Tom Swift and His Space Solartron (19 page)

Ted gave his pal a tap on the shoulder. "T-man, I wouldn’t have passed up this adventure for anything. But look," he went on, "do you suppose maybe you could give it a
rest
for a little while, the inventing thing? Just sorta take it easy and enjoy life?"

As Tom laughed, Bud threw an arm about his comrade and shook his head. "That’ll be the day! Genius boy already showed me a sketch of his next brainstorm. But the
Electronic Retroscope
is just a fancy camera, Ted—can’t get in much trouble taking pictures!" Bud Barclay’s prophecy was wide of the mark, dangerously so.

A buzzing tone interrupted the banter. Tom’s eyes darted toward the communications equipment. "Good gosh, something coming in on the space oscilloscope!"

"Is it from the space friends?" Bud asked nervously.

"I can’t tell," Tom replied. "The antenna can’t get a fix on the source."

Symbols filled the screen, the two-word translation beneath.

EXPERIMENT CONCLUDED.

Chow read the message with wide eyes. "Y’mean—are those cayuses tryin’ to tell us that this whole blame thing, rescue an’ all, was part o’ their ding-danged experimentin’?" When Tom shrugged, the westerner continued. "Wa-aal, I jest wonder, boss—did we pass the test, ya think?"

Tom Swift looked past Chow, past the slowly rotating outpost in space, past the great blue Earth, to the veil of endless stars. "Don’t know, pard. But I think it won’t be long at all before we find out!"