Later they had made radio contact with the senders and learned they were beings on another planet. Time and again since then they had come to the Swifts’ aid when Tom or his father was in danger. Several times they had sent rockets.
“Wai, I’ll be a horned toad!” Chow gasped. “Arv, you’re right. Them space critters know Tom’s in trouble and want to help. Why don’t we open the thing and see what’s inside?”
“And what if it’s booby-trapped like Slim said?” another crewman objected. “It could blow the whole camp to smithereens!”
Arv himself was somewhat uneasy. More than once, the space beings had sent priceless specimens enclosed in rockets. These had had to be removed and handled with the utmost caution for scientific study. What if he and the others opened this rocket too hastily and spoiled some unique experiment?
“Before we touch it, I think we should radio Tom’s dad for instructions,” Arv argued.
The crewmen talked this over and agreed with Arv that it was the safest course. But when Billing
180 TRIPHIB1AN ATOMICAR
radioed Shopton, he received frustrating news.
“Mr. Swift’s been called away on a secret mission connected with the rocket program,” the Enterprises operator reported. “He may be back tomorrow, but he’s incommunicado until then.”
Billing signed off without telling why he had called. The news would only alarm Mrs. Swift and Sandy. Arv called a council of war after hearing of Mr.
Swift’s absence.
“I vote we wait till noon tomorrow,” Arv said. “Hank may have located the crash by that time. If not, we’ll clear the camp and I’ll open the rocket personally.”
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