Tom Swift and His Giant Telescope

by Victor Appleton

"What's up, Tom?" called Ned, hearing the noise and seeing his chum fumbling with the now useless mechanism.

"Landing gear out of commission. But there's no need to worry as we can descend on Lake Carlopa easily with the pontoons."

"Landing Gear out of Commission."

"By George!" exclaimed Ned Newton, banging his fist on the instrument panel. "Ten to one this is the work of the same scoundrel who bored holes in the floats. If I could get my hands on—"

"I hope you'll be in a condition to do so," cut in Tom in an oddly strained voice. "Take a look at the fuel gauge."

"It—it says zero! But that's impossible. We saw the tanks filled last night."

"Look at the Fuel Gauge."

"Sure, and when we took off this morning the gauge showed they were still full. Someone tampered with the pointer of the instrument and all but drained the gas containers when they wrecked the landing gear. Just now you dislodged the jammed needle when you struck the instrument board with your fist."