Tom rushed to the machine and examined it in fascination. A powerful diesel generator stood nearby with banks of complicated electrical equipment, amid a spider-web tangle of wiring. Tom assumed this gear was for timing and synchronizing the shock waves. Evidently the whole setup was operated from a single control panel in the wall, studded with knobs and dials.
“What a job of design!” Tom exclaimed in awe. His eyes roved over every detail of the equipment while he poked here and there with his hands. He was getting the “feel” of the setup almost as much by touch and handling as by his superb technical intuition. “Boy, I hate to admire anything those Brungarian rebel scientists do, but this is really masterful!”
“Yes? Well, don’t go ga-ga over it,” said Bud. “Let’s do what we came to do and scram out of here. This place makes me jumpy!”
Tom appeared oblivious. “It seems like vandalism to wreck such an engineering achievement! Also, and this may sound strange to you,” he went 168 THE VISITOR FROM PLANET X
on in a doubtful tone, “are we really justified in taking the law into our own hands?”
“They’re trying to wreck our setup, aren’t they?” Bud retorted. “Think of the destruction they’ve caused already 1 Do you want to stand by and see Enterprises destroyed too?”
“Bud’s right,” Hank Sterling spoke up quietly. “Take a look at this.”
He beckoned them over to another corner of the cave and pointed to a series of notations, crudely scrawled in white chalk on the cave wall. Half hidden behind a clump of rock, they would have escaped casual notice.