“Hey, watch it, Chow!” Tom yelled.
An instant later there was a loud whang as Chow collided head-on with the space kite!
The glittering model crashed to the floor, as Chow fell flat on his back. “Brand my coyote cutlets, what sneakin’ varmint hit me?”
Tom and Arv helped Chow to his feet. Then Tom grinned. “Old-timer, you just sabotaged my latest invention!”
Chow stared around dazedly. “I’m sure sorry, Tom. Looks like I knocked it all galley-west. Didn’t do my brand-new sombrero any good, either.”
Luckily the kite model was undamaged and Tom hung it up again. Chow straightened out his tall white hat, then brushed it off. “What’s this new contraption o’ yours, Tom?”
“A space kite for cosmic astronauts.”
Chow’s leathery face assumed a puzzled expression. “What kind o’ nuts did you say?”
“Not nuts-astronauts.” Tom tried hard to suppress a smile because he did not want to embarrass
SPACE KITE 31
the kindhearted old Westerner. “Voyagers to the stars!”
“Humph.” Chow stared hard at the kite model for a few moments, then gave up trying to understand it. “Wai, it made me see stars, all right, but I dunno if I’d care to go ridin’ up yonder in such a flimsy rig.”
After lunch Arv went off to supervise the building of a full-sized pilot model of the space kite. Tom hopped on a motor scooter and headed for the security department.
“Any clues yet on the Sea Charger, Harlan?” he asked the security chief.
Ames shook his head. “Not yet. But it’s pretty certain that the truck crash was no accident.”
Ames said that the vehicle had been found by the State Police abandoned on the highway.