Under a striped awning, a towering doorman in a gold-braided uniform stood guard at the entrance. As Ames and the boys tried to rush past him, he stuck out his right arm to bar the way.
“May I see your cards, please?”
“Hang it all,” Ames said impatiently. “We have no cards, but we’re here on very important business!”
The doorman assumed a frozen, supercilious expression.
“Sorry, sir,” he replied firmly, “but my orders are to admit no one to the Excelsis Club except regular members!”
CHAPTER 6
BRONICH VANISHES
FUMING WITH IMPATIENCE, Harlan Ames told the doorman who he and the boys were, and demanded to see the manager.
“He’s not available,” the man said icily.
“We’re trailing someone who’s wanted by the police!” Tom explained. “He’s a dangerous foreign agent and we saw him enter this club through the side door!”
“Sorry, sir, but I have my orders.”
At a nod from Tom, Bud and Ames followed the young inventor in a search of some other means of entrance to the club.
“That frozen-faced doorman!” raged Bud, as they circled the building. “We should’ve grabbed him by the seat of the pants and tossed him in the lake!”
“Never mind him,” Tom said. “The important
49
50 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ATOMIC BLASTER
thing right now is to make sure Bronich doesn’t get away!”
At the back of the building a door was standing slightly open. From inside came a clatter of dishes, and an appetizing smell of food wafted out through a whirring ventilator.
“Must be the club kitchen,” Bud said. “That’s as good a way in as any other!”
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