Appleton, Victor – Tom Swift Jr 24 – And His 3D Telejector

“When Bud and I went backstage with Lunario, he seized his chance,” Tom theorized. “He was gambling that we’d return to our seats and stay till the show was over. So he called the theater number from the phone booth and left a fake message. Then he slipped outside and cut the wires to make sure I couldn’t call back from the office.”

“And he could easily slip back in again to plant the bomb once the exits were thrown open and people began streaming out of the theater,” Bud added.

Tom nodded. “After that, all he had to do was hope his plot worked.”

“It almost did!” Phyl murmured shakily.

“But not quite-thanks to Bud,” Tom said with a reassuring smile. “Incidentally, the guy must have been carrying the bomb around with him, just waiting for a chance to plant it.”

“You were mighty lucky it didn’t go off,” one oŁ the policemen commented.

Tom contacted Enterprises Security over his

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pencil radio and reported the incident. He also asked Radnor to call the Swift Construction Company. Radnor soon radioed back that the message had been a fake, as Tom suspected.

On the way home the teen-agers stopped off at the house of Dr. Emerson, the Swifts’ family physician. He dressed Tom’s head cut and said that the injury was not serious. “But stay quiet for the rest of the weekend,” the medic advised.

Next day, Tom telephoned the Enterprises infirmary to inquire about Ethan Grimsey’s condition. Doc Simpson reported that the scientist was in a coma, and his fever still high.

“We’ve run all sorts of tests on him, skipper, but so far they haven’t revealed any specific disease factor. Frankly, I’m stumped on the diagnosis. We’re checking back into his medical history and I’m calling in two specialists.”