Others clustered around to voice the same sentiment.
Tom was touched, and grinned in embarrassment. “Sorry we got stranded, fellows. If I’d known what our enemy had up his sleeve, I wouldn’t have led you into such a fix.”
Tom and Bud flew back to Enterprises by jet. Right after landing, Tom went to the security department to report to Harlan Ames what had happened in space.
“There’s only one good thing I can say about it,” Ames remarked. “Your enemy evidently isn’t ready to fight with deadly weapons yet. But they may be soon.”
Tom agreed. “We’re alerted, anyhow.”
Taking leave of Ames, he went over to Arv
NIGHT ALARM 65
Hanson’s workshop to check on the progress being made on his space kite.
“We’ve almost finished,” Arv reported, shoving back his welder’s mask. “The space kite should be ready by quitting time tomorrow-except for installing the gravitex and the cosmic reactor, of course.”
The young inventor looked over the gleaming assembly with a feeling of pride. “Nice job, Arv,” Tom concluded, clapping Hanson on the shoulder.
“I’ll drop over and check with Felix Wong now on the gravitex,” he said.
It turned out that Felix had progressed well with work on the gravitex.
Satisfied, Tom returned to the big double office which he shared with his father in the Administration Building. The two began to discuss the recent inexplicable events.
“Whoever’s responsible is evidently a scientific genius in his own right,” Mr.
Swift commented gravely.
“Dad, I think it sounds more and more like the work of Li Ching-brilliant but unscrupulous.”