Mr. Swift shook his head. “That’s what puzzles me. Our space friends are highly advanced in science, so one would expect them to have all disease-causing germs or viruses under control-unless it’s something new on their planet.”
“Exactly what I was thinking,” Tom said. “The infection may have been picked up from another planet-perhaps from earth itself.”
Evan Glennon puffed thoughtfully on his pipe. “Look you! Could your space friends send an infected animal by rocket ship for us to study? Or at least some tissue samples or germ cultures?”
“Evan, that may be the solution!” Tom looked at his father. “What do you think, Dad?”
“It’s worth a try,” Mr. Swift agreed.
Tom spelled out the request on the electronic brain. A few moments later the machine punched out the return message on tape: CANNOT GIVE DEFINITE ANSWER NOW. WILL REPLY LATER.
“Whew!” Bud sighed. “This is worse than
waiting to learn ‘whodunnit’ in a mystery story!”
Rather than stand by to wait for the message,
A SOLAR EXPERIMENT 25
Mr. Swift called a radioman to watch the machine. Then he took the two guests on a tour of Enterprises. Meanwhile, Tom and Bud headed for Tom’s gleaming, glass-fronted laboratory.
“What’s next, genius boy?” Bud asked as they reached it.
“Back to work on my new spaceship repelatron,” Tom replied.
“Brief me again on it, will you?” the husky young flier urged.
Tom grinned. “Well, if you’ve ever looked through a spectroscope, you know that every substance gives off its own special kind of radiation.”
Bud nodded. “Sort of a rainbow trade-mark.”