Ted shook his head. "This time the caller gave no name, but I"m sure the voice wasn"t Hampshire"s."
"What did he say?" Mr. Swift asked.
"He asked me if I was going to co-operate with Hampshire," Ted replied.
"When I told him no, he became furious and said, "If you don"t, your life won"t be worth a plugged nickel!" "
Bud broke the tense silence that followed. "Ted, it looks as if the only safe place for you will be the s.p.a.ce outpost-or the moon!"
Mrs. Swift, with her usual motherly concern, had a more practical suggestion.
"Ted, why not stay here for the time being? We have plenty of room, and you"ll be protected by our warning system!"
This system, devised by Tom and his father,
47.
48 .
maintained a magnetic field around the Swift house and grounds. Anyone entering the field, unless wearing a special deactivator mechanism, triggered off an alarm inside the house.
"That"s very kind of you, Mrs. Swift," Ted replied, "but Mother and Ray may be in danger too. I wouldn"t want to leave them alone."
"Before we decide anything," Tom put in, "let me call Harlan Ames. He was to be at the plant tonight."
Tom hurried to the Swifts" second telephone, a private wire to Enterprises.
When the security chief heard what had happened, he suggested that Ted stay at Enterprises, which was guarded by a tight security setup, and that his family be flown by helicopter to Ames"s private cottage on Blue-jay Lake.
"There"s plenty of frozen and canned food there," he explained, "and they"ll be perfectly safe. The spot is accessible only by plane."
"Good deal, Harlan!" Tom concurred. "Thanks a million."
Ted agreed at once to Ames"s suggestion and suggested that he call his mother at once.
"Better not," Tom advised. "Hampshire and his gang may be tapping your phone. We"ll pick up your mother and Ray by car and drive them to the Enterprises airfield."
It was decided as a safety measure to divide forces. Ted and Bud would go first in Bud"s convertible, while Tom and Mr. Swift followed in Tom"s sports car.
A NIGHT OF PERIL 49.
As they were about to leave, Mrs. Swift spoke nervously to her husband. "I-I don"t want to seem unduly worried, my dear, but do you suppose someone might be watching the house right now? If so, he may trail you."
Mr. Swift gave her a rea.s.suring hug. "You may have a point there, Mary-we"ll check. Switch on all the yard lights, Tom."
"Right, Dad. I"ll turn Caesar and Brutus loose, too. They"ll certainly let us know if anyone"s lurking around!"
The two bloodhounds were kenneled outside. Besides being the Swift family pets, they were also highly trained watchdogs.
Tom pressed a master switch, controlling a number of spotlights concealed in the shrubbery. Instantly the house and grounds were bathed in a brilliant radiance.
Then he and Bud hurried out to open the kennel. With eager yelps, the two bloodhounds came loping out. They ambled about, lifting their heads occasionally to sniff the night air, but gave no sign of detecting any unfamiliar scents.
"All clear," Tom reported. "Let"s get going!"
The trip to Ted Spring"s house was completed without incident. The others waited outside while Ted went in to tell his mother and brother about moving to Ames"s cottage, and help pack for the trip. Tom had parked his low-slung sports car at the curb behind Bud"s red convertible. Minutes later, Ted emerged from the house alone, looking anxious and worried.
50 .
"What about your mother and Ray?" asked Mr. Swift. "Nothing wrong, is there?"
"They won"t come," Ted reported. "Mother says she feels safer right here in her own home."
"That"s natural, I suppose," said Mr. Swift, "but in this case I strongly believe it would be better for her to follow our plan."
"I"ve tried to convince her, sir. Would you talk to her, please? I"m sure she"ll listen to you."
Mr. Swift grinned sympathetically and opened the car door. "All right, son. I hope your confidence isn"t misplaced, but I"ll see what I can do."
While Mr. Swift and Ted went back inside, Tom and Bud scouted around cautiously for signs of anyone spying on the house. All seemed quiet and normal.
The only other cars parked on the street were empty.
Fifteen minutes later Mrs. Spring and Ray came out, accompanied by Ted and Mr. Swift, who were carrying the suitcases. The boys loaded these into the convertible"s trunk, then Tom a.s.sisted Mrs. Spring into the back seat. The slender, dark-haired woman wore an anxious, tense look.
"I do hope I"ve made the right decision," she fretted.
"I"m sure you have," said Tom rea.s.suringly. "Believe me, you and Ray will be perfectly safe at Bluejay Lake."
