Tom switched the radio to Enterprises’ local frequency. “Skip to Hawkeye,”
he spoke into the mike, using the code names he had arranged with Ames for the operation. “Are you receiving?”
“This is Neil Forman. I read you, skipper,” came the lookout’s reply.
“Any action yet?”
“Nothing at all since last night.”
“Okay. Just checking.” Tom’s face turned away from the microphone as Bud gripped his arm.
“Look! Down there!” Bud exclaimed, pointing.
In the moonlight Tom could see a dark figure crawling up the cliff face overlooking the ocean. He checked speed and hovered down, aiming a powerful spotlight at the cliff.
The figure had disappeared!
“Where the dickens did he go?” Bud murmured. “He must be hiding in the brush.”
58 3-D TELEJECTOR
Tom radioed the information to Neil Forman, then landed quickly. The lookout came running from his hiding place to join them and all three dashed toward the cliff, armed with flashlights.
They probed their way down through the rocks and brush to the water’s edge. Then they spread out and began climbing upward, examining every nook and cranny of the cliff face. But the trio could find no trace of their quarry.
“We missed him!” Bud exclaimed angrily as they met on the brow of the cliff.
Tom played his flashlight down the slope. “He couldn’t just vanish into thin air. Maybe he-”
The young inventor broke off with a gasp as a figure suddenly emerged from the shadowy darkness of a clump of shrubbery on the cliffside.
“There he is!” Tom cried, pinning the figure in the yellow glare from his flashlight.