“Oh, I’m not going to, my dear! I’m not going to!” he said hastily.
“Ready?” called the official starter.
“Ready!” answered Tom Swift.
“Ready!” came from the other contestants.
“Boom!” echoed the big cannon.
“They’re off!” yelled the crowd, and with a roar of her exhaust pipes the Air Monarch shot across the field, followed by several other craft seeking to beat her.
The globe-circling race had started!
CHAPTER X
ACROSS THE OCEAN
“There goes the Red Arrow!” said Ned, standing beside Tom in the control cabin as the Air Monarch mounted the air and they could look down on the earth. “He made good time!”
“I’ll say he did,” agreed Tom, who was turning on a little more power, now that his craft was in the air. “Some bus he’s got there, too!”