Tom was puzzled. What had Jackson meant by his weird remark about Tom’s “sly trickery”? In any case, it seemed hopeless to question the locksmith further in his present overwrought state.
“I guess you’d better turn him over to the police,” Tom said wearily. “But first I’ll take the film out of his camera.”
Tom took the miniature camera from Jackson’s pocket, removed the film, then turned the camera over to the guards. As soon as they had taken the prisoner away, Tom developed the film in his laboratory darkroom.
The shots Jackson had taken showed the complete plans and computations for Tom’s Private Ear radio!
“Another clue to the jigsaw puzzle,” Tom mused. “But where does it fit in?”
A sudden thought came to him. Suppose Bud’s hunch was right about the helium-machine design having been copied from Tom’s. Maybe his friend’s second idea was right, too, about the new Swedish radio gear in which Astro-Dynamics was
114 MEGASCOPE SPACE PROBER
interested. It sounded just like Tom’s Private Ear set, and now an attempt had been made to steal the complete plans.
The next morning Harlan Ames dropped into the Swifts’ private office, where Tom and his father had been discussing the previous night’s events.
“I’ve learned something rather interesting,” Ames reported. “So far, we’ve found no suspicious persons of French background here in Shopton. But I’ve been checking on Gaspard’s own background. His mother was an American named Tunbridge.”
“Tunbridge?” Tom repeated thoughtfully. “Why, that’s Jackson’s first name.”
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