Soon the ship settled into silence, except for the steady drone of the rocket motors. Half an hour later, Chow called up grumpily from the bunkroom below.
“Brand my nightshirt, boss, I jest can’t sleep with them jets blastin’ away. If that racket don’t stop, I reckon I’ll start howlin’ like a coyote!”
Tom chuckled. “If you can keep the ship from crashing with that bellowing voice of yours, Chow, I’ll turn off the engines. Otherwise, I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with it.”
A few soothing words sent the old cowpoke back to his bunk. But Tom had hardly switched off the mike when the intercom buzzer sounded again. This time it was the radioman.
“Get down here fast, skipper,” he cried. “Something’s coming through on the space oscilloscope!”
Tom rushed to the operator’s side and watched as the symbols appeared on the scope. In a few moments words in English began appearing on the tape of the electronic translator.
Together the two men read excitedly:
SPACE PEOPLE TO TOM SWIFT. WE HAVE JUST LAUNCHED OUR
ANIMAL ROCKET.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE CAPTURED ARK
REALIZING it might be some time yet before the rocket arrived in orbit, Tom decided not to rouse his passengers. It was better to let them sleep, he felt, while the chance permitted.
At the changing of the watch, however, the whispered word spread like wildfire. Soon Tom’s excited companions were tumbling from their bunks to rush up to the flight compartment.
“Hey, skipper! Is it true?” Bud gasped.
Tom nodded. “A message came an hour ago from our space friends, saying they’d launched their rocket.”