To rule out any further chance of trickery, Tom insisted upon searching the enemy rocket ship. The men agreed, but as they had claimed, Mr. Swift was not aboard.
176 .
"One more question," Tom said. "Just before my father asked to go outside, did anything unusual happen?" The young inventor was somewhat puzzled as to how Mr. Swift could have known beforehand that he was about to be rescued.
"Most strange that you should ask," the squat Mongolian replied with a puzzled frown. "As a matter of fact, some queer-looking symbols flashed on the oscilloscope of our radio equipment. Shortly after your father saw them he made his request to go outside."
Tom and Bud wanted to shout for joy but remained calm. Both realized that the s.p.a.ce people must have sent Mr. Swift a message, knowing that his captors would be unable to translate it.
"We"ll go now," Tom told the three kidnapers. "From here on, you can answer to your own government. I advise you to rocket back to earth immediately. If that saucer ship returns and finds you still here, I warn you there may be unpleasant consequences!"
By this time, the three kidnapers were reduced to trembling agitation. "You must help us!" their leader pleaded. "We dare not go back to our own country and face the other members of our group! It might mean death to all of us for bungling this affair and losing our hostage!"
"What is your country, and who are the other members of your group?" Tom demanded.
The three men refused to answer this question. From their evasive replies, Tom suspected that A RACE TO THE RESCUE 177.
the group might be made up of renegade scientists of several nationalities, with headquarters in the country from which these men came.
"There"s one kind of help we can give you," Tom said. "The United States authorities may extend you some kind of protection." Tom did not express aloud his following thought, "In exchange perhaps for the plans of your force ray!"
The kidnapers remained silent. Tom, eager to overtake his father, went on, "I"ll look you up on the return trip. Make up your mind. Come on, Bud! Let"s get back to our own ship."
The crestfallen trio of kidnapers made no effort to interfere as the two young Americans donned their s.p.a.ce helmets and went out through the air lock.
Thoroughly elated, Tom and Bud started back to the Challenger.
"I"d hate to be in those guys" shoes!" Bud chuckled. "The important thing, though, is that your dad"s safe. I"m sure glad."
"So am I," Tom replied. "Only one thing I can"t figure."
"What"s that, pal?"
"Why didn"t we pick up that rescue message from the s.p.a.ce people on our own ship?"
"I was wondering that myself," Bud said.
Tom was thoughtful as they reached the Challenger"s landing platform.
"Perhaps our s.p.a.ce friends used a highly focused directional beam," he mused.
"If so, that would explain it."
Once inside, the boys were besieged with excited questions from Arv, Ted, and the crew.
178 .
Tom reported his parley with the kidnapers, and his plan to rescue Mr. Swift.
Everyone cheered.
"Now I must find out from the s.p.a.ce people where to pick up Dad," Tom concluded.
The young inventor hurried to the radio room, accompanied by Bud, and beamed out a query over the ship"s powerful transmitter. Moments later, the reply from his s.p.a.ce friends began flashing on the oscilloscope.
Tom translated the mathematical symbols from memory, scribbling words at top speed. The complete message read: s.p.a.cESHIP WITH YOUR FATHER ABOARD IS HEADED ON COURSE TO.
ORBIT AROUND VENUS. SPEED 40,500 MILES PER HOUR.
"Wow!" Bud gasped. "Forty thousand, five hundred miles per hour! Any chance of catching it?"
Tom nodded. "I"m sure we can, even though the rocket has a head start of about six hours. The Challenger can hit faster speeds than that and also, unlike rockets, can accelerate for long periods of time."
"Let"s see," said Bud. "How far away from the earth is Venus?"
"It can be as close as twenty-six million miles, or as far as a hundred and nineteen million miles."
"Some trip we"re about to make!" Bud commented.
"It"s all right, pal." Tom chuckled, slapping his friend on the back. "With our matter maker A RACE TO THE RESCUE 179.
aboard, we can chase that saucer clear across the solar system if we have to!"
After snapping out orders over the intercom, Tom hurried to the flight compartment. He set the controls of the Challenger for the required rate of acceleration and the ship streaked off in pursuit of the rescue craft. Their speed increased at fifty feet per second per second.
After two hours, the Challenger was approximately in the position that Mr.
Swift"s rocket had been when Tom had begun the pursuit.
"Dad"s about eighty thousand miles straight ahead," he said to Bud. "Right now our speed is seventy miles per second. "We"ll have to start slowing down, so we"ll be going the same speed he is when we catch up to him."
"I get it," the copilot said, then added quizzically, "Better not put on the brakes all at once, chum!"
Tom grinned. "Don"t worry. I"m decelerating now-by degrees."
The young inventor took time out to radio Ken Horton at the outpost and inform him of the latest developments.
"That"s great news," said Horton. "Best of luck, Tom. We"ll be waiting further word from you. By the way, I have some news from Enterprises."
The outpost commander went on, "Ames says to tell you that they"ve nailed the person who tampered with the papers for the Journal while they were on Miss Warner"s desk."
