54 TRIPHIBIAN ATOMICAR
sule casing?” Tom asked himself. “Judging from the chemical properties of the isotope in that report, it should be possible to construct molecules that would link together with terrific strength. Maybe I’ve been missing a bet!”
Tom’s work was interrupted by two more calls that morning. The first was a radio message from Harlan Ames at Enterprises. The security chief reported that he had checked on both Flambo and Pan-Islamic Engineering Associates. “So far as is known, there is nothing detrimental against either the man or his company.”
Near lunchtime, as Tom was “cooking” a bubbling brown mass of chemicals in a complicated hookup of retorts and glass tubing, Ed Longstreet telephoned from New York.
“Sorry if I’m interrupting a big scientific breakthrough,” Ed teased, “but I thought you might be interested in this item of information I just dug up at the library.”
“I sure am, if it has anything to do with those rubies,” Tom said.
“Guess why the Amir’s Mine was abandoned?” Ed challenged.
“I give up. Why?”
“Because an imam, or priest, decided that the mine was accursed by Shaitan,” Ed reported. “Shaitan, you know, is the Moslem name for Satan. The thought of that curse scared everyone in Kabulistan so much that the mine workings
THE CURSE OF SHAITAN 55
were abandoned and filled in. That was two centuries ago and no one has even dared look for it since.”
“I suppose the devil’s curse would scare a lot of people,” Tom said thoughtfully. Then he told his cousin about Flambo, Mirza, and the attempted burglary.
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122