"DON"T look so grim! I"ve been burned worse than this playing with other inventions."
Ted forced a smile as he helped Tom outside and into a jeep. "Then it"s high time you stopped trying to blow yourself up," Ted retorted. "Don"t you get enough excitement rocketing through s.p.a.ce?"
Realizing that Tom must be in severe pain in spite of his joking manner, Ted drove to the Citadel"s infirmary at top speed. Here a doctor and two nurses took Tom immediately into the examination room.
Bud Barclay came rushing into the infirmary, pale with fright, as Ted nervously awaited the doctor"s report. "Just got the word about Tom"s accident,"
Bud panted. "What happened? How is he?"
"I"m waiting to find out," Ted replied. "It could be bad." He gave Bud a brief report of the accident.
21.
22 .
Both boys were intensely relieved when the doctor appeared half an hour later and smiled. "You can relax, fellows," he said. "I"m glad to say Tom"s burns aren"t serious."
"He won"t be scarred?" Bud asked anxiously.
The doctor shook his head. "No, the burns are mostly surface-painful enough-but they should heal quickly. Tom will have to stay in the hospital overnight, but I believe we can take the dressings off tomorrow."
"Thank goodness!" Bud sighed.
"May we see him?" Ted asked.
"Certainly, but don"t keep him talking too long. Tom"s system has suffered a slight shock, so rest is the best treatment now."
As the two boys entered the room, Tom grinned at them through his bandages. He was propped up comfortably in bed.
"What are you trying to do, pal-masquerade as an Egyptian mummy?" Bud asked, grinning.
"The name is King Tut, please," Tom replied. "Down on your knees and knock your head three times against the floor before you address me."
"Sounds pretty lively for a mummy," Ted remarked to his companion.
Bud nodded, pretending to scrutinize the patient with a frowning air. "He"ll live, I guess. Once they start wisecracking, it"s usually a hopeful sign . . . Oof!"
The last remark came in a stifled grunt as Bud ducked to avoid a well-aimed pillow!
"Just wanted to show you my reflexes are still THE MYSTERIOUS CALLER 23.
working." Tom chuckled. "Now sit down and entertain me with your witty conversation."
The three friends were talking and laughing about other things and for the moment Tom"s harrowing experience was completely forgotten.
"Good thing no reporter is taking this down for the Enterprises Journal," Bud remarked. "He"d think we came out here for a lowbrow gag session instead of a scientific project."
"What"s the Enterprises Journal?" Ted inquired.
"A new magazine our company"s putting out," Tom explained. "It"ll be mainly a technical journal, with papers contributed by our research staff and engineers, but there"ll be other features too."
"And a real eye-catching cover," Bud boasted. "Sandy designed it. Only trouble is"-he pretended to shake his head in disgust-"I"m afraid the inside may spoil all the good-looking art work."
"How come?" asked Ted with a puzzled look.
"Oh, the technical stuff isn"t so bad, but there"s one article that"ll really make the readers turn blue. It"s chockful of Greek-letter formulas and Einstein equations by some long-haired fogy named Tom Swift Jr."
The next moment Bud ducked as Tom let fly another pillow. "Just for that I"ll make you write it!" Tom vowed.
At this point a nurse looked into the room and stared sternly at the three youths. "Visiting time 24 .
is up," she announced. "The patient must get proper rest."
"Right." Bud nodded gravely. "I"m sorry to say, Nurse, the patient seems to be getting feverish. Better slip him a double dose of your worst-tasting medicine!"
Tom was still chuckling as his two friends took their leave. Bud"s joshing remarks had lifted his spirits and made him feel better already.
That evening as Ted Spring and Bud prepared for bed they heard a knock on the door and a staff clerk entered the room. "There"s a longdistance call for Mr.
Spring. You can take it downstairs in the office."
To Ted"s surprise, the call was from his mother back in Shopton. But his pleasure dimmed when he heard how worried she sounded.
"Ted, that Mr. Hampshire called again," Mrs. Spring reported. "Goodness, I just don"t know what to make of it, but I thought you"d better know."
"You"re right, Mother. What did he say?"
"Well, he asked for you. I knew that you were suspicious of him, and that Tom Swift and his father would like to trace him. So I said I"d be glad to pa.s.s along any message and tried to keep him talking. In the meantime, I told Ray to run next door and call the police on our neighbor"s phone, so they could trace the call."
Ray was Ted"s ten-year-old brother.
"What happened?" Ted asked, gripping the THE MYSTERIOUS CALLER 25.
phone excitedly. "Were the police able to trace the call?"
"Yes," Mrs. Spring replied. "It was coming from a phone booth in the lobby of some little run-down hotel. But unfortunately the caller was gone by the time a cruise car arrived. This Mr. Hampshire-or whoever he is-had slipped away."
