Eddie also had noticed something else. It struck him as strange, although he didn’t know what to make of it. The metal tube which he had noticed in the bottom of the boat when they had first met the men in the cove was no longer in sight. If it had contained a collapsible fishing rod as he had guessed, why wasn’t it still there in the bottom of the boat? Eddie was certain the men hadn’t put in to shore between the time they had left the cove and now. If they had he and Teena would have noticed it from the lighthouse. A metal tube like the one Eddie had seen earlier in the bottom of the rowboat simply would not disappear. Perhaps it hadn’t contained a collapsible fishing rod, as he had guessed. If not, what was in the cylinder? And where was it now? CHAPTER FIVE Nearly a week went by. The lead capsule containing the stolen radioisotope had not been found. In fact, as far as Eddie knew, there had been no worthwhile clues on which to base a search. Curious as he was, Eddie still managed to keep from asking his father a lot of questions. Around home, Mr. Taylor had been thoughtfully silent. Eddie knew that his father must be very worried. Eddie gathered enough from the conversations between his parents to know that the search for the stolen isotope was still going on. In fact, it was pretty well known that FBI agents had arrived in Oceanview to lend a hand. Eddie hadn’t seen them, but several of his friends had. It was hard to keep secrets in a college town like Oceanview. The newspapers had temporarily dropped the story. After all, when the radioisotope had been stolen it had made a big story, but nothing more had happened, so there was nothing more to write about. There were still articles in the newspapers about the Acme Aircraft Company problem of the missing blueprints. Actually, it seemed to Eddie that the newspapers were making more of a mystery out of the missing blueprints than of the stolen radioisotopes. Perhaps that was because it had not yet been decided whether the blueprints had been stolen, destroyed by accident, or simply lost. In an aircraft plant, where thousands and thousands of plans are being used at all times, some carelessness is apt to occur. Eddie found it hard to believe that anyone could get careless with top-secret blueprints, yet such things did happen. Maybe the reason people remained curious about the missing blueprints was that everyone knew what a blueprint was. Even the word “radioisotope” meant very little to most readers. What they were and what they did were even less well known. Friday morning Teena came whistling up to the back door at Eddie’s house to see if he wanted to do anything. “Mom’s gone shopping,” Eddie said. “She’ll be back in a few minutes. Then maybe we could take the Geiger counter and—” His words were interrupted by the telephone ringing inside. “Be right back,” he said, hurrying into the house. His father was on the other end of the line.