Inside, the club secretary came hurrying forward to greet them. He was a bony, hawk-nosed man wearing pince-nez glasses. Tom told him why they were there.
“The whole charge is ridiculous!” he snorted in a nasal, high-pitched voice when told that a foreign spy had been seen entering the club.
“Mind if we look for ourselves?” Captain Rock said grimly.
From the secretary’s expression, it was clear that he did mind. But when the police captain produced a warrant, there was nothing he could do but stand aside.
52 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ATOMIC BLASTER
Assisted by Harlan Ames and the boys, the police searched the club from top to bottom, but they found not the slightest trace of Bronich!
“Well, I’ll be a boiled bazooka!” said Bud, scratching his head in puzzlement.
“We know doggone well Bronich came in here. We saw him with our own eyes!”
“Well, he’s not here now,” said Captain Rock, “so it looks as if he flew the coop.”
“But how could he?” argued Tom. “We were watching the place all the time!”
The police captain shrugged. “If he knew you fellows had spotted him, he may have sneaked out in disguise-maybe a chauffeur’s uniform.”
After the troopers had left, Ames was still angry and dissatisfied. But he said nothing until he and the boys had driven away in the jeep.
Then, a short distance from the club, he asked Tom to pull over to the curb.
“What’s wrong?” Bud asked.
“I have a hunch Bronich is still hiding out at the Excelsis Club.”
The security chief climbed out of the jeep.
“I’m going back to do some more investigating,” he went on. “I’ll keep out of sight and see what I can learn. If Bronich thinks we’ve gone, maybe he’ll give himself away!”