Bud slipped the punched ribbons from their containers and reeled them on the metal pin “readers.” Tom directed the basic actions and Ator began the tedious process of extricating the slugs from the oven and comparing one with another.
Hours passed as the process was repeated over and over. Precious minutes were lost when a tape broke. Tom’s eyes began to sting from the strain of staring at the screen, and his fingers grew numb at the controls.
“Less than an hour to go!” Bud groaned.
Tom nodded grimly, then suddenly yelled:
“He’s got it! It’s one of the two he’s handling now. They don’t balance, so all I have to do is compare them both against one we’ve already tested.”
“The one with the odd weight will be the phony, right?”
“Yes, and there it is!” Tom exclaimed.
The isolating process completed, an equally precarious operation remained-to dismember and disperse the miniature atom bomb. No tapes were used for this task. It was handled entirely by Tom. He worked slowly, manipulating the controls with extreme caution. More than half an hour was spent while Ator, handling flasks and reagents like a veteran chemist, carefully dissolved the lethal mass. Finally he diluted it to a safe concentration with an inert salt.
208 TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT ROBOT
The Citadel had been saved!
“You did it, boy, you did it!” Bud yelled, clapping his friend on the back.
Tom grinned in relief, then said, “But I’ve still got work to do, Bud. Ator will have to insert inhibitor rods into the pile. Until that’s done and the pile is considerably slowed down, someone will have to stay on guard.”