CHAPTER 21
TWIN TROUBLE
THE POLICE were summoned by Radnor. Manacled and snarling, Slick Steck was taken by them to the Shopton jail. After they had gone, Bud turned to Tom.
“I don’t get this about Robert Turnbull,” he said. “You and your father thought he was perfectly sane, didn’t you?”
“Yes, Bud, and that gives me an idea,” said Tom. He turned to Marco. “Did you ever see Mr. Raymond Turnbull’s twin brother?”
“Yes. Once about eight months ago when I was working at Blackstone. He came to visit Raymond. He’s an identical twin.”
“Then the man you thought was Raymond could have been Robert?” Tom asked.
“Oh, no. I couldn’t be fooled. Anyway, Raymond talked about things that happened at Blackstone that his brother wouldn’t know.”
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“Then there’s only one answer,” Tom said. “Raymond must be impersonating his brother to avoid detection. The Briggin gang doesn’t know that Robert is engaged in secret work at our atomic plant, so they wouldn’t suspect Raymond’s impersonation.”
Dr. Morrow nodded. “And Raymond, as Robert, would not be in danger of being sent back to Blackstone.”
“He even fooled the Briggin gang,” Radnor added.
“It’s tragic the way a fine mind will snap under the pressure of overwork,”
Tom remarked.
The doctor placed a hand on Tom’s shoulder and said in a serious voice, “Raymond Turnbull’s confinement at Blackstone was not due to overwork.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, his condition is one we run into quite often at the hospital. It developed like this. Raymond once made some incorrect calculations in a nuclear experiment, an understandable mistake in research of such a crucial nature.