Where was I? Oh, yes, back in Katanga. From there I wired the
University that I would be unable to give my last two lectures of the
semester. The Congo dateline on the telegram must have raised the
shaggy brows of the venerable Chancellor who till then thought I was no
farther away than my rooms at the opposite end of the campus.
Armstrong I had cabled immediately with the information about
MacRoberts. I was sure that while I marked time in Africa he would be
Starting the chase in far-off British Columbia. Still, the waiting made
me restive, and more so when after leaving Leopoldville I lost another
day. Engine trouble forced the _Constellation_ down at Accra, where
foul weather closed in to keep us grounded.
Finally back in Washington, I ticked off another day on the pocket
calendar. Only seven days more.
I went directly to the _Statler_ where Armstrong had his rooms. He
greeted me enthusiastically, ordered up some drinks, and plunged right
into business. "Arnold, thanks to the lead you picked up in the Congo,
we have a good idea where Chetzisky is."
Armstrong unfolded a map with places circled in red and notations
scribbled in. "He is somewhere in this area north of Ootsa and Burns
lakes. Trappers in the region have identified his photograph. Also
we've traced some significant shipments into the area. Paraffin,
boron-steel, graphite among other things."
They were significant; they were all materials that could be used in
an atomic reactor, principally as moderators to control the neutron
irradiation.
"Any word of MacRoberts?" I asked.
Armstrong gave me a quick briefing on the Canadian geologist. Single,
fairly well off, Ian MacRoberts spent his summers away from his
teaching chores at the University prospecting for minerals, chiefly in
one of the least explored portions of the continent, the Rocky Mountain
Trench. A transport lost there in 1940 has never been found.
Notes found in MacRoberts' lodgings in the Vancouver suburb of
Kerrisdale revealed he had discovered a strange new mineral of
marked radioactivity. He made his first find near Lake Babine and
traced outcroppings of it as far south as lower California. From his
fragmentary data MacRoberts was convinced that a vein of this mineral
dipped through the earth's crust at an inclination of 27.6°. Six months
ago he had been given a leave of absence from the University; since
then he had been seen twice in the company of a man fitting Doctor
Chetzisky's description. Information indicated both had headed for the
Interior.
"Well, Jim, what are your plans?"
"I have arranged already for groups of searchers to move secretly out
of Prince George and Hazelton." His pencil slid over the map. "But
you're the key man, Arnold; these groups will only close in on the word
from you.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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