“It’s a cinch there’s some radioactive stuff inside,” Eddie assured. “Let’s go. I’ve got to take this to my father.”
As they drew within a quarter of a mile of Anderson’s Landing, Teena said, “Eddie, what if those two men should be around the boat dock and see us with this tube?”
Eddie looked over his shoulder. He saw only one person on the landing. That would probably be Mr. Anderson.
“I’m sure they’ve already turned in their boat and gone on home,” Eddie said, “but just to be safe, we’ll do this.” He picked up his blue jeans which he had left wadded up in the bottom of the boat, as he hadn’t wanted to put them back on over his wet trunks. He pushed the metal tube into one of the empty legs. Then he wrapped the excess material around it. “There,” he said, satisfied, “no one can see it now.”
Mr. Anderson came out to meet them as they eased the rowboat gently up to the dock.
“Well, how did it go?” he asked. “Find any atoms?”
Eddie smiled. “Everything is made of atoms, Mr. Anderson,” he explained. “We were looking for uranium. That’s a special kind.”
“I guess it’s a special, all right,” the boat-owner agreed, “the way it can blow things to smithereens.”
Eddie didn’t argue, but he wished people would stop thinking that all radioactive materials were used to blow things up. He supposed, however, that since the atomic bombs were what really started what came to be called the Atomic Age, it would take some time to educate the public to the fact that atomic power was a much greater builder than a destroyer. Anyway, at the moment he didn’t want to get into a long discussion about it.
“We didn’t find any uranium, Mr. Anderson,” he said.