Tom Swift in the Race to the Moon by Victor Appleton II Page A

infirmary came rushing to the scene of the accident. Mrs. Swift was helped aboard with Sandy and Mr. Swift comforting her.
    The ambulance sped back to the infirmary. Here the base physician, Dr. Carman, made an examination and cleaned and dressed the patient’s cuts. Then she was put to bed.
    As the injured woman sank into a restful slumber, Sandy turned to the doctor. "How bad are the cuts?" she asked anxiously. "Will she—will she be all right?"
    Carman nodded briskly. "Oh yes, I’m quite sure they’ll heal without scars. Fairly superficial. Fortunately, none of the splinters went into Mrs. Swift’s eyes. But what was in the bottle?"
    Mrs. Kesey looked surprised and troubled. "It was supposed to be water. Why?"
    At that moment a white-jacketed chemist walked in from the laboratory, holding a fragment of glass and a test printout, which Damon Swift examined. "We’re running some tests on the stuff," he reported, "but it certainly wasn’t water."
    The worried onlookers were stunned. Had one of the Swifts’ enemies done this? Had the lunar race become so fierce that the Sentimentalists were retaliating against the families of the participants?
    Later, Harlan Ames called Mr. Swift at the infirmary from Shopton. "We’ve traced that liquid, Damon," he reported. "The whole thing was an unfortunate mistake by a young stockroom helper working for our supplier. He got his orders crossed and filled one of the bottles with an unstable liquid used in cleaning. The company will dismiss the boy, of course."
    "No, please," said Anne Swift weakly from her bed, listening to the phone speaker. "It was just an accident, and I’m sure he feels terrible enough. Harlan, please tell the supplier that we’d like to see them treat the boy leniently." Ames agreed to do so.
    By this time the space communications center on Fearing had made contact with the Challenger, which was then returning from its quick excursion and was readying itself for the plunge into deep space. Tom and the others were horrified to learn of the mishap on the ground, but relieved by Mrs. Swift’s prognosis for recovery. "Tell Mom she’s as much a hero as anyone here," Tom radioed, "and tell her I’ll send my love from the moon!"
    Breaking the connection, Tom activated the ship intercom. "Okay, buckle your seat belts, everybody," Tom said. "We’ll be using a strong acceleration for a time." Looking around him in the command deck compartment, he was glad to see that neither Anton Faber nor Evan Glennon seemed the slightest bit nervous at the prospect of spearing off into space. They appeared as calm as the others in the compartment—Tom, Bud, Sterling, Hanson, and Chow Winkler. "Everything all right?" Tom asked them.
    Dr. Faber nodded and smiled, his keen gray eyes twinkling behind his spectacles. Evan Glennon beamed at the young skipper with jovial heartiness. "Gad I ni fynd, laddie! In other words, let’s go!"
    Tom switched on the repelatrons again, taking a reading of the earth below. Watching the needles, the youthful astronaut fed power to the radiators. The mighty spaceship responded instantly, zooming away from Earth on a tangent with such a powerful acceleration that the crew were shoved deeply against their seat-cushioned. "Brand my stardust!" grumbled Chow. "Almost knocked my hat off!"
    "It’ll only last for twenty minutes or so," Arv Hanson reassured him. "Then we start decelerating."
    "This is how we make up for the time we’re spending on our stopover," added Tom.
    Tom had made a decision to make a stop en route at Earth’s other moon, Nestria. He intended to take on board one further crew member whose knowledge of space biology and medicine might prove helpful.
    Though the first period of acceleration made the passenger’s feel heavy as lead, they experienced no real discomfort. Still, Chow expressed relief when, at the midpoint of the trip to the tiny satellite, the acceleration eased away while Tom rotated the spaceship so that its "down"