they said. “Then we will send you directions to return to your orbital flight.”
Elated at this confirmation of his own reasoning, Tom decided to obey. He turned the kicker to top capacity for five seconds, swinging sharp right, then cut off the motors.
Fervently hoping this had done the trick, he waited. The rocket seemed to stand still for a moment, then the magnetic pull began again, but this time it was not so strong.
“We’re almost out of it!” Bud cried gleefully.
“One more maneuver. But we’re farther from the earth,” Tom said, worried, as he repeated the operation and found himself fifteen hundred miles high.
188 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROCKET SHIP
As promised by their benefactors, however, further instructions began to appear. Bud copied the symbols as Tom translated. He had just completed the preliminary directions, however, when the dots and dashes used to formulate the mathematical figures collapsed into a straight line and started to fade.
The boys watched intently, but the symbols no longer took shape. Then they died out completely.
Tom looked woefully at the figures he had copied. Without the rest of the instructions they were worthless.
“This is the finish,” Bud said, his optimism gone.
Tom would not give up. He turned to the special transmitter he had brought and turned several small knobs.
“What are you going to do?” Bud asked.
“Try to reach those space people and get the rest of the directions,” Tom replied. “If I ever needed to reach them, it’s right now!”
Using the planet dictionary, he quickly copied a set of figures to read, “We need the instructions again.”