“Man the telescope, Bud,” the young inventor ordered. “I’ll watch on radar.”
“Aye, aye, skipper!”
Tom took up position behind the ship’s radarman and watched the screen intently. Fifteen minutes later twin blips appeared on the scope, faint but close together.
“Two objects dead ahead, Bud!” Tom sang out. “They could be rockets. Can you make them out?”
Bud swung the telescope into position. His face flushed with excitement.
“They’re rockets all right, skipper. But I can’t tell yet whether or not one is ours and the other an enemy!”
Grimly Tom stepped back to the controls, one hand poised to switch the automatic pilot to manual in case an emergency maneuver became necessary.
His ship raced onward toward the two unknown rockets!
CHAPTER VII
NIGHT ALARM
A MOMENT later Bud gave a yell. “The starboard rocket is ours, skipper! The other’s a type I never saw before.”
“Let me look.”
Bud slid aside hastily. Tom glanced through the eyepiece, but was unable to identify the mystery ship to port. Was it their enemy preparing to board the stranded Swift cargo ship?
Even as the question flashed through Tom’s mind, a shower of sparks burst from the unknown ship’s tubes.
“Ion drive!” Tom exclaimed. Like a comet, the ship was already streaking off.
Rather than give chase, Tom felt it more important to see to the safety of the marooned Swift crew. He brought his ship alongside and reversed flight position by gyro. Then he metered a fresh burst on the steering motors to equalize his own
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62 COSMIC ASTRONAUTS
ship’s orbital velocity with that of the stranded rocket.
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