180 .
"Who was it?"
"Some new employee named Amberson Lint-ner. Ames says this Amby has been taken into custody and that Miss Warner is in a state of collapse over her carelessness in the office and her friendship with him."
Ames had said that on the pretext of wanting to date the secretary, Amby would come to her desk. Then, when she was not looking, he would sneak into the Swifts" private office and pick up information. Once he had almost been caught- he was the eavesdropper who had b.u.mped into the shelves of bottles and models of inventions.
Amby had also been responsible for the marred printing plates and had made up the story of the dog being the cause of the "accident." The disloyal employee had been working with a crooked lawyer using the alias of Hampshire and both men had become dupes of a foreign ring.
"The ones we"re going to look up on the way back to earth are part of the group," Tom said.
Horton added that both Amby and Hampshire in their underhanded work had concentrated on Ted Spring in order to get secret information about the solartron from him. Both had phoned Ted and had also deliberately planned the car accident. Furthermore, a recheck on the servo units in Mr. Spring"s cracked-up test plane had upheld the original findings. The accident was not the result of any carelessness on the part of the Swifts.
"Hampshire thought Ted would fall for his A RACE TO THE RESCUE 181.
story right away," said Ken Horton. "By the way, Hampshire is in jail."
As Horton continued, Tom learned that the unscrupulous scientist members of the foreign group had been traced and exposed by patiently checking every name on the Journal"s mailing list. Receiving the design equation for the solartron had whetted the group"s appet.i.te for further knowledge of Tom"s marvelous invention. They had planned the double kidnaping as a means of extorting the complete plans for the machine.
"Dad sure will be glad to hear all this," Tom declared when Horton had concluded. "Thanks for the report, Ken."
He had no sooner said "Roger" than another news flash came, this time from the Mongolians. They were going back to their own country!
"Probably it"s just as well," Tom commented.
"And you"ll invent a better force-ray machine," Bud consoled him.
"It"s a challenge," Tom agreed.
The young inventor once more concentrated all his attention on the Challenger"s progress.
"How close to our goal are we?" Bud asked him.
"We"re down to thirty miles a second and Dad"s only seventeen thousand miles ahead," Tom announced with excitement in his voice. "We"re close enough to change the controls to manual."
Presently the planet Venus came into view on the s.p.a.ce position finder screen as a small greenish dot. The next moment the radarman reported: 182 .
"Object dead ahead, skipper!"
"Your dad"s rocket!" exclaimed Bud.
Minutes later, a glistening speck appeared in the inky void. It grew steadily in size, finally becoming recognizable as the disk-shaped s.p.a.ce ark.
"Brand my moon calves, I remember now!" Chow whooped. "This is jest like that flyin" saucer what carried them sick s.p.a.ce critters. This must be it, all right, boss!"
Tom nodded, grinning with relief. After overtaking the odd-shaped craft, he locked the Challenger on a parallel course alongside it. A moment later a sliding panel opened in the ark and a s.p.a.ce-suited figure emerged into view.
"It"s Dad!" Tom cried joyfully.
A minute later Mr. Swift unharmed, entered through the Challenger"s air lock.
There was a heart-warming reunion as father and son clasped hands and embraced each other. Then Mr. Swift and Ted exchanged greetings of relief and joy.
"It"s wonderful to see you all again," Mr. Swift said huskily. "Mother and Sandy all right, Tom?"
"They will be when they know you"re safe and well." Tom smiled. "We"ll flash the word on our way back to the outpost."
After receiving the congratulations of the crewmen and shaking hands with everyone, Mr. Swift accompanied Tom to the radio compartment. Here they sent word to the s.p.a.ce station that the Challenger was heading back with Mr. Swift safely aboard.
After Tom had given his father a full account of the report from Ames relayed by Ken Horton, Mr. Swift nodded in satisfaction.
"It will be good to get home," the elder inventor said. "I"ve had enough adventure for a while, even without being given any more truth serum by those Mongolians. How about you, Tom?"
"After I see the folks and Phyl, I"ll be ready for whatever turns up," Tom replied. His next invention and the exciting episodes that would evolve from it were not known to him at the moment, but would soon become famous as Tom Swift and His Electronic Retroscope.
As the Challenger proceeded on its way back to the outpost, Bud turned to his friend. "Well, Tom, when do we plant that colony on the moon?"
Tom laughed. "As soon as we can get ready. I have a lot of experiments and projects lined up to tackle. So, with everybody pitching in, I"m sure we can establish the first settlement on the moon very soon."
"Yahoo!" Chow cheered. "Jest ee-magine- livin" in the first li"l ole moon town!"
"That"s the idea, Chow." Tom chuckled, and Bud added, "Dare you to make a roast beef dinner with our skipper"s solartron!"
THE END.
TOM SWIFT AND HIS .
By VICTOR APPLETON II No. 13 in the Tom Swift Jr. series.