Hank Sterling and Arvid Hanson came to the platform and Tom asked them to record the testing figures while he stepped over to the oscillograph.
“Oh, man!” he cried.
“What’s up?” Bud asked.
“There’s a triangle coming up!” Tom responded, as he watched one impulse after another appear to form the symbol.
This was followed by a still larger triangle surrounding the smaller one, then several other mathematical forms. Tom jotted them down.
“Say, genius, I asked you a question,” Bud prodded him.
“It’s true! They’re after us again!” Tom exclaimed.
“Who? Johnson’s gang?” Bud asked apprehensively.
“No. The space beings,” Tom said with great excitement. “The same ones who carved the symbols on what we first thought was the meteor. This is a follow-up message, asking our help to get them to Earth.”
“Did the message come director by way of the rocket?” Hanson asked.
“I don’t know,” the young inventor admitted, “but I think from the rocket.”
“Second stage has been jettisoned!” Bud called.
60 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ROCKET SHIP
At the same moment a new set of symbols began to appear on the oscillograph. As Tom copied them, he tried to figure their meaning. From his long study in translating the first group, these symbols were easily deciphered.
“What now?” Bud called.
Tom grinned. “Those Martians-or whatever they are-have sent a message of congratulation!”
“Honestly?”
“That’s the way I interpret it.”
Bud gave a shout. “Boy, you’re the first person on this earth to get a message like that! Hey! There goes the third stage!”
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152