Firing wildly with an automatic pistol, Bronich tried to shoot his way clear. But as soon as the gun was empty, Bud went after him.
Grabbing Bronich by the hood of his parka, Bud swung him around. The treacherous spy dropped his gun and jerked out a knife. Before he could use 192 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ATOMIC BLASTER
it, however, Bud staggered him with a smashing right to the jaw, kicked the knife out of his hand, and dragged him back to where the other prisoners were lined up.
Arvid Hanson greeted Bud with an anxious cry. “Tom’s not in the cave!”
“What!”
Shoving Bronich toward Hank Sterling to be handcuffed, Bud readjusted his gas mask and plunged into the cave. Hanson was right-Tom was nowhere inside!
When Bud emerged, he ordered a search made of all the other caves on the base. There was no trace of the young inventor anywhere!
Angrily Bud began firing questions at the prisoners. But they merely stared back in sullen silence and refused to say a word about Tom’s fate.
The Americans looked at each other in grim despair, afraid to voice the thought that was uppermost in all their minds.
Had Tom Swift been killed?
CHAPTER 24
A VOLCANIC ERUPTION
“COME ON, let’s snap out of it!” Bud shouted. “Tom must be around here somewhere!”
“Why, brand my snowshoes, o’ course he is!” asserted Chow gruffly. “Don’t you figger a smart buck-eroo like Tom knows how to take care o’ himself?”
“Wait a minute!” Bud cried. “I just had an idea!” He asked if anyone had noticed a sled or huskies anywhere around the Kranjovians’ camp. No one had.