Appleton, Victor – Tom Swift Jr 22 – And His Repelatron Skyway

It also had odd treelike branches. From the bottom a cable would extend down into the mud.

Tom explained that the device would be attached to the bridge spans by rigid brackets made of his vacuum-celled Durabuoy, which was actually lighter than air. The brackets would be insulated with Tomasite. A number of lightning rods would be spaced along both sides of his flying bridge.

156 REPELATRON SKYWAY

“That offbeat design should wow “em,” Bud prophesied. “It even had me doing a double take!”

By putting every available man to work in the base machine shop, Tom had the queer devices ready that same day. Next morning he began the job of reconstructing his flying bridge. New spans had to be poured and special transmitters prepared to support them. But, with the speed of practice, the work proceeded rapidly.

By the following afternoon the bridge once again soared gracefully over the bog.

Then the fantastic-looking lightning rods were flown in from Imbolu and bracketed in place. The weird shapes of the grigris, sprouting on each side of the bridge, made the natives’ eyes pop.

“Wo! I dan arabara!” they murmured in awe. “Tom Swift make very strong magic!”

Meanwhile, construction of the eastern and western halves of the skyway had been leaping ahead, day by day. Tom estimated that a few more days of work would see the two parts joined to the bridge.

Full of enthusiasm, Tom flew with Bud over the whole route in the Sky Queen. On the way back he hovered above Hank Sterling’s work camp while the chief engineer climbed aboard.