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[Transcriber's Note:
Illustration descriptions in (parentheses) are provided by the
transcriber.]
* * * * *
[Illustrated Cover with Text:]
The new TOM SWIFT Jr. Adventures
TOM SWIFT and
The Visitor from
Planet X
By VICTOR APPLETON II
[Spine Text:]
Tom Swift and the Visitor from Planet X
Victor Appleton II
The new TOM SWIFT Jr. Adventures
17
Grosset
& Dunlap
9117
[Dust Jacket text:]
TOM SWIFT AND THE
VISITOR FROM PLANET X
By VICTOR APPLETON II
Tom Swift Jr. and his associates at Swift
Enterprises wait breathlessly for what
may well be the most important scientific
event in history--the arrival of the
visitor from Planet X--a visitor in the
form of energy. But there are factions at
work determined to snatch the energy,
which Tom has named Exman, from the
young scientist-inventor's grasp. First,
a series of unexplainable, devastating
earthquakes threaten to destroy a good
portion of the earth, and Tom suspects the
Brungarian rebels who obviously would like
to capture Exman and use the space visitor
to further their own evil purposes.
With the security of Enterprises and Exman
at stake, Tom creates two of his greatest
inventions--a Quakelizor to counteract the
simulated earth tremors, and a container
or "body" to house the energy from outer
space.
If the earthquakes cannot be stopped,
the entire world will be threatened by
destruction, and the Brungarian forces
will conquer the earth. How Tom utilizes
all his scientific knowledge to produce
swift-action results and outwit the
Brungarians makes one of the most
exciting Tom Swift adventures to date.
GROSSET & DUNLAP _Publishers_
New York 10, N.Y.
* * * * *
* * * *
* * * * *
[Illustration: inside cover
(Tom Swift in his lab)]
* * * * *
TOM SWIFT AND THE
VISITOR FROM PLANET X
* * * * *
THE NEW TOM SWIFT JR. ADVENTURES
BY VICTOR APPLETON II
TOM SWIFT AND HIS FLYING LAB
TOM SWIFT AND HIS JETMARINE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROCKET SHIP
TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT ROBOT
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ATOMIC EARTH BLASTER
TOM SWIFT AND HIS OUTPOST IN SPACE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS DIVING SEACOPTER
TOM SWIFT IN THE CAVES OF NUCLEAR FIRE
TOM SWIFT ON THE PHANTOM SATELLITE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ULTRASONIC CYCLOPLANE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS DEEP-SEA HYDRODOME
TOM SWIFT IN THE RACE TO THE MOON
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SPACE SOLARTRON
TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRONIC RETROSCOPE
TOM SWIFT AND HIS SPECTROMARINE SELECTOR
TOM SWIFT AND THE COSMIC ASTRONAUTS
TOM SWIFT AND THE VISITOR FROM PLANET X
* * * * *
[Frontispiece:
_The raiders transferred Exman to the enemy sub_]
* * * * *
The New Tom Swift Jr. Adventures
TOM SWIFT
AND THE VISITOR
FROM PLANET X
BY VICTOR APPLETON II
ILLUSTRATED BY GRAHAM KAYE
Grosset & Dunlap
New York
Publishers
[c] by Grosset & Dunlap, Inc., 1961
All Rights Reserved
Printed in the United States of America
* * * * *
CONTENTS
Chapter Page
1 The Earthquake 1
2 The Mysterious Hitchhiker 11
3 Report from Interpol 18
4 Another Tremor! 30
5 Secret Cache 39
6 Brungarian Coup 46
7 Wall of Water! 55
8 A Suspect Talks 65
9 The Cave Monster 73
10 Energy from Planet X 83
11 An Electrical Christening 92
12 Exman Takes Orders 99
13 Disaster Strikes 106
14 Air-borne Hijackers 115
15 Kidnaped! 125
16 A Unique Experiment 137
17 An Urgent Warning 145
18 Earthquake Island 155
19 A Fiendish Machine 166
20 The Robot Spy's Story 177
CHAPTER I
THE EARTHQUAKE
"Tom, we're having a problem with the gyro-stabilizer," said Mark Faber,
gray-haired president of the Faber Electronics Company. "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.
