“Ah, that’s better. Thank you.”
“Can you hear me now?” Tom asked.
“Yes, perfectly.”
Tom gave him a piercing look. “That’s strange. Your hearing aid has no battery-I removed it.” The young inventor held out a tiny dry cell.
Grimsey spluttered and leaped to his feet.
“Grab him, Harlan!” Tom cried out.
136 3-D TELEJECTOR
The whiskered man fought like a tiger, biting and kicking, but Tom finally subdued him with an armlock and Ames slipped on handcuffs.
Tom quickly removed the impostor’s bushy wig and false whiskers. He also peeled the cleverly faked mole off the man’s hand. Ames gaped.
“How did you wise up to him, skipper?”
“That word ‘grizzly’ is pretty close to ‘Grimsey,’ ” Tom explained, “and he was sure hairy enough to fit Pete’s description. As a matter of fact, he struck me as strange on his first day back at work.”
“Then he set the fire?”
Tom nodded. “Probably by incendiary bombs which he concealed in the building before leaving the plant. He may have used a timer-or he could have ignited them by remote control. No doubt he also stole the plans.”
“But how did this phony manage to take the real Dr. Grimsey’s place?” Ames asked.
“The switch must have been pulled the evening Grimsey came home from the infirmary,” Tom said. “But we’ll let Mr. X explain.”
Ames glared coldly at the impostor. “All right, mister. Start talking! Where is Grimsey?”
The only response was a sullen shrug. Ames finally called the police and the prisoner was taken off to jail. Then Tom and Ames searched for the missing blueprints and found them in the impostor’s briefcase.
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