150 MEGASCOPE SPACE PROBER
Tom grinned. “Maybe you’re right at that. What do you suggest, Bud?”
After talking it over, the boys decided that “The midnight up here is great for sleeping” would mean that everything was going smoothly on the Venus flight.
On the other hand, “This black void is hard to take” would indicate trouble between Bud and Chippy.
“Okay, I have it,” Tom said. “But let’s hope you don’t have to use that second sentence.”
“Ditto!” Bud agreed fervently.
A short while later his jet was roaring down the runway, then streaking aloft.
As Tom waved from the Enterprises airfield, Bud dipped his wing in a parting salute.
The young inventor slowly walked back toward his office. Bud’s conversation before take-off had left Tom strangely uneasy.
Somehow, he had the feeling that his best friend was headed for trouble on the flight to Venus.
CHAPTER XVIII
BUD’S FRANTIC MESSAGE
WHEN Tom entered the office which he and his father shared, Mr. Swift was busy dictating some letters to Miss Trent, their efficient secretary. Rather than interrupt, Tom went topside to the observatory. He was eager to try out his megascope on some of the heavenly objects.
Switching on power to the equipment, Tom aimed the antenna for a view of the space outpost. The glittering sky wheel appeared on the screen in clear-cut detail, bristling with its communications antennas, latticework telescope, and reflecting mirrors.
“Like seeing it close up from one of our cargo rockets about to arrive there,”
Tom thought.
He scanned some of the other man-made satellites hurtling through the sky on their ceaseless orbits. Then Tom turned his space prober to much farther range and studied the details of the
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