"An earthquake!" Tom gasped.
Bud, meanwhile, clawed a handhold on a wire screen enclosing an air
compressor and pulled himself to his feet. But the next moment a third,
more violent tremor rocked the building, knocking him over. "The roof!
It's caving in!" he heard someone scream.
As his eyes flashed upward in panic, Bud caught a brief glimpse of the
ponderous test stand with the priceless telemeter tilting to one side.
An instant later it crashed over, pinning Mark Faber beneath it!
Bud threw up his arms to protect himself, but too late! A falling beam
caught him on the back of the head and the young flier blacked out.
For minutes, no one stirred among the wreckage. Then Tom, who had been
stunned by some falling debris, raised himself to a sitting position.
"Good night!" Tom's eyes focused in horror on the wreckage enveloped by
still-billowing dust.
The sky was visible through several gaping holes in the roof, which was
sagging dangerously on its supporting trusses. Only two thirds of the
walls were still standing.
Suddenly Tom stiffened in fear. "Bud!" The young inventor had just
noticed his friend lying pinned beneath a heavy beam nearby. _Was he
still breathing?_
Disregarding his own injuries, Tom hastily freed himself from the debris
and groped his way to Bud's side. With a desperate heave, he shoved the
beam away, then cradled Bud's head in his arm. His friend's eyelids
flickered.
"Are you all right?" Tom asked fearfully.
The answer came in a groan. "O-oh!... Wow!... What hit me?"
"You got conked by a falling timber. Or grazed, at least," Tom added
thankfully. "If that beam had landed square on your noggin, even a
rock-head like you couldn't have survived!"
Bud managed to grin. "We grow 'em tough out in California where I come
from!" he joked.
Somewhat shakily, Bud got to his feet with Tom's assistance. Both boys
were heartsick as they surveyed the damaged laboratory, wondering where
to begin rescue operations.
"It was a quake," Bud stated grimly. He had heard about the great San
Francisco earthquake from his grandfather, and had no doubt about the
nature of the tremors.
Just then Tom glimpsed a body protruding from under the wreckage of the
telemetering device.
"Mr. Faber!" he gasped.
The two boys scrambled through the clutter of debris toward the spot
where the test stand had been erected. Bud seized a slender, steel
I beam and managed to pry up the wreckage while Tom carefully extricated
Mr. Faber.
The scientist seemed to be badly injured. "We'd better not try to move
him," Tom decided. "We'll get an ambulance."
Of the four other company engineers, two were now stirring and partly
conscious. The boys found a first-aid cabinet and gave what help they
could to them and the other two men. Then Tom taped a bandage on Bud's
scalp wound.
"Let's see if we can find a telephone and call the local hospital," Tom
said.
"Right!" Bud responded.
They picked their way through the wreckage and emerged on a scene of
frightful destruction. The main plant building of Faber Electronics had
been partially demolished by the quake. Power lines were down and an
outlying storage shed was ablaze. Dazed and panic-stricken survivors
were wandering around aimlessly or rushing about to assist the injured.
"Good thing the main shift of workers knocked off before this happened,"
Bud observed with a shudder. "There would've been a lot more
casualties."
"Look!" Tom pointed to a huge crevasse. "Right where we landed our
Whirling Duck!"
The boys exchanged rueful glances as they realized that the craft which
had brought them to Faber Electronics--one of Tom's unique helijets--had
been swallowed up in the gaping chasm.
"No use fussing about it now," Tom said. "Come on, Bud! Let's see about
getting help for Mr. Faber!"
