But, then again, it also pointed to Ellison or Millman, maybe both.
Toby arrived. As with Roger he viewed the cremated powders, and the melted metal tray on a scorched table of fireproofed wood under a zinc sheathing, where his “pyrotechnics” had burned, Roger had to admit to himself that the youth’s manner and expression indicated sincere shame that he had experimented and had left his combustibles exposed. But, then, the call had come, last night, so close ahead of the fire alarm that had led to his trip to the lab. Had Toby been lurking nearby after having chilled the outside thermometer enough to cause the one on the alarm system to be higher and to set off the device? There had not been enough heat to release the gas, he made certain of that at once. Toby might be one of those “dumb”-clever fellows who pretended to be ignorant to cover up something, to keep suspicion away from themselves. He decided to add Toby to his list of potentially suspectable people.
Chapter 30
THE VOICELESS WARNING
Since Astrovox would be away for a good while and his experiments could hardly be picked up by anyone else, Roger was told to arrange a temporary home for the rabbits, squirrels and mice and rats he had been experimenting on; and a nearby pet shop agreed to house them.
In assembling their cages, Roger noticed several of the mice showing symptoms of being very nearly done for.
“What do you suppose is wrong?” he asked Doctor Ryder, who was clearing aside some of the absent man’s apparatus in order to set up his cages again. He expected a fresh litter of white rats for his medical experiments.
“There was a fire, wasn’t there?”
“You think the smoke overcame them, Doctor?”
“Exactly, Roger.” He wrote down some stimulating combinations of medicinal chemicals to try on them.
The bio-chemist, Zendt, also took an interest.