“From what he said, he must have slipped some slow-acting knockout drug into Bud’s food during our final meal before the countdown. He did it out of jealousy, I guess.”
“I gathered as much from Bud’s symptoms,” Doc said. “I’ve already administered an antidote and his pulse is slowly returning to normal. Don’t worry, Tom-your pal’s okay. But we may have to keep him here a day or so.”
Tom breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s the best news I’ve heard today, Doc!”
More good news was waiting when Tom arrived at Shopton the next morning. Ames reported that Furster and his henchmen had been arrested in New York. Tom and the security chief flew there to interview the ringleader in his jail cell.
His bravado gone, Furster was obviously a broken man. He confessed to being a scientist,
174 MEGASCOPE SPACE PROBER
and that he had hoped to become rich through inventions made at his secret lab, even though they might be secured by dishonest means, such as his lie about representing the Selland Company.
“You win, Swift,” he said dejectedly. “I’ve been on the run ever since you and your father got away from my lab. I had just completed it, too. That hijack attempt was my last hope of cashing in.”
“Tappan and Dunstan were working for you?” Ames asked.
Furster nodded listlessly. “You’re bound to find out sooner or later. I figured Tom Swift might be ‘dangerous, once he tumbled to that helium-machine theft, so I doped out a ray gadget to help us get rid of him. But Tappan and Dunstan bungled that angle. The men who delivered the hydrogen tank bungled too-they were supposed to wait until I got your final radio plans.”
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