“Encouraged?” Tom stared at his father.

  [Illustration
   (Tom Jr. and Tom Sr. watch as Exman tries to climb stairs)]

Mr. Swift nodded.  “Yes, the whole thing was rather a noteworthy reaction.  I believe Exman was displaying a fear complex about navigating up those stairs.”

Tom gasped, then broke out laughing.  “Dad, you’re right!  I’ll bet when its body tilted over, the brain wasn’t sure whether the gyro would keep it from being wrecked.  It just shows Ole Think Box is getting more human all the time!”

Bud ventured to pat Exman on its “back.”  “Relax, kid,” he said with a chuckle.  “You’re among friends and we wouldn’t dream of letting you get hurt.  You’re too valuable!”

Mr. Swift stroked his jaw thoughtfully.  “Valuable, yes, if we can only get it to communicate.  Tom, I believe the first project we should work on is a way to make Exman talk.”

After the debris had been cleaned up, the two scientists pulled up stools to the workbench and began to discuss the problem.  Bud, seeing them absorbed, and realizing the discussion would soon be far beyond his depth, snapped a grinning salute at Exman and quietly left the laboratory.

“Dad, the toughest part won’t be the speech mechanism itself,” Tom pointed out.  “There are several ways we could handle that—­by modulating a column of air, for instance, or by some sort of speaker diaphragm.  The real stumper will be how to teach him our spoken language.”

Mr. Swift nodded.  “I’m afraid you’re right.  If the inhabitants of Planet X communicate telepathically, or by some sort of wave transfer, they may have long since forgotten any concept of a spoken language.”

The Swifts batted several ideas back and forth.  Then Tom snapped his fingers.

“Wait, Dad!  We have the answer!  The electronic brain!”

Mr. Swift’s eyes lighted up.  “Of course!  The machine already translates the space code into written English.  All we need do is add a device to convert the machine’s impulses into sound!”

In two hours the Swifts had put together a mechanism designed to work through a tape recorder.  This was hooked up to the electronic brain.

After recording for several moments, Tom reversed the tape and switched on the playback.  A squeaky jumble of noises could be heard.  But one word seemed to come through fairly distinctly.  “Universe!”

“It’s talking!” Tom cried out.

“Trying to, but not succeeding very well,” Mr. Swift said.

Nevertheless, the two scientists were jubilant at this first breakthrough.  Eagerly they began making adjustments—­both on the electronic-brain hookup and the converter mechanism.  Tom was just about to switch on the tape recorder again when the telephone rang.

The young inventor was annoyed at being interrupted at such a crucial moment, but picked up the phone.  “Tom Swift Jr. speaking.”