Tom Swift and His Flying Lab by Victor Appleton II Read Free Book Online Page A

I think about it one more second, here goes!"
    "Wait a minute!" Bud ordered. "Pull the stick back until the nose is just above the horizon. Then use—"
    But Sandy had pulled the stick back too far, and the Pigeon began to lose flying speedrapidly. As she moved the stick to the right, the plane vibrated, then stalled, and plunged earthward in a buffeting spin. Sandy caught her breath.
    "I have it," Bud said quietly. He kicked in the right rudder, snapped the stick forward, and came out of the spin in a long dive with five hundred feet to spare. Then he used the speed of his dive to regain most of the altitude lost.
    Sandy let out a sigh of relief. "I think I’ve rolled enough barrels for one day," she said.
    "No, girl, that’s not how it works," Bud told her with a smile that looked unrelenting. "Try it again right now, or you’ll be spooked for life. Just don’t pull the nose up so far that you lose all of your flying speed. Now go ahead."
    This time the roll was perfectly timed, and Sandy’s confidence was restored.
    "I’ll take over now," her friend said. "She performs beautifully, doesn’t she? I wonder just how small a spot I can set the Pigeon down in!"
    Using the standard approach pattern to the field, Bud eased in over the countryside. Gently the plane nosed down, until it was only six hundred feet above a small wooded area on one side of the field. It was able to move through the air so slowly and lightly that it almost seemed to be floating on the breeze, like thistledown.
    Suddenly there was a terrific impact against the bottom of the fuselage. Something ripped through the floor, whizzed upward between them, and passed through the roof of the cockpit. The Pigeon gave a tremendous lurch.
    "Someone’s firing at us!" Bud shouted.
     
CHAPTER 7
CRITICAL TEST
    "WE’LL have to crash land, Sandy! Hang on!"
    Only the fact that Bud Barclay was an experienced pilot prevented a bad crackup. As it was, he leveled off just in time to pancake to the runway without disaster.
    There was a sickening screech as the damaged undercarriage was ripped away, but the ill-fated plane skidded to a stop. Bud and Sandy sat in stunned silence a couple of seconds. Then he said:
    "Are you all right, Sandy?"
    "I think so. A few aches and pains. But don’t worry, Buddo—I won’t sue you for pilot malpractice." Bud was relieved that Sandy could joke despite the fear in her voice. "How about you?"
    "I’m okay."
    With shaking fingers Sandy unfastened her safety belt and slipped out of the seat. Bud helped her from the plane, which was listing over on its left wing, and they surveyed the damage.
    "It could have been a lot worse," he said thankfully. "If that wasn’t a deliberate attempt to kill us, I’m a bald eagle!"
    "But  why?" Sandy asked quaveringly. "By the same man who broke in to Enterprises?"
    Bud shrugged. "At least by someone who doesn’t want Tom to go to South America. Remember, it was Tom who was supposed to take the Special up today!"
    Two hours later, after Sandy had been taken back to the Swift residence, Tom finished a cursory examination of the Pigeon Special . The crumpled craft had been moved to a hangar at Swift Enterprises by flatbed truck.
    "This is going to be hard to believe, Bud," said Tom, "but I think something along the lines of an antiaircraft bazooka shot a micro-rocket at the plane."
    "What!" Bud exclaimed, staring wide-eyed at the holes in the floor and ceiling of the cabin. "If that thing had exploded—" "The rocket launcher must have been in the woods," Tom declared. "Maybe a mobile, truck-mounted job."
    Bud snorted. "By my arithmetic, that’s two attacks on you and Enterprises by those rebels. And two too many!"
    "It sure looks that way." Tom clenched his fists. "But when he shoots at Sandy—"
    "Whatever you do to him, count me in on it," Bud growled. "Say, how do you figure they found out that you were going to test the Pigeon this morning?"
    "I wish I knew," Tom said solemnly. "There must be a