“Tom, that guy is spoiling for a fight,” muttered Bud. “I still think we should have settled this right here and now. He was certainly asking for it!”
“That wouldn’t solve anything, Bud. Let him go.”
A THREAT OF REVENGE 77
Nevertheless, when they returned to Swift Enterprises later that morning, Bud made it a point to report the threat to Harlan Ames.
“I’ve heard of Picken,” said the security chief. “He has a bad reputation all over the state for using unscrupulous tactics against business competitors. We’ll keep an eye on him!”
In his private laboratory, Tom continued work on the South Pole blaster. A new idea had occurred to him for improving the efficiency of the power converter.
This was the equipment which harnessed the energy of the atomic pile to smelt and vaporize the rocky ore.
Using a slide rule, Tom quickly worked out a number of equations. His mental calculations had been right. By changing gear ratios in the power-conversion equipment, he should be able to make the blaster operate at anywhere from twenty-five to fifty percent higher speeds than he had first planned.
He decided to make the necessary changes in the blueprints at once. Getting up from his lab stool, Tom went to the shelf where he had left his copies of the drawings, but they were not there.
“Guess I must have locked them in the cabinet last night,” he decided.
With his electronic key, he beamed open the lock of the cabinet and riffled through the contents. The blueprints were not there, either.
78 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ATOMIC BLASTER