Tom’s heart gave a leap. “There’s a big slab of carbon to the right of the door,” he called, trying not to yield to panic. “Maybe you can use it as a shield!”
“Roger!”
The slab was several feet long and nearly four 20 SPACE SOLARTRON
feet wide. Grabbing it up on his palms and balancing it over his head, Ted stooped low and dashed toward the young inventor. The intense heat was like a miniature inferno, with molten aluminum sparks shooting in every direction. Ted managed to insert the carbon slab between Tom and the conductors. In a moment the young inventor had squirmed out of his deadly predicament.
“Give me the slab,” Tom ordered, waving Ted back to a position of safety.
Approaching the test setup from the opposite side, Tom managed to switch off the power.
He leaned against a bench. “Thanks for saving me, Ted,” he gasped, wiping the perspiration from his forehead.
“Tom, I’m taking you to the hospital right away!” Ted announced.
He said nothing about his friend’s scorched hair and blistered skin. But he was worried that Tom would be badly scarred and hospitalized for weeks or months.
CHAPTER III
THE MYSTERIOUS CALLER
“DON’T look so grim! I’ve been burned worse than this playing with other inventions.”
Ted forced a smile as he helped Tom outside and into a jeep. “Then it’s high time you stopped trying to blow yourself up,” Ted retorted. “Don’t you get enough excitement rocketing through space?”
Realizing that Tom must be in severe pain in spite of his joking manner, Ted drove to the Citadel’s infirmary at top speed. Here a doctor and two nurses took Tom immediately into the examination room.
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