Appleton, Victor – Tom Swift Jr 05 – And His Atomic Earth Blaster

On the next run, the Kranjovians tried again to down the avenging plane.

Again they failed completely.

“Once more for good luck!” Tom said, as he brought the ship around for a final run over the target. This time, the enemy gunners gave up in despair and scattered for cover.

164 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ATOMIC BLASTER

“Brother, I’ll bet you scared those guys out of a year’s growth!” gasped Bud, weak with laughter, as the Sky Queen roared up and away from the Kranjovian camp.

But both Tom and Bud knew that a single scare, however effective, would not long deter the efforts of Bronich and his henchmen to wipe out the Swift expedition. As soon as the boys arrived back at camp, Tom called a meeting to report what had happened. All except Voorhees cheered Tom’s success, after which Bud broached the idea of invading the enemy base and overpowering the Kranjovians.

“Until we put them out of action, once and for all,” the copilot said, “we can never rest easy! At any time they may launch another sneak attack!”

Tom disagreed, warning of the danger of a possible global war as the result.

It was finally decided to wait until word arrived from Mr. Swift as to whether or not Bronich had a right to operate in that part of the Antarctic. Meanwhile, Tom laid out further defense plans, then resumed his job of checking depth soundings.

The geophones were set up and a charge of dynamite was touched off deep beneath the snow.

An amplifying recording device photographed the sound waves of the explosion as they were picked up over the geophones. As he studied the results Tom frowned, then a look of dismay crossed his face.