“There’s no doubt about it,” his father said firmly. “The material that came out of the small black capsule inside of that tube is a part of the stolen radioisotope. It’s mixed in with some other material to weaken its power. But I’m certain the radioactivity comes from small amounts of our isotope.” “Then we’ve found the stolen isotope!” Eddie exclaimed. Although the idea had occurred to him before, hearing the proof of it was no less startling. “Only part of it,” his father reminded him. Then he turned toward Teena. “Unless I miss my guess, those blueprints are some of the ones missing from Acme Aircraft Company.” This seemed sheer fantasy, like something that might happen in a restless dream after eating too much ice cream and lobster salad. “Come on, kids,” Mr. Taylor prompted, leading them back toward his office. “There’s a lot to be done. And unless I miss my guess, it must be done quickly—or we might be too late.” CHAPTER TEN Once back inside of his office, Mr. Taylor motioned for Eddie and Teena to be seated. Then he picked up the phone and made two quick calls. They also must have been local calls, Eddie thought, for within five minutes two men hurried into the office. Both were dressed in normal summer business clothes. Eddie’s father introduced the dark-haired one in the light-tan suit as Mr. Paul Evans of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The other man was tall, light-haired, and blue-eyed. His name was Walter Jamison. He was from the Drake Ridge atomic reactor. Eddie’s father didn’t explain what either man was doing there, but Eddie had no doubts that their main interest was recovery of the stolen radioisotope. Probably they had been around the Oceanview College campus ever since the theft had taken place. “All right, Eddie,” Mr. Taylor said after the two men sat down. “Start from the beginning and give us the whole story. Don’t leave anything out. Teena, you see that he doesn’t.” Eddie didn’t know exactly what his father meant by the whole story. But he started with the day when he and Teena had come upon the two men at the cove. He told about their somewhat strange actions, and the puzzling sight of the sealed metal tube lying in the bottom of the rowboat. He mentioned how the men had not had it with them when they returned the boat to Anderson’s Landing a while later. He told about seeing the men fishing out over the sand bar the Saturday after that, and again today. Then, to Teena’s surprise, he brought in yesterday’s lone hike out to the cove. He told of his curiosity over the tracks leading to the abandoned fisherman’s shack set back from the top of the bluff, and how he had been greatly surprised, at peeking through the crack in the door, to see the chubby man named Roy Benton inside, as well as a bright metal cylinder—like the one they had just taken apart in the laboratory—standing in a corner of the shack.