Tom Swift and His Ultrasonic Cycloplane by Victor Appleton II Read Free Book Online Page A

photographing animal and floral specimens, which I use as live models for technical illustration—my specialty and main occupation. I might be able to help you a good bit."
    "Oh, I see." Uncertain, Tom stalled. "It’s kind of you to offer, but I’m not sure that we’ll be able to take another person. May I call you back?"
    "Sure, you can reach me here all afternoon," Hedron replied, and gave Tom his phone number. "Really, I just want to help in any way I can."
    After hanging up, Tom frowned for a moment, then dialed Harlan Ames, the plant security chief at Swift Enterprises. Quickly he told what he knew of Hedron’s background. "Check up on Hedron, will you, Harlan? Bashalli and the school should be able to give you more info. Find out if he’s on the up-and-up, and call me back as soon as possible. If he’s legit, I wouldn’t mind having a New Guinea expert on the team. The government there keeps telling us there’s little that they can do."
    "Will do, Tom!"
    In less than an hour Ames reported back. "Everything looks all right, Tom. Bash and the Institute hold him in very high regard. I checked Hedron’s university record and he holds a master’s degree in zoology. So far as I can find out on short notice, he has no criminal record."
    "No sign of skullduggery? No secret meetings with the Brungarians or the Kranjovians?"
    Ames laughed. "Not a trace!"
    "Good enough, Harlan. Thanks!"
    Tom felt that there was now no reason to turn down Hedron’s offer of assistance, especially in such a life-and-death emergency. So he phoned the zoologist and told him to prepare for immediate departure and report to Enterprises by mid-afternoon.
    Soon after five o’clock, the roof of the underground hangar swung open in two halves, rotated by smooth-working gears. The hangar floor was then raised to ground level by hydraulic lifts, and the majestic Sky Queen emerged into the bright Shopton sunlight.
    Sandy and Bashalli had driven out to the plant to wish Tom a last-minute farewell. "I’ll be worried every minute you’re gone," Bashalli confessed shyly, "and imagining your shrunken head on a stick. So do be careful!"
    "I promise." Tom smiled, then surprised himself by blushing as the raven-haired Pakistani raised herself on tiptoe and gave him a quick kiss.
    Sandy was tearful. "Tom, watch out. And you must find Bud—and Slim, too!"
    Tom gave his sister a gentle squeeze. "We’ll bring ’em both back safely. That promise is for you, sis."
    One by one, the members of the rescue party climbed aboard the giant plane. Besides Chow, Hedron, and Hank Sterling, there was Arvid Hanson, the expert modelmaker of Swift Enterprises who was also a crack pilot, and Doc Simpson, the young plant physician. Several experienced flight crewmen made up the rest of the expedition.
    In the ship’s large flight compartment, Tom settled himself in the pilot’s seat and ran through a quick instrument checkoff, now and then giving a sober glance sideways at the copilot’s spot usually occupied by Bud. Then, after clearing with the control tower and waving soberly to the two girls, he gunned the mighty engines. With the roar of a giant the Sky Queen shot straight up on its bank of jet lifters, then soared ahead westward, having been cleared for a cross-continent trans-Pacific route.
    Streaking across the United States at over twelve hundred miles an hour, Tom and his companions paid little attention to the tapestry of farmland, cities, plains, and mountains unrolling beneath them. Then came the long flight across the billowing blue-green waters of the Pacific. Occasionally they passed over tiny ships trailing long wisps of smoke, or tropic atolls ringed by coral reefs and breakers of foam.
    Finally, almost ten hours after leaving Shopton, the rescue party sighted New Guinea.
    "We’ve outrun the sun," Arv Hanson commented from the co-pilot’s chair.
    Tom nodded, glancing at his watch. In the local time zone, it was only a few minutes before three