“Doesn’t look to me as if it’s doing much good,” Bud commented, peering at the flask.
“Get your head out of the way,” Tom said, “and I’ll try a little more.”
Holding the bottle at arm’s length, he poured a drop or two more into the reaction flask.
The contents began to bubble violently. An instant later the flask exploded with a loud bang that shook the whole laboratory!
CHAPTER 5
THE WHISPERED CLUE
IT WAS several seconds after the explosion before Tom, dazed and shaken, managed to pick himself off the floor.
His face stung and smarted. Groggily, the young inventor brushed one hand across his cheek. When he brought it away, it was streaked with blood.
Beside him, Bud was just struggling to his feet. “Roarin” rockets!” he gasped.
“What hit me?”
“A slight overdose of boron fluoride etherate,” Tom said ruefully. “Sorry, pal. I should have taken better precautions on that experiment.”
At that moment Chow Winkler and Hank Sterling burst into the lab, accompanied by several plant workmen.
“Holy smoke!” Hank exclaimed. “What’s going on in here?”
40
THE WHISPERED CLUE 41
“The boy genius was just showing me how to use a catalyst to spark a chemical reaction,” Bud said with a chuckle. “He showed me all right! Then the roof fell in!”
“You two young’uns all right?” Chow demanded anxiously.
“Still in one piece,” said Tom. “But I guess we could do with a little cleaning up.”
Instinctively both boys had flung up their hands and arms to protect their eyes when the flask exploded. Both had suffered slight cuts from the flying glass, and their clothing was splattered with the chemical mixture, but otherwise they were uninjured.