Ted groaned with disappointment. "What a break! Did they get a description of him?"
"Yes, that"s one good thing. A bellhop had noticed the man making a call.
Said he was a pinched-looking, hollow-eyed man, about forty years old and dark- haired."
"Hmm." Ted mulled over this news. "Well, that"s something to go on, anyhow.
Are the police looking for him?"
"Indeed they are!" said Ted"s mother thankfully. "They"re co-operating with Mr. Ames at Swift Enterprises. But so far they"ve had no luck. There"s n.o.body named Hampshire in the Shop-ton phone book or any official records. And they haven"t found a trace of any visitor in town of that description either."
Ted did his best to rea.s.sure his mother about the mysterious Mr. Hampshire.
Nevertheless, the young engineer"s brow was creased in a worried frown as he replaced the telephone.
He was just leaving the dormitory office when the telephone rang again.
Since the clerk had left, Ted answered.
26 .
"There"s another long-distance call for Mr. Ted Spring," the switchboard operator announced.
"This is Ted Spring speaking."
The operator asked him to wait a moment, then a man"s voice cut in, speaking in a high-pitched, nasal whine. "Mr. Spring?"
"Speaking. Who is this?"
"This is Mr. Hampshire," the voice replied. "No doubt you remember that I called you once before. I-"
"Just a minute," Ted broke in suspiciously. "How did you find out where to reach me?"
"That"s of no importance. I"m calling to renew my offer of help in the case of your father"s accidental death. It so happens that I have some new evidence on that crash."
"Such as?" Ted asked.
"Evidence which has never been brought out before-and evidence, I might add, which would be very embarra.s.sing to the Swifts. Believe me, they would certainly settle out of court for plenty of cash!"
Ted digested this surprising statement. "And what"s your interest in all this?"
he inquired.
"I"m coming to that," Hampshire went on smoothly. "Now, as proof of my good faith, I"m willing to pa.s.s on this information in exchange for some information on your part."
"What do you mean by that?" Ted asked sharply.
"I mean that if you"ll just tell me when the Enterprises Journal is going to press, I"ll give you THE MYSTERIOUS CALLER 27.
some inside dope about that plane crash. That"s a fair offer, isn"t it?"
Ted was startled. What "inside dope" had Hampshire dug up? Ted was curious to learn more, but he mistrusted the caller"s motives.
"I don"t think I"d care to make a bargain like that," Ted retorted.
"Don"t be a fool, Spring!" Hampshire"s voice turned nasty. "You"re missing out on a good deal. If you think I"m lying, then ask the Swifts about the servo unit on the plane"s elevators when it crashed!"
Before Ted could say another word, there was a click at the other end of the line, indicating that Hampshire had hung up.
Puzzled and with an increased feeling of worry, Ted put down the phone and went upstairs to his room.
"Call from home?" Bud Barclay asked.
Ted nodded, and told Bud about both calls, including the sinister remark Hampshire had made just before hanging up.
When Ted had finished, Bud"s face flushed with rage. He sprang out of his chair. "The servo unit on the elevators!" he exclaimed. "Hampshire is a low-down troublemaker!"
CHAPTER IV.
DANGER ZONE.
"TED, that man Hampshire"s just trying to stir up trouble to gain something for himself," Bud declared stormily. "All the facts of your father"s accident were brought out in the CAA investigation."
"Of course I know that," Ted a.s.sured him. He sat down on his bunk and started to take off his shoes. "Listen, Bud, there"s no need for you to get so mad.
The Swifts treated Mother and me more than generously, and we have no complaints. Our only feeling about the crash was our sorrow at losing Dad."
Bud paced about the room, still red-faced and angry. "But don"t you see, Ted-Hampshire is up to something crooked and he"s trying to mix you up in it!"
"Well, he"s wasting his time." Ted stood up in his bare feet, yawned, and started to change into his pajamas. "If Hampshire is trying to pull me into some crooked deal, I"m having no part of it.
28.
DANGER ZONE 29.
The police will pick him up sooner or later. Now let"s get some shut-eye."
Bud calmed down considerably, and soon both boys fell asleep. Next morning, however, the husky young copilot was still disturbed by the mysterious phone call. After a hasty breakfast of bacon and eggs in the mess hall, he hurried over to the infirmary to report the situation to Tom.
"Hampshire"s a phony all right," Tom agreed, after hearing the story. He chewed thoughtfully on an apple from his breakfast tray. "But I still don"t see what his game is. Why did he want to know when the Journal is going to press?"
Bud shrugged and hitched his chair closer. "Look, Tom. What worries me is that crack he made about the elevators. You remember the investigation showed that none of the servo units had been tampered with."