Work at the lake proceeded rapidly with shifts manning the selector around the clock. By Saturday morning the ancient buildings had been thoroughly cleaned and the poisonous growth removed from a wide area of the lake bed.
Rajah Krishna arrived at noon with his Rani and members of the court. They lunched aboard the Sky Queen and viewed the results of Tom’s work. The royal party stared wide-eyed at the alabaster temples and palaces gleaming in the bright Himalayan sunshine. Later, they toured the buildings and saw the decorations and treasures inside.
Finally Tom said, “My father has radioed that I’m needed back in America for the Mars rocket project. But a fresh crew of engineers is on their way here. While the lake bed is being cleaned, they’ll lay pipes and dredge irrigation channels so the valley can be turned into farmland without submerging these buildings.”
176 POLAR-RAY DYNASPHERE
“Wonderful! Wonderful!” the Rajah said.
Before leaving, he rewarded Tom and Bud with priceless objects from the lost city. Tom received a jeweled dagger, and Bud the small statue of an archer carved from jade.
“Vishnapur owes you much, Shri Swift,” the Rajah said. “These are only small tokens toward the full payment you have so richly earned.”
By nightfall the boys were homeward bound in the Sky Queen, and on Monday morning scientists and officials from the government space agency conferred with Tom and his father on Fearing Island. Then Tom and Bud zoomed into space aboard the Dyna Ranger.
Ten thousand miles aloft, the boys went into orbit and climbed to the observation dome. Tom fed data to the aiming computer and began manipulating the switches and dials on the control console. The dynasphere shone with a bluish-red glow as it beamed its invisible field far out into interplanetary space.
“Nothing more we can do now. We’ll just have to wait,” Tom said. “The flight of the Mars rocket back to earth will take about forty days.”
The two young astronauts returned to Fearing. During the anxious weeks that followed, Tom and Mr. Swift checked frequently on the rocket’s progress over the megascope space prober. It appeared to be heading earthward on a true course. At last Tom and Bud soared aloft into space to intercept the Mars voyager. Like an arrow, the gleaming probe missile homed toward the dynasphere.
Bud watched breathlessly as Tom slowed their prize with the repelatron catchers and grappled it neatly to the Dyna Ranger. Then the copilot gave a wild whoop of triumph.
“You did it, pal! Nice going!”
Flushed with excitement, Tom hurried below to radio the good news to his father on Fearing Island. “Mission accomplished, Dad! We’re on our way back to earth!”
“Well, what’s your next big invention going to be?” Bud asked as his chum signed off.
Tom grinned. “I have several ideas cooking.” He was already thinking of the priceless data to be gleaned from the rocket’s instrument tapes and visualizing ways of using it to advance man’s mastery of space. But the next invention from Tom’s laboratory, his Sonic Boom Trap, would lead him into a totally different adventure, coping with a mystery of weird and dangerous sounds.
Bud chuckled. “I’m going to miss treasure hunting in space.”
“Me too,” Tom admitted. “Who knows-maybe someday the polar-ray dynasphere will bring in a new planet for us to explore!”