Despite the chaotic confusion, the boys managed to locate the plant
superintendent--a harried, middle-aged man named Simkins--who was doing
his best to restore order. Simkins, who had not been injured, informed
them that electricians were rigging an emergency telephone line in order
to get through to the nearby town of Harkness.
"Mr. Faber is badly injured," Tom said. "Why not send a car? It's only a
few miles away, isn't it?"
"I'll send the plant nurse to him," Simkins said. "As for going to town,
take a look at the parking lot." He pointed with a jerk of his thumb.
The cars on the lot had been smashed into junk by bricks from a
collapsing wall of one of the buildings. "And the only truck we had
available was in that burning shed," the superintendent added bitterly.
"Tough break," Tom sympathized. "Anyhow, we want to help. Got a job
for us?"
Simkins was only too glad to put Tom's quick mind and keen technical
know-how to use. Within minutes, Tom was in charge of clearing away
rubble and extricating anyone who might be trapped inside the buildings.
Bud organized a fire-fighting crew to keep the blaze in the shed from
spreading.
The telephone line was soon repaired and a steady stream of rescue
vehicles began arriving from Harkness--fire trucks, three ambulances,
and private cars driven by volunteers.
Two hours later there was nothing more Tom and Bud could do at the
disaster scene and they hitched a ride into Harkness. The town had
suffered some damage, though only slight compared to the destruction at
the plant.
"The center of the quake was right under Faber Electronics," Tom
remarked.
From a pay telephone, he called Swift Enterprises in Shopton. This was
the experimental station where he and his father developed their many
amazing inventions. Tom asked the operator to send a helicopter
immediately to pick them up. He also called home and spoke to his
sister, Sandra.
"What a relief!" Sandy gasped. "We heard a bulletin about the quake over
the radio!"
"Don't worry, Sis. Tell Mother and Dad that we're okay," Tom said.
"We'll be home in a jiffy--with big appetites!"
The helicopter arrived within twenty minutes at the place Tom had named.
After landing at Enterprises, the boys drove to the pleasant,
tree-shaded Swift home on the outskirts of town.
Mrs. Swift, a slender, petite woman, tried not to show concern when she
saw the boys, bruised and disheveled. "I'm so thankful you're both
safe!" she murmured.
Blond, blue-eyed Sandy, who was a year younger than Tom, had invited her
friend Phyllis Newton to the house for dinner. Phyl, a pretty,
dark-haired girl, was the daughter of Mr. Swift's long-time friend and
business associate, "Uncle Ned" Newton. The two girls were as much upset
as Tom's mother.
Tom laughed. "We're not stretcher cases," he said. "Why, one of the
ambulance doctors checked us out."
Bud groaned. "Why did you have to go and spoil it?" he complained
jokingly. "I was all set for Sandy's cool soothing touch on my fevered
brow!"
Mr. Swift came into the living room just then and told Tom how worried
Mrs. Swift and Sandy had been. "I tried to assure them that you and Bud
can take care of yourselves in any crisis." He smiled guiltily as he
added, "But I must admit I was more than a little concerned myself."
As Tom grinned, the resemblance between him and his father was very
evident. Both had the same clean-cut features and deep-set blue eyes,
although Tom Jr. was lankier and taller.
After the two boys had showered and changed their clothes, Mrs. Swift
served them a delicious, hot meal. While they ate, Mr. Swift managed
after some difficulty to get a call through to the Harkness Hospital.
His face was grave as he hung up.
"Mark Faber is not expected to live," the elder inventor reported. "A
pity. He's a great scientist."
Tom nodded unhappily. Sandy, to take her brother's mind off the
disaster, said, "Dad, tell Tom and Bud about the visitor who's coming."
"A visitor?" Tom looked at his father.
"From another planet," Mr. Swift revealed.
Both boys were amazed and excited. "Wow!" Bud gasped. "Male or female?
Human or animal?"
Mr. Swift's eyes twinkled. "None of those," he replied as the boys
stared, mystified.