"Appleton, Victor - Tom Swift Jr 05 - And His Atomic Earth Blaster" - читать интересную книгу автора (Appleton Victor)

But the thundering roar of the earth blaster drowned out his voice.
The next moment, Tom heard a loud clash of
THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGERS 3
metal on metal. A split second later a geyser of water shot up one hundred
feet into the air!
Hastily Bud jammed the truck into reverse and backed away from the
drenching outburst. But it was too late-the damage was done!
"We've hit an aqueduct!" Tom shouted, as he drew up alongside. "Hand me
the walkie-talkie!"
In stunned silence, Bud reached back, grabbed the walkie-talkie off the cab
shelf behind him, and passed it out to Tom. Quickly Tom made radio contact with
Swift Enterprises.
"We've had an accident," he explained. "Our digging machine broke a
conduit. Phone the water company right way and get a repair crew out here
pronto!"
Within five minutes, an emergency crew from the Enterprises plant arrived on
the scene. It was headed by Hank Sterling, square-jawed chief engineer of the
Swift patternmaking division and general trouble shooter for the outfit.
By now, however, the geyser had stopped, indicating that the water company
had either shut off pressure at the pumps or closed a valve somewhere in the
system.
As Tom pointed out the damage, other vehicles began to pull up at the
scene-two police cars, several fire trucks, and a number of private cars
containing curious townspeople.
4 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ATOMIC BLASTER
"Won't take long to fix," observed Hank, looking down into the pit. He
immediately began barking orders to his men, who had already unloaded welding
equipment and a

THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGERS 5
section of replacement pipe from the repair truck.
Meanwhile, Tom turned his attention to the police and firemen, who were
doing their best to keep the crowd in check.
"Think you can handle the situation?" asked the burly chief in charge of the
fire trucks.
"I'm quite sure we can," Tom said. "Sorry you had to call out all this fire
equipment."
"Don't worry about that," replied the fire chief. "We always find it's safer to get
there first and ask questions later."
"Maybe you won't find it's so easy to handle Old Man Greenup," remarked a
uniformed police ser-
'
6 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ATOMIC BLASTER
geant. He jerked his thumb toward a long, black limousine which had just
pulled up a moment before.
Tom saw a man with iron-gray hair climb out of the car. Frowning, he hurried
toward them with decisive strides.
"Who's he?" Bud asked in a low voice.
"The president of the water company," Tom said quietly, keeping his eyes
fixed on the newcomer. He knew that he was in for trouble, and hoped he could