“A repelatron lifter does the trick,” Tom explained. The repelatron was a repulsion-ray de-AIRPORT ALARM 15
vice which Tom had invented to drive his revolutionary spaceship, the Challenger.
Tom brought squeals of excitement from the girls by veering off the highway, hedgehopping straight down to the shore of the lake, and then skimming out over the waves.
“Oh, this is fun!” Phyl exclaimed. “What makes the car go, now that the wheels aren’t driving us?”
“A small air jet,” Tom replied. “Doesn’t take much motive power once we’re air-borne-you could push it along with one finger.”
Sandy looked down at the blue scudding surface just below them. “It’s like surf-sleddingl” she said gleefully. “But what if our repelatron conked out-would we float?”
“Sure.” Tom flicked the switch and the car settled down on the waves with a slight splash. “Everything’s watertight and there’s an air ballast tank on each side of the frame.”
“Great for a fishing trip!” said Bud.
“It’ll be great for all sorts of transport purposes,” Tom said. “This baby can cross rivers and operate over any terrain-swamps, wild bush country, even mountainous areas.”
Its repelatron, the young inventor added, made the atomicar far nimbler than ground-hugging air-cushion vehicles. Moreover, it would not churn up clouds of dust on dirt roads as they do. Tom proved its versatility on the way back to 16 TRIPHIBIAN ATOMICAR
town by more hedgehopping stunts-even skimming a treetop.
“Seriously, though,” Tom added, as the girls caught their breaths amid gasps of laughter, “the biggest selling point is that the car will run for hundreds of thousands of miles at almost no operating cost-that is, when my new atomic power capsule is installed.”