Tom Swift and His Electronic Retroscope by Victor Appleton II Page B

under radiation," he explained. "It must have absorbed too much output from the camera’s scanning beam and exploded. The pieces that hit us are now vermiculite."
    "There! You see?" exclaimed Hutchcraft. "Just a freak accident."
    Bud and the others listening were not mollified. They turned their backs on the philologist-archaeologist and stalked away in disgust.
    Tom resumed his retroscope tests, rolling the camera to the edge of the village clearing so as not to worry the villagers or offend Hu-Quetzal. Several other stones were "photographed." But in every case what had first appeared to be carvings turned out to be natural features.
    Tom worked listlessly, and the others from Shopton knew he was reacting to the chief’s edict.
    Chow tried to cheer his boss up. "Now listen here, son, you mean that contraption o’ yours kin take a picture o’ what somethin’ looked like a long time ago? Wa-aal then," Chow asked with a grin, "could it make a picture o’ me back when I was a handsome young feller with a full head o’ hair, you s’pose?"
    Everyone burst out laughing, including Tom.
    "I’ll be satisfied if it does the trick on the Mayan stones," Tom replied. "Assuming we can find a few with something worth looking at."
    "Were you not going to begin investigating the place where the ancient highway came to an end?" asked Castillez encouragingly. "Perhaps you will discover something more there—even, perhaps, a trace of the space visitors."
    Dr. Liu, standing nearby with his wife, also spoke up. "And I wish to remind you that you may be in a position to assist our project. Should you find anything with even a suggestion of the decorative motif I showed you, I would be very gratified if you would allow me to place it under the lens of this wizard camera of yours."
    "I would be honored, sir," Tom replied. "And thanks for trusting me." A thought suddenly struck him. "By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask you—since you arrived in the area, have either of you seen anything of a small, skinny man in the jungle, someone not of this village?" He briefly summarized Max’s story.
    Liu and his wife exchanged glances. To Tom’s surprise, it was Jiang Liu who answered. "We have seen no one like that." Her husband confirmed the statement.
    "Well, he’s out there, sure as shootin’!" Chow declared.
    "Now wait," objected Doc Simpson, "can you really be so sure this ‘giant’ character of yours is on the up-and-up? Maybe he’s a lot smarter than he looks."
    Chow snorted. "He’d jest about have t’ be!" But then his eyes darted about nervously.
    Tom could only shrug.
    The day wore on slowly and hotly. Tom made many tests of the retroscope before and after lunch, and then finally rolled the mechanism, with its bulky accoutrements, back to the hut, where it was safely locked down.
    While Chow assisted Doc in what he promised were his final series of examinations, Tom and Bud decided to visit the jungle clearing where the paraplane had first landed, hoping to scout-up some clues in the underbrush. As they ambled along the little trail, the towering trees of the tropical rain forest shut out much of the afternoon sunlight, and the dark, steamy atmosphere was noisy with the buzz of insects and the raucous screams of jungle birds. "This is sure no place for a picnic!" Tom said wryly to Bud.
    "Oh, I don’t know," Bud joked. "Maybe with a few repelatrons tuned to ‘mosquito’ and some of those electric rifles of yours…"
    Suddenly a scream of terror reached their ears! Tom slammed on the brakes, his face turning pale at the agonized sound. "Good grief! What was that?"
    "Sounded like a woman screaming!" Bud cried.
    The harsh, shrill sound came again. "That’s a human voice all right!" Tom burst out. "But where’s it coming from?"
    Anxious to help, the boys decided to separate, crashing off into the underbrush in opposite directions, nervously alive to the possibility of danger.
    Tom’s direction turned out to be the right one.