Twenty-four hours later there was still no news of Ed. At the police station, Tom asked desperately when the dragnet could be expected to yield any results.
Inspector Hassan said he could not guess. “Farda,” he murmured.
“Tomorrow, perhaps.”
When Tom returned to the airport, he reached a hard decision. “I just can’t wait any longer,” he told Ames. “I’m needed on the project. Would you mind staying here alone to keep in touch with the situation?”
Ames squeezed his young friend’s shoulder sympathetically. “Sure, skipper.
You go on and
FIERCE TRIBESMEN 133
try not to worry. I’ll keep things buzzing here till Ed turns up.”
Soon the Sky Queen was winging across trackless desert wastes, then over snow-capped highlands to Kabulistan. Tom bypassed the capital city of Shirabad and headed for the camp site.
“Hey! How about that?” Bud exclaimed as it loomed into view below.
The camp was humming with activity. Tents, metal shacks, and prefabricated warehouses had already been set up at the bend of the river. Bulldozers manned by native workmen were busily smoothing out an airfield.
The first to greet Tom and the others as they landed were Chow and Hank Sterling. “Nice going, Hank,” Tom said to the husky blond engineer as they shook hands. “Looks as though you’ve really been busy.”
“We’ll be ready to start the mineral survey in two days,” Hank reported.
Both he and the Texan were dismayed to hear of Ed’s disappearance. “But never fear, buckaroo,” Chow said to Tom. “I got a hunch he’ll be okay.”
Tom spent the rest of the afternoon and evening checking over every detail of the setup. After breakfast the next morning, Bud suggested they take an atomicar and explore the terrain.