“Ted, why not stay here for the time being? We have plenty of room, and you’ll be protected by our warning system!”
This system, devised by Tom and his father,
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48 SPACE SOLARTRON
maintained a magnetic field around the Swift house and grounds. Anyone entering the field, unless wearing a special deactivator mechanism, triggered off an alarm inside the house.
“That’s very kind of you, Mrs. Swift,” Ted replied, “but Mother and Ray may be in danger too. I wouldn’t want to leave them alone.”
“Before we decide anything,” Tom put in, “let me call Harlan Ames. He was to be at the plant tonight.”
Tom hurried to the Swifts’ second telephone, a private wire to Enterprises.
When the security chief heard what had happened, he suggested that Ted stay at Enterprises, which was guarded by a tight security setup, and that his family be flown by helicopter to Ames’s private cottage on Bluejay Lake.
“There’s plenty of frozen and canned food there,” he explained, “and they’ll be perfectly safe. The spot is accessible only by plane.”
“Good deal, Harlan!” Tom concurred. “Thanks a million.”
Ted agreed at once to Ames’s suggestion and suggested that he call his mother at once.
“Better not,” Tom advised. “Hampshire and his gang may be tapping your phone. We’ll pick up your mother and Ray by car and drive them to the Enterprises airfield.”
It was decided as a safety measure to divide forces. Ted and Bud would go first in Bud’s convertible, while Tom and Mr. Swift followed in Tom’s sports car.
A NIGHT OF PERIL 49
As they were about to leave, Mrs. Swift spoke nervously to her husband. “I-I don’t want to seem unduly worried, my dear, but do you suppose someone might be watching the house right now? If so, he may trail you.”