"I'll send the plant nurse to him," Simkins said. "As for going to town,
take a look at the parking lot." He pointed with a jerk of his thumb.
The cars on the lot had been smashed into junk by bricks from a
collapsing wall of one of the buildings. "And the only truck we had
available was in that burning shed," the superintendent added bitterly.

"Tough break," Tom sympathized. "Anyhow, we want to help. Got a job
for us?"

Simkins was only too glad to put Tom's quick mind and keen technical
know-how to use. Within minutes, Tom was in charge of clearing away
rubble and extricating anyone who might be trapped inside the buildings.
Bud organized a fire-fighting crew to keep the blaze in the shed from
spreading.

The telephone line was soon repaired and a steady stream of rescue
vehicles began arriving from Harkness--fire trucks, three ambulances,
and private cars driven by volunteers.

Two hours later there was nothing more Tom and Bud could do at the
disaster scene and they hitched a ride into Harkness. The town had
suffered some damage, though only slight compared to the destruction at
the plant.

"The center of the quake was right under Faber Electronics," Tom
remarked.

From a pay telephone, he called Swift Enterprises in Shopton. This was
the experimental station where he and his father developed their many