Moments later, the mysterious object began to take on a weird green glow.
The glow became more and more intense and brilliant.
Bud gasped. “What’s happening, Tom?”
“I don’t know-I can’t even guess!”
Suddenly the picture wavered and rolled across the screen. Tom reached out to adjust the set.
The next instant, the picture tube exploded with a lurid electrical discharge and a spray of shattering glass! Tom and Bud staggered backward, clutching their faces.
CHAPTER I!
SPACE DUST
SCRATCHED and cut by the flying glass, the hands of both boys were flecked with blood as they dropped them from their faces.
“Whew!” Bud looked at his fingers. “Will we need major surgery, Tom?”
“No, but I guess we could use some first aid.” The two boys drove across the experimental station to the plant’s infirmary. Here they found Doc Simpson, Enterprises’ young medic, on duty. He cleaned their cuts and applied antiseptic.
When the boys returned to the observatory, Tom unscrewed the back panel of the prober console to examine the circuitry. Many of the electronic parts were still hot and some of the fused insulation and resistors were smoking faintly.
“What the dickens happened, Tom?” “Something must have been knocked out in the power stages, causing an extra big surge. The 12
SPACE DUST 13
circuits overheated and a flaw in the picture tube made it crack and implode.
A chance in a million.”
Tom stood up in disgust and added, “Well, it’s a cinch I can’t fix all that tonight.”
Before leaving, he took a final look at the mysterious sky object through the optical telescope. It still glowed with a weird brilliance.