Appleton, Victor – Tom Swift Jr 13 – And His Space Solartron

Tom preferred not to think of this angle. It might mean his father was dead or beyond hope of rescue. “Look, Ted,” he said, “are you positive you sighted the same spot on earth each time?”

Ted shrugged hopelessly. “As sure as I can be. Of course the area was partly blotted out by cloud drifts, and I caught only a few quick glimpses. But it certainly looked like the African coast. Why, I could even make out the line of mountains!”

“Mountains?” Tom repeated. “Can you draw me a map?”

“Sure.” Ted sketched out the contours of the land mass which he had seen, and shaded in the topography roughly.

“Those mountains were the Andes, Ted!” the young inventor exclaimed. “You must have been looking at South America!”

“South America?” Ted was thunderstruck.

168 SPACE SOLARTRON

Tom nodded. “Both South America and Africa have much the same coast outline. The two continents each bulge at the top and taper down to a narrow point at the southern tip. It would be easy to confuse them. Let’s refigure our calculations for the orbital track, assuming my hunch is correct!”

Turning over the controls to Bud, the young inventor hurried to the computer room with Ted. Here he fed in a new set of data. Then, as the electronic brain altered its flow of impulses to the navigational instruments, Tom returned to the flight comparment and slid back into the pilot’s seat.

Bud flashed him a questioning look. “Got the new course figured, Tom?”

“Right! Keep your fingers crossed, pal!”

At lightning speed they arced through the vast reaches of space, thousands of miles above the terrestrial atmosphere. Below, they watched the turning ball of earth, with its tapestry of oceans and continents.