“Reckon you wisht you was back herdin’ sheep now, eh, Pete?” the Texan mumbled.
The Basque shrugged. “This is what they call ‘the moment of truth’ in the bull ring back in Spain. … I am not sorry I came on this adventure with Tom Swift.”
Chow grinned in spite of himself and stuck out a calloused hand. “Put ‘er there, pardner! You kin eat in my space galley any ole time!”
The radioman broke in. “I have Fearing!”
Tom snatched up the microphone. “George?”
“I read you, skipper,” Billing responded.
“This is urgent! Signal Enterprises and the outpost to turn on their prober beams full power. Also, I want all space transmitters-radio, radar, and lasers-beamed at the Orb. Continuous signal or pulses at maximum power, all stations and Spacecraft.”
“What’s this-a counterattack?” Bud asked.
Tom nodded grimly. “Remember how the Orb reacted to our prober and repelatron beams? Well, we know now it’s a colony of living organisms. If THE SECRET OF THE ORB 171
I’m right, they’re intensely sensitive to outside electromagnetic signals of any kind. That’s why they wanted to stop our TV probe.”
In moments, the Orb’s greenish glow became more lurid and intense. Its foglike atmosphere writhed and swirled with stormy turbulence.
“We’re really shaking ‘em up!” Bud gasped.
By now the Challenger was coming frighten-ingly close to the weird space object. Its glowing green atmosphere loomed dead ahead-filling their whole field of view.
Tom tried the main repelatron. There was immediate response as the ship slackened speed!
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