“I have no idea.” A new thought struck Sandy. “You know, maybe they don’t even know we’re missing. There must be so much confusion back at headquarters, that Uncle Russ probably hasn’t had time to give us a thought. He may think we’re somewhere along the road working with one of the crews.”
“Do you think they’ll be able to stop her at the road?” Jerry said.
“Oh, they’ll bottle her up between the two big firebreaks,” Quiz said. “But it’s still going to be a major catastrophe. All that beautiful timber going up in smoke—enough wood to build an entire city, Macauley says.”
“Well, just so we didn’t go up in smoke,” Jerry said. “Along with our friend back there.... Doesn’t it give you the cold shivers to think that you’re sitting on top of an atomic bomb?”
“Not in the least,” Quiz denied. “As a matter of fact, I’d like to dig the thing out and see what it looks like. We can’t tell anything about it from that little tip of the fin.”
Jerry stared at Quiz as if he were crazy. “You’ll dig alone, friend. And wait until I’m at least a thousand miles away.”
Quiz shook his head despairingly. “Jerry, where’s your scientific curiosity?”
“You know what curiosity did?” Jerry said.
Sandy motioned for them to be quiet. “Listen; hear anything?”
The throb of engines came to them through the smoky overcast.