I just didn't believe it. There are mental limits beyond which the mind refuses to function. It was impossible to think that such a tiny pellet could cause so much destruction. I took Tommy's sling, put the pellet in the pocket, stretched the rubbers as far as they would go, and released them. I had to see with my own eyes, I had to know, I had to be sure. I damned well found out! Although the explosion took place at least seventy-five yards away, it blew me off my feet. A great bulge of flame leaped into the sky and the heavens roared with the thunder of the sound. Tommy jumped up and down in excitement. "Big noise! Goody, goody! Want more booms?" "N--nnn--no," I stuttered, picking myself up from the ground. "Ben, you idiot!" Ellen snapped. "The sheriff will hear that. No, Tommy, no more booms right now. Where did you get those firecrackers, Tommy? Where did you get them?" Firecrackers, hell! Those things were the mightiest explosive bombs for their weight ever used on earth! In violence they backed TNT right off the map. Nitroglycerin was not a tenth as powerful. If a pellet that weighed a fraction of an ounce could cause such an explosion, how big an explosion would a hundred-pound bomb make? One bomber could sneak in out of the clouds and smash a city! One bomb would do the job! _Where had Tommy Sonofagun gotten those round pebbles that exploded with such violence?_ "Candy?" he said questioningly. "More candy?" "I'll give you a barrel of candy if you will show us where you got these things!" I said. I was scared sick. I was remembering Pearl Harbor, the _Prince of Wales_, and the _Repulse_. Had bombs such as these sent those two gallant ships to the bottom? If this had happened, how had similar bombs gotten here to the heart of America? Where were these round pebbles coming from? Obviously Tommy had found them somewhere, but _where_? Who had made them? "A barrel of candy!" Tommy gasped. "G--gosh!" * * * * * Grabbing his slingshot from the ground where I had dropped it, he started off, motioning us to follow him. Stumbling, following him as best we could, he led us straight to one of the transmission line towers! "It was attempted sabotage!" I gasped. "Somebody tried to blow up the high-line but their bombs didn't explode. Tommy found their explosives!" This was a reasonable guess. If one of these big steel towers went down, a lot of defense industries that were dependent upon the juice flowing through the cables overhead, would have to shut down. "Got 'em right here," Tommy said. He shambled toward the legs of the tower, which formed an arch overhead. He was holding one of Ellen's hands and I was holding the other. We were strung out in a line. I could hear current singing in the transmission line as he went under the arch formed by the legs of the tower. It was a high, thin, wailing sound, and it meant that juice was leaking somewhere. He stepped through the arch, and vanished.