Tom grinned. “In that case I’d better watch my step! No blind dates, no-”
They piled into the jeep and drove back to Swift Enterprises. In his private laboratory once more, Tom ate lunch by himself-a steaming bowl of oyster stew with crackers and a thick slab
STOLEN CLUE 51
of lemon meringue pie brought in by Chow Winkler. The kindly cook sensed that his young boss was wrestling with some inner problem and made no attempt to interrupt, except to say:
“Eat hearty, buckaroo!”
“Thanks, Chow.”
Again and again Tom turned over in his mind the mystery of the attempts on his life. What was behind them? Who was his mysterious enemy?
Finally, as he finished lunch, the worried young inventor decided again to put the whole matter out of his mind. He was eager to try out his plan for using the anti-inverse-square-wave principle in a new kind of radio.
Two separate receiver-transmitters would be needed for the experiment. The idea was so clear in Tom’s head that he plunged into the job of constructing the units at once, with only rough preliminary sketches or circuit diagrams which he had already drawn.
“The radios can be very small and fairly low powered,” Tom reasoned, “since they’ll transmit on a very narrow beam of radiation.”
Each would need a small computer in its base. Tom produced these quickly by converting two of his “Little Idiots”-amazing midget electronic brains which he had invented for his expedition to the phantom satellite.
Several hours went by while Tom labored at his workbench. It was soon strewn with electronic
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