"Appleton, Victor - Tom Swift Jr 12 - In the Race to the Moon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Appleton Victor)

was striding back and forth as he waited impatiently for the bell which signaled
an incoming message.
The electronic brain looked somewhat like an oversized teletype machine,
with a keyboard for sending. Computer elements which did the coding or
decoding were housed in the lower part of the console.
"Do you think something happened to the space people before they could
finish their call for help?" Bud asked. "Maybe a disaster of some kind?"
"I wish I knew, Bud!" Mr. Swift fretted.
"How about the machine itself? Are you sure it's working properly?" Tom
asked.
The elder Swift frowned and stopped pacing. "That's an idea, son. Perhaps
we'd better check it."
Quickly the two inventors opened the housing and tested the electronic
circuits.
"Nothing wrong here," Tom muttered.
"Then our space friends must be in trouble," Mr. Swift added.
He and his son exchanged worried glances. A moment later Tom reached a
decision. "I'm going
14 THE RACE TO THE MOON
to try combining my journey to the moon with a visit to that satellite where
their scientists carry on research. If this new repelatron does what I hope, the trip
is in the bag!"
"Great!" said Bud. "And suppose you tell me where I fit in."
"How'd you like to go on an errand to Fearing right now?" Tom asked. This
was the Swifts' privately owned island in the Atlantic which they used as a rocket-
launching site.
Bud grinned. "Top-secret message?"
"Cargo," Tom replied. "I'd like the portable model of this electronic brain
carried over to Fearing. It'll do the translating of any more space messages that
the men may receive there. They won't have to use the oscilloscope-type
machine or figure out the symbols from our space dictionary. Also, I want to take
the brain with me to the moon. It can be installed in the ship out at Fearing."
"Glad to go," said Bud. He chuckled. "Good thing my cargo is smaller than
this twenty-ton elephant here. I'd sure have excess weight on my hands with that
big baby. How'd you ever manage to make a portable model and get all the
equipment in?"
Mr. Swift answered the question. "Tom figured out an ingenious type of
storage system. Literally, there are a thousand pieces of wire to the square inch."
"Zowie! I'll ferry it at once to Fearing," Bud agreed.
SOS TO ENTERPRISES 15
Within half an hour Bud took off. Meanwhile Tom and his father, as they
waited anxiously for a further message from their space friends, talked over the
recent failure of the repelatron.
Suddenly they were interrupted by a startling message over the loud-
speaker. It was from the radio operator in the communications center on the floor
above.
"Just heard from Bud Barclay en route to Fearing," he reported excitedly.
"His plane's being attacked by a masked pilot!"
"What!" Tom was thunderstruck. "Keep in touch with him! I'll be right there!"
He ran up to the radio room, two steps at a time. The operator switched on