"Appleton, Victor - Tom Swift Jr 07 - And His Diving Seacopter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Appleton Victor)

Sandy burst out, "If someone's trying to make trouble, he may do
24 DIVING SEACOPTER
something treacherous! Please be careful, Dad! And you too, Tom!"
"We'll be on our guard, my dear," her father promised. "Tom, we'd better get
busy on that message right away!"
With Tom at the wheel of his sports car, they sped to the plant. Darkness had
fallen, but the grounds of Swift Enterprises were illuminated with powerful
floodlights.
Flicking to the proper wave length on his electronic key, Tom beamed open
the massive gates and drove to the large laboratory building. Twin radio pylons,
with red warning beacons for aircraft, towered overhead.
Entering the building, father and son hurried to the special room housing the
master oscilloscope. George Dilling, the young radio chief of Swift Enterprises,
was there.
"No messages," he said. "We've had a twenty-four-hour-" Dilling interrupted
himself to cry out, "Something's coming through now!"
Twin circles like a figure eight, pierced by a jagged line, appeared on the
scope. This was followed by a circle in an ellipse. Then the message died away
and the screen resumed its normal light pattern.
Mr. Swift whipped a notebook from his pocket on which he had made recent
calculations and leafed through the pages. "It means 'Continue course/ " he
translated.
THE MYSTERIOUS MESSAGE 25
"I don't get it," Tom said, puzzled. "There must be more coming." But though
they waited for fifteen minutes, there were no further messages.
"Try sending our own message and see if they reply," Mr. Swift suggested.
Borrowing the notebook, Tom sat down at the transmitter and began
beaming impulses into space. Seconds later Mr. Swift, who was monitoring the
signal on the oscilloscope, cried out, "Hold it, Tom! We're getting interference!"
Instead of showing the symbols Tom was sending, the scope was acting
wildly. Star bursts of light nickered back and forth across the screen.
"Someone's jamming our signal!" Tom exclaimed.
He waited a few moments until the flashes died away, then tried once more
to send the message. Again the scope exploded into wild flashes of light.
"No doubt about it," the elder inventor commented grimly. "Someone is doing
his best to prevent us from contacting our space friends! My hunch is that he's
the same person who either stole our space dictionary or obtained it from the
thief."
Tom snapped his fingers as a sudden idea occurred to him. "Maybe he's the
person who was sending that 'Continue course' message!"
Mr. Swift looked startled. "In other words, it didn't come from outer space."
"Right, Dad. And that means we may be able to
26 DIVING SEACOPTER
track him down by getting a fix on his signals!"
George Billing spoke up. "I'll get a crew busy right away tracking down that
interference!" He picked up a phone and issued orders.
Tom and his father waited until Billing had finished and was ready to take
over once more at the oscilloscope. Then the Swifts drove home, gripped by an
uneasy feeling that more trouble lay in store.
What was the enemy's motive in jamming their beam? And what were the full