“We must be drifting away from whatever is causing it,” Eddie said. He moved the Geiger counter up onto the seat between them. He put the earphones on. “Now let’s kind of circle around here and try to pick it up again.” With nothing but a broad expanse of water and no marker to guide them, trying to locate the spot where the Geiger counter had sputtered to life was anything but easy. “Eddie, I think we’re getting farther away all the time,” Teena said ten minutes later. “But if we don’t find it now we might never find it again,” Eddie said. “Just a little more. Pull easy on your oar. We’ll circle to the left and—Hey, there it is!” The rapid clicking through the headset filled his ears. “Hold ’er steady,” he said. He crawled quickly to the bow of the boat, lifted the heavy concrete anchor over the gunwale, and eased it down onto the sand bar with the Manila line attached. “There. We won’t lose it now,” he said. “Lose what, Eddie?” “Whatever’s making the Geiger counter act up,” Eddie said. “This would be an awful wet place to have to mine for uranium,” Teena said. “It could be done,” Eddie insisted. “Boy, we must be right over it. Listen to those clicks. And look at that needle jump around.” Teena looked over the side. “It looks to me like plain old yellow sand down there,” she said. “Might be some uranium-bearing rock under it,” Eddie said. He leaned over his side of the boat. Although the sand bar was not far below, the water was somewhat murky, and the ripples on the surface made it difficult to see anything on the bottom. “Might be a tough job getting at it, all right, but—” The rest of the words died in Eddie’s throat, as a glint of metal flashed in his eyes. “Teena, there—there’s something down on the sand bar!” “What do you mean, something?” “Something bright. Like metal.” Eddie put his face as close to the water as he could without falling out of the boat. “I can see it now!” he exclaimed. “It’s about two feet long. Two or three inches thick. It looks round, and—” “Eddie!” Teena said. “The metal tube you saw that day in the rowboat. You know, the day we came across those two men at the cove. Remember?” “I remember,” Eddie said, for the thought already had sprung into his mind. Now two other thoughts crowded in behind it. Both were puzzling thoughts which left his mind reeling. What was the metal tube doing there below on the sand bar? Why, above all things, was it sending out radioactive rays? CHAPTER NINE “Eddie,” Teena said, “what are you going to do?” Already Eddie had pulled off his shoes and T shirt. He slipped off his blue jeans, and stood in his bathing trunks ready to dive overboard. “I’m going down and get that thing,” he said. “Why?” “Something’s mighty crazy about all this,” Eddie said. “Maybe so,” Teena agreed. “But Eddie, isn’t it dangerous? If that thing’s radioactive—”