that CIA man who briefed us wasn't kidding, eh,
skipper?" Bud muttered at last.

"It came sooner than he expected!" Tom said.

Jumping up from the table, Tom switched off the radio and hurried to the
hall telephone. In a few moments he managed to get a long-distance call
through to Wes Norris of the FBI.

"Is the news on this Brungarian coup as bad as it sounds, Wes?" Tom
inquired.

"Worse! That rebel bunch really has it in for us, as you know, Tom,"
Norris replied. "They envy America and they'll move heaven and earth to
steal our scientific secrets. This could touch off a whole epidemic of
sabotage and other spy activity!"

Tom's jaw clenched grimly. He then asked the FBI man his opinion about
the discovery of the secret arms cache in Pete Latty's basement.

Norris admitted he was puzzled. "It doesn't add up, Tom," the FBI agent
said thoughtfully. "If our enemies were planning to destroy Shopton by a
quake, why would anyone be needing a gun?"

"I can't figure it myself, Wes--unless they were planning to raid and
loot Enterprises after the place was thrown into disorder," Tom deduced.
"What about Narko himself? Has he talked yet?"

Norris replied that although he had not interviewed Narko himself, FBI
agents who had grilled the spy had failed to elicit any information.

"Here's something else, though, which might interest you," Norris went
on. "We now have reports that at the time of the Harkness and Medfield
disasters, seismographs recorded simultaneous quakes off the coast of
Alaska near the Aleutian chain. Tremors were also felt off the southwest
coast of South America."

A new factor to consider! Tom frowned in puzzlement as he hung up the
telephone after completing his talk with the FBI man.

After Tom had repeated the conversation to his companions, Bud said,
"You mean the H-bomb idea goes out the window?"

Tom shrugged. "Wes says they've found no evidence to support the theory
of man-produced underground blasts. It just doesn't jibe with those
other remote tremors. They'd be too much of a coincidence, happening at
the same time!"

"Then the quakes at Harkness and Medfield were real earthquakes!" Sandy
put in.

"Looks that way," Tom admitted. "Those other tremors Wes mentioned
follow a natural circum-Pacific belt which is well known to
seismologists. I'm no expert, but perhaps they could have set off chain
reactions below the earth's crust which triggered the two quakes in this
part of the count