So he hired me to find out."
"Didn't it occur to you he might be an espionage agent?" Ames asked
coldly.
Nolan seemed shocked. "Believe me, I had no such idea!" he averred.
"Runkle seemed pleasant. He said it all was merely a short cut to save
him from wasting any more time on the project. If Tom Swift had the
specimen, he would quit. I--I guess I'm a little bit vain about the way
I can mimic voices, and this gave me a chance to show off. Besides,
I saw no harm in doing it."
"No harm?" Bud snorted. "You had Swift Enterprises in a real lather when
we found out."
Nolan spread his hands in a helpless gesture. "I'm truly sorry," he
repeated.
"How were you able to find out how my father's voice sounded?" Tom
asked.
"I listened to a recording of a speech he made at the Fourth of July
rally here in Shopton," Nolan explained. "I borrowed the tape from a
local radio station. Guess that's how your security men got onto me."
"What did this fellow Runkle look like?" Ames asked.
Nolan thought for a moment. "Oh, he was past middle age, I should say.
Grizzled hair, thick-lensed glasses. And he was quite heavy-set."
"Hmm. Then it certainly wasn't Narko," Ames murmured to Tom.
The young inventor nodded. "I believe I know him. The name just came
back to me. I met a Professor Runkle in New York about a month ago, at a
scientific convention. He was a member of the visiting Brungarian
delegation.
Pages:
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134