“Keep your fingers crossed, pal,” the young inventor muttered as he emerged from the booth and latched the door with the twirl of a lever.
Bud, a young flier from San Francisco, and the same age as Tom, had watched the development of all his chum’s major inventions, and shared many adventures as Tom’s copilot. He never failed to feel a thrill when Tom tested some new brain child.
“Good luck, genius boy!”
CAPSULE EXPLOSION 31
Tom handed him dark goggles, donned a pair himself, then threw a switch.
The needle of the output wattmeter swung sharply to the right. The next moment both boys were hurled off their feet as the entire laboratory shook from a terrific blast!
CHAPTER III
AROUSED SUSPICIONS
A DISASTER siren wailed across the experimental station, as an orange-red inferno glowed behind the quartz window of the test booth.
Slowly Tom and Bud sat up, struggled to their feet, and eyed the wreckage in the laboratory with dismay. Books, file cabinets, electronic gear, and other valuable equipment lay tumbled about the floor, amid the shattered glass from fallen racks of test tubes. Smashed bottles of chemicals sent reeking fumes through the lab.
“Good grief! What happened?” Bud gasped.
“The atomic power capsule exploded-generated too much pressure and blew up,” Tom said grimly.
Though dazed and bruised from their fall, neither boy was injured. Already shouts could be heard outside the laboratory as plant employees rushed to investigate the explosion.
32
AROUSED SUSPICIONS 33
“Bud, tell everyone to keep out!” Tom yelled.
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122