“Yes, son. I certainly don’t want to cast suspicion on someone who may be innocent. But we must get to the bottom of this plot before our work and scientific progress is brought to a complete standstill.”
They went immediately to the scientist’s lab. Robert Turnbull was an erect, handsome man of fifty. With dark eyes set deep in his pale face, he looked quizzically at his visitors but greeted them affably. The Swifts told him of the report at once.
Robert Turnbull listened in silence for several minutes, then suddenly he flung his lab apron angrily to the floor.
“Mr. Swift, I’m shocked at your insinuations!” he snapped.
“I believe,” said Mr. Swift with dignity, “that if THE VULTURES RETURN 135
you were in my place you would make an investigation too.”
Turnbull calmed down a bit. Retrieving his apron, he tilted back on the lab stool and regarded Mr. Swift and his son curiously. “I suffered months of abuse and worry because of my twin brother’s strange actions before he entered Blackstone. I thought all that was past. Now you come to me with a story of an escape I know nothing about.
“Then you dare to accuse a sick man who has devoted his life to the betterment of humanity of collaborating with criminal elements and conspiring to commit sabotage. No Turnbull would ever be connected with such underhanded treachery!”
“You say you know nothing about your brother’s escape?” Tom queried.
“I am shocked by the news and angry that my family has not informed me of it.”
“Perhaps they do not know about his escape,” Tom ventured.