"Sure we will," Ray spoke up stoutly. "Boy, it"ll be fun going up there!" He climbed in be- A NIGHT OF PERIL 51.
side her, and Ted took the front seat with Bud.
As the red convertible pulled away from the curb, Tom followed close behind with his father. Cutting straight across town, they took the road leading to Swift Enterprises, which lay on the outskirts of Shopton.
"Lights behind us, Dad," said Tom tersely, glancing at the rear-view mirror.
As Mr. Swift turned to look, the car approached rapidly, then swung to the left to pa.s.s. Hitting at least sixty miles an hour, the car roared alongside, then swung broadside into the path of Bud"s convertible!
Bud slammed on the brakes. Too late! With a deafening impact of crumpling metal, the red convertible plowed into the sedan, which had stopped dead ahead.
"Great Scott!" gasped Mr. Swift in horror.
Only quick action on Tom"s part prevented a second collision. The instant he brought his car to a halt, both he and his father leaped out to aid the others.
"Anyone hurt?" Tom cried, ripping open the door of the convertible.
There was silence for several seconds, then Bud replied woozily, "I"m okay, I guess."
"Me, too," Ted spoke up. "Banged my head pretty hard. Mother, Ray, are you-?"
Mrs. Spring and Ray reported being shaken up and bruised, but otherwise uninjured.
"Thank goodness," said Mr. Swift.
"But why did that driver ahead pull in front of
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us?" Mrs. Spring asked. "And what happened to him?"
"He ran away," Ted answered. "He jumped out the instant he stopped. I saw him dart off the road to the right just before we crashed and our headlights went out."
"I"ll bet it was Hampshire," Bud declared. "What did he look like?"
"I didn"t see his face," Ted replied.
Tom got a powerful flashlight from the glove compartment of his own car and played it back and forth in the direction Ted had indicated. The area bordering the road was an open field which seemed to offer no hiding place.
"That"s funny." Ted frowned. "I"m sure he headed over this way somewhere."
A NIGHT OF PERIL.
53.
"It"s possible," Tom pointed out, "that he started to the right just to mislead us, and then doubled back across the road later."
The left side was overgrown with trees and tangled underbrush.
"Wait here," Tom told the others. "There"s probably not much chance of finding him, but I"ll take a look."
Crossing the road, Tom moved cautiously among the trees, probing here and there with his flashlight. From time to time, he turned off the light and paused to listen for the sound of footsteps or other movements. Suddenly Tom froze in the darkness as his ears caught the murmur of voices.
"We"ve got the guy scared now," a man was saying. "Pretty soon, we should have our mitts on the Swifts" plans. Then we"ll pa.s.s "em along to the right party 1"
CHAPTER VII.
ANt.i.tRUTH SERUM.
TOM repressed a surge of anger and focused his attention on locating the men, whose voices he did not recognize. Where were they?
Tom swung his light in all directions. But the yellow beam revealed nothing except tree trunks and gloomy undergrowth. Suddenly he realized that he was making a target of himself.
"Oh-oh! Those fellows may be armed!" he reflected, snapping off the flashlight hastily.
But how to find them in the darkness? Scarcely a ray of moonlight penetrated through the leafy branches overhead. Then a plan occurred to Tom -an old trick which might fool his unseen enemies. He jammed his flashlight into the crotch of a tree and turned on the beam again. Then, moving silently as an Indian, he began picking his way toward the voices.
To Tom"s annoyance, the men had stopped talking. His keen senses enabled him, however, to hazard a guess as to their possible location.
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ANt.i.tRUTH SERUM 55.
Tom was hoping they might launch an attack of some kind toward the flashlight and thus give themselves away.
So far, they had shown no sign of rising to the bait. The silence continued, broken only by the chirp of crickets and other night noises.
Step by step, Tom silently inched his way forward. To his chagrin, his efforts proved fruitless. Broken underbrush showed where the men had been crouching.
"Have they ducked out of sight temporarily?" Tom asked himself. "What if they circle behind me, waiting for a chance to strike?" The thought made the hairs bristle at the nape of Tom"s neck!
Suddenly, from the road, came the sound of a car starting up. Galvanized into action, Tom rushed toward the highway. He was just in time to see a sedan without lights pull out from among the trees and roar off into the darkness.
Thoroughly disgusted, he retraced his steps toward the scene of the crash.