"Hope you can
find out what's wrong."
The eighteen-year-old inventor accepted the challenge with a smile.
"I'll be glad to try, sir," he replied.
Bud Barclay, a dark-haired young flier and Tom Swift Jr.'s closest
friend, chuckled. "If anyone can get the bugs out of your new invention,
genius boy here will do it!"
The two boys followed Mr. Faber and his engineers to a wooden building
which was tightly guarded. Inside, a secret rocket-telemetering device
was mounted on its test stand.
"As you know, Tom," Mr. Faber began, "the usual conditions of rocket
flight will be--"
He broke off with a gasp of astonishment as the whole building suddenly
began to shake.
"Good grief!" Bud exclaimed. "This isn't part of your testing routine,
is it?"
His question was drowned out by cries of alarm and the sound of cracking
glass. The walls and roof were shuddering and creaking, and the concrete
floor was heaving under their feet.
[Illustration (earthquake in the lab)]
"Look out! The test stand's breaking loose!" Tom warned.
Mr. Faber and two of his men tried frantically to brace the heavy test
stand which held the telemetering device. Another engineer rushed toward
the door to see what was happening outside. Before he reached it,
another shock knocked all of them off their feet.
Electronic equipment cascaded from the wall shelves, and a heavy-duty
chain hoist came loose from its overhead track, plunging to the floor
with a terrifying crash.
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