Suddenly his eye was caught by footprints in the soft ground beneath the window. Curious, Tom studied the prints. Then he noticed deep scratch marks on the window.
“As though it had been forced open with a tool,” he thought, startled. “By an intruder, maybe?”
Tom hurried inside to the bedroom. Arv, though weak and feverish, was still conscious. He and Doc Simpson listened to Tom’s report.
“Any idea what an intruder would be after, Arv?” Tom inquired.
Doc spoke up grimly. “I can answer that.”
CHAPTER XII
A MYSTERIOUS INTRUDER
TOM was startled by Doc Simpson’s unexpected reply. “Have you found a clue?” he asked.
“Sniff the air in here,” Doc countered.
As Tom inhaled he detected a faint etherlike odor. “Good grief! Some kind of anesthetic?”
“Chloroform,” Doc said. “Now look at this.”
He raised Arv Hanson’s arm and pulled back the pajama sleeve, revealing a tiny skin puncture.
“A needle prick!” Tom exclaimed. “That means he has been given a hypodermic injection?”
“Right.” Doc said he had stopped in earlier that morning to see Felix Wong. “I noticed something I hadn’t yesterday-a very small puncture mark on his arm. I phoned his personal physician, who said Felix had been in for a checkup two days ago, but had received no injection. This puzzled me, and I was about to look into it further when you called. The instant I smelled chloroform here, the connection hit me-so I checked Arv’s arm. The 97
98 3-D TELEJECTOR
symptoms are identical, which means the same type of injection was used.”
“In other words, someone broke in while Arv was asleep,” Tom said, “chloroformed him so he wouldn’t wake up, then jabbed in the needle.”
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