Next morning his thoughts were shattered by a call over the atomicar radio. “What’s up, Arv?”
“Almost three miles of the skyway were wrecked last night, skipper!” Arv reported.
“The natives are in a panic-they claim it was done by some kind of huge ghost animals!”
CHAPTER XVI
TERRIFYING TRACKS
THE weird news about the “huge ghost animals” sent a prickle of excitement down Tom’s spine.
“Did anyone see these creatures?” he asked.
“Not as far as I can pin down the tribesmen,” Arv replied, “but there’s sure a lot of wild jabber going on. You’ll see why when you take a look at the ground where the damage was done.”
“Okay, we’ll get there as soon as we can.”
Soon Tom and Bud were skimming over the jungle treetops in their bubble-domed atomicar. Two miles beyond the work camp, they saw what had happened. The repelatron transmitters lay toppled and wrecked. The skyway span-no longer supported by their rays-had sagged and fractured.
On the ground, Americans and native workers were milling about, gazing at the ruins. Tom landed in a small transmitter clearing.
“Look here!” Arv said, after the young inventor had alighted. “A lot of the ground has been tramped over by the natives since last night, but I’ve tried to preserve some of the prints.”
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138 REPELATRON SKYWAY
Tom and Bud gasped as Arv pointed out several huge, deep impressions in the soft jungle earth. The clawlike prints looked as if they might have been made by some monstrous lizard!
“Dinosaur tracks!” Bud exclaimed. “Now you know I wasn’t seeing things, Tom!”