“Good night! It’ll crash into us!” Bud exclaimed in alarm.
For answer, Tom readjusted the cosmic reactor and the gravitex, causing the space kite to veer sharply off course. His eyes watched the scope. Almost instantly the blip veered in response, regaining its collision bearing!
“Seems to be following us,” Tom muttered tensely. “Maybe we’re attracting it!”
100 COSMIC ASTRONAUTS
“There it is! I can see it now I” Bud cried.
A flashing object, moving at cometlike speed, was coming straight toward them, growing larger by the moment.
Suddenly there was a blinding glare. The object disappeared.
“It disintegrated!” Tom gasped.
“Or exploded!” Bud wiped the perspiration from his forehead, his face white.
For the first time, both boys realized their hearts were hammering. The whole thing had happened almost too fast for them to be aware of the full extent of their fright.
“Tom, do you suppose that could have been an enemy missile?”
“It’s possible,” Tom admitted grimly. “Or it could have been a meteor.”
Bud heaved a gusty sigh of relief. “Whatever it was, chum, I’m sure glad we didn’t have to find out the hard way!”
“Ditto!” Tom agreed.
He had decided to venture approximately halfway to the moon’s orbit. But as the altimeter needle passed the hundred-thousand-mile mark, the space kite suddenly speeded up terrifically.
“Hey! What’s going on?” Bud exclaimed when he found his voice. The unexpected thrust had pinned him to his seat and momentarily shocked the breath from his lungs. “Did you do something to the controls?”
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