“Tom!” Bud cried suddenly. “I just saw a couple of pips on the other radar tracker. It must be our Australian rival. For Pete’s sake, don’t hit one of those guys!”
Tom looked at the second scope and studied it for a couple of seconds. The image appeared again, faintly. He altered their course slightly to avoid a crash.
Then he turned to the periscopic lens for a view of the area ahead.
“We’ll be close enough to the mystery rocket to see it in a few seconds.”
Suddenly the boys could see the outline of the mystery ship!
Tom signaled in the hope of attracting the attention of the other craft, but there was no response. Suddenly Bud called out: “The image is still on the scope, but it’s growing smaller.”
“It’s getting away!” Tom cried.
“But that’s impossible,” Bud retorted. “We’re traveling at almost sixteen thousand miles an hour!”
OMINOUS SIGNS 195
“Now I’m sure that rocket contained our space friends!” Tom exclaimed. “I can understand that they might outfly us, but why would they turn tail and run?”
“Only one reason,” Bud replied. “Rotzog must be around!”
CHAPTER 24
AN ATTACK
THE OUTLINE of the friendly spaceship disappeared completely from the radarscope, making the sixteen-thousand-miles-per-hour speed of Tom’s rocket seem like a snail’s pace by comparison.
“Say,” said Bud, as a new idea struck him, “you don’t suppose they thought this is Rotzog’s ship? They’re not equipped to defend themselves against an armed attack.”
“It’s possible,” Tom replied. “Keep watching the scope, Bud,” he directed. “If Rotzog is around, I want to know it.”