.
CHAPTER 13
ARV UNDER SUSPICION
FAR ABOVE the commercial air lanes, Tom set the Sky Queen on automatic pilot, making sure the radarscope and its warning bell were operating, and headed for the atomic energy plant. Cloud formations obscured the earth below, and the passengers, comfortably settled in the lounge, began to talk.
“Tom,” said Phyl Newton, “please bring me up to date on exactly what your giant robot is going to do-and what experiment Stan Lee will carry on.”
The young inventor smiled. He was sure that Sandy, who had a good knowledge of the whole setup, had told her friend a great deal about it. He endeavored to think up phases of the project which Phyl might not have heard.