Bud looked puzzled. “I don’t read you, pal.”
“Don’t you see? If this hot-mud swamp is sacred to Sho-sho-go, it must be because terrific thunder and lightning storms often occur over this area. So the old man was just banking on the law of averages that we’d run into trouble.”
“Hmm. I see what you mean.” Bud’s eyes narrowed. “But why are thunderstorms frequent here? Don’t tell me Sho-sho-go sends them whenever he gets angry!”
Tom chuckled. “Far from it. The storms simply tend to concentrate here due to the thermal updrafts from the hot mud. In the rainy season, I’ll bet thunderheads repeatedly form over the bog.”
“Okay, genius boy, what about those pillars of fire last night?”
“There you have me,” Tom admitted. “We
154 REPELATRON SKYWAY
know that lightning depends on a separation of positive and negative ions inside the thundercloud. But why they should build up to such terrific potentials is another question.
Want a guess?”
Bud grinned. “That’ll be good enough for me.”
“Well, it may be that the faint radiation from the hot mud causes ionization in the surrounding air. This then forms a high-conductance path for the discharge. But remember, that’s just a guess.”
“Sounds great. So what do we do now?”
“Rebuild the bridge, naturally.”
After breakfast, Tom called the native workmen together. They were still fearful and upset by the night’s disaster. Some were even clamoring to return to their village. With Creel translating, sentence by sentence, the young inventor made a short speech.
“When I built the bridge,” Tom began, “I did not realize Sho-sho-go was so powerful.
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