“That means it was done outside the lab,” Tom reasoned. But who at Swift Enterprises would have used a ray or radio beam on the doors to his lab?
Suddenly Tom remembered what had happened to his car, and the ray machine discovered in Dunstan’s possession the night before. Had the same sort of device been used on the door locks?
“Too bad I left that gadget with Chief Slater,” Tom thought. “I could test it and find out.”
The chief had said he would send the ray machine immediately to the FBI laboratories in Washington. By now the metal case probably was on its way.
However, another thought occurred to Tom.
“I can check the car!” he muttered.
Taking his magnifying glass with him, Tom hurried outside to the spot where he had parked his sports car. Here he began a careful inch-by-inch examination of the body surface.
The job seemed rather hopeless at first, since the body already bore several scratch marks from when it overturned. These might have obscured the scorings for which he was looking.
Tom persisted in his search and finally, near
80 MEGASCOPE SPACE PROBER
the right-door handle, he discovered several faint wavy scratches in the enamel.
“They resemble the scoring on the locks!” he said to himself excitedly.
Tom returned to his laboratory, still puzzled. Dunstan and Tappan certainly could not have tampered with the locks since both had spent the night in jail. So if Tom’s theory about a ray being used on the locks was correct, the young inventor must have another enemy who was still at large 1
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