“Well, you don’t need to get sore at me,” Teena scolded.
“I’m not, Teena,” Eddie said, calming down. “But I’m not going to take the chance of leaving the thing out here and maybe not being able to find it again.”
“You sure it won’t hurt you?” Teena asked again.
“I’m real sure,” Eddie said. “I’ve seen that Geiger counter act up a lot worse over a small sample of uranium ore. Don’t worry. If it was really hot with radiation, those two men wouldn’t have been handling it either. Dad said that whoever stole the isotope would be an expert on knowing how to handle it safely. I’ll be right back.”
The cylinder was simple to locate.
Eddie slipped over the side and into the water. He took a breath, nosed over, and kicked downward. It was a shallow dive compared to some he had made while skin diving for lobster. He stroked easily down to the sand bar. The bright metal cylinder was simple to locate even in the murky water. He grabbed it with his left hand and swam back to the surface.
Teena took it from him and laid it in the bottom of the boat. Then she helped him climb in over the stern.
“It doesn’t look like anything very special, does it?” she said.
“That’s why I thought it was for holding a jointed trout rod,” Eddie said, “but watch this.” He switched on the Geiger counter and held the probe near the metal tube. The earphones began to sputter with continuous clicks. The indicator on the dial jumped far forward.