“Whew … well, there’s the key!”
Tom plucked it out, strode across the laboratory, and tried the key in the lock.
It worked! In a second he had the door open.
“Wow! What a relief!” Tom said to himself as he stepped out into the fresh night air.
Suddenly Tom stared in surprise. The car he had come in with Horst was parked where they had left it! Apparently the red-haired fugitive had had another car concealed nearby.
THE HIDDEN KEY 119
“This one must be a stolen car,” Tom decided. “Horst probably used it, so that in case of a hitch I couldn’t trace his license number. It’s a break for me. Now I won’t have to hike back.”
Tom was confident his captor had had no time to tamper with the car. But he gave it a quick inspection. The key was in the ignition. Satisfied that the car was safe to drive, Tom hopped in and sped back to the landing site.
His watch showed a few minutes to twelve when he reached the atomicar.
“Just in time,” Tom thought. Midnight was the deadline when Ames would launch a search if Tom had not reported. The young inventor contacted Ames over the atomicar radio and told what had happened.
“The guy sounds like a nut!” the security chief snorted. “Are you sure there’s not more to this than meets the eye, skipper?”
“I’m wondering that myself,” Tom confessed uneasily. “The whole thing panned out too-”
“Too neatly, you mean?” A third person’s voice cut in on the conversation.
“Horst!” Tom exclaimed with a gasp.
“Quite right, my dear Swift. You’re also right in thinking everything was carefully staged!” A cackle of glee came over the radio.
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