“Thank goodness! He is alive!” Tom announced.
The young inventor immediately adjusted his solartron to produce a flow of water. He began bathing Ted’s face, while the others chafed the cadet’s hands and wrists. But the victim showed no sign of regaining consciousness.
“Brand my oxygen mask, what’s wrong with him?” Chow muttered.
Tom shrugged helplessly, gripped by a feeling of despair. “I can’t even guess, Chow. And the worst of it is, we have no way to help him-not even a first-aid kit! If only Doc were here!”
“But why did the kidnapers send him back to us in this condition?” Bert puzzled. “To scare us off the chase?”
Equally puzzled, Tom replied, “I don’t know the answer to that one either, Bert.”
SURPRISE MISSILE 151
Bud scowled and clenched his fists. “If Ted dies, those rats will pay for it!”
“Wait a minute,” put in Arv Hanson. “Maybe they sent a message along with him. Let’s search his clothes!”
They went through Ted’s pockets but found nothing. Bud and Bert now hurried outside to check the rocket for any clue. They came back and reported failure.
Time dragged by with no change in Ted’s condition. The group’s feelings of gloom and despair deepened. With no atmosphere or clouds on the moon to shield them, the stark glare of sunlight soon made the air inside the dome stifling hot.
“We’ll have to move again,” Tom decided. “We can find a place with some shade over in those mountains.”
Arv and Bud made a brief reconnaissance on flying donkeys, skirting the abyss. They returned with news that they had found a shallow cave big enough to contain the dome.
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