“I’ll send the plant nurse to him,” Simkins said. “As for going to town, take a look at the parking lot.” He pointed with a jerk of his thumb. The cars on the lot had been smashed into junk by bricks from a collapsing wall of one of the buildings. “And the only truck we had available was in that burning shed,” the superintendent added bitterly.
“Tough break,” Tom sympathized. “Anyhow, we want to help. Got a job for us?”
Simkins was only too glad to put Tom’s quick mind and keen technical know-how to use. Within minutes, Tom was in charge of clearing away rubble and extricating anyone who might be trapped inside the buildings. Bud organized a fire-fighting crew to keep the blaze in the shed from spreading.
The telephone line was soon repaired and a steady stream of rescue vehicles began arriving from Harkness-fire trucks, three ambulances, and private cars driven by volunteers.
Two hours later there was nothing more Tom and Bud could do at the disaster scene and they
8 THE VISITOR FROM PLANET X
hitched a ride into Harkness. The town had suffered some damage, though only slight compared to the destruction at the plant.
“The center of the quake was right under Fa-ber Electronics,” Tom remarked.
From a pay telephone, he called Swift Enterprises in Shopton. This was the experimental station where he and his father developed their many amazing inventions. Tom asked the operator to send a helicopter immediately to pick them up. He also called home and spoke to his sister, Sandra.
“What a relief!” Sandy gasped. “We heard a bulletin about the quake over the radio!”
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