"Yes," Professor t.i.tus said, "and he often a.s.sisted Ned, mostly when no regular cla.s.ses were being held in the lab or when no other students were working there on experiments."

At once Nancy thought, "Here's a clue!" She wondered if Ned was doing original experiments. Was Crosson helping him or only being an inquisitive bystander?

At that moment two fully equipped representatives from the police bomb squad arrived. They entered the soaking wet lab and checked every inch of its walls and floor to be sure that no other bombs had been planted.

By this time the rank odor which had accompanied the fire had vanished up the ventilator and the fire captain declared the room was now safe to enter.

"I'd like to take a look around the place again," Nancy told the professor.

"Go ahead," he said. He introduced her to the bomb squad men and said she was an amateur detective. "But her methods seem very professional," he added with a smile.

"Then we would be glad for any help you can give us," one member of the squad said. "I'm Jake Reilly."

Nancy grinned. "Thank you for the compliment," she said. "I'm sure I can't tell you well-trained men anything you wouldn't be able to find out yourselves."

Professor t.i.tus spoke up quickly. With a grin he said, "The police have not yet found our students Ned Nickerson and Zapp Crosson. Miss Drew, on the other hand, has uncovered several leads."

The men were very much interested. "Can you tell us about any of them?" Reilly asked the young detective.

Nancy took a deep breath before answering. "I'm afraid Professor t.i.tus is exaggerating about my discoveries. I became involved in the case because of a strangely worded message I received in a robot copter. Actually it was a warning to me to beware of Cyclops."

"Cyclops?" Reilly repeated. "What is that?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out," Nancy revealed.

She changed the subject so that she would not be questioned any further. "I'd like to continue what I was doing before the explosion, if it's all right."

"Go ahead," Reilly replied.

Nancy walked off, scanning the littered floor. Suddenly in one corner she noticed a giant-sized gla.s.s eye. Her heart pounding with excitement, she hurried toward it. The object might be a link to the intriguing eye at the Anderson Museum! Although this eye was not glowing, she asked Reilly if it had been tested for radioactivity.

"It has none," he reported.

Nancy picked up the gla.s.s eye. Upon close inspection she discovered that the gla.s.s was a lid over a painted eye. She lifted the lid and studied the eye. Was it hiding something beneath? A small computer perhaps? She gazed at it a long time, then closed the lid.

"Professor t.i.tus, do you know anything about this?" Nancy asked.

"Never saw it before."

"How about the glowing eye at the Anderson Museum?" the young detective queried.

"I don't know anything about it."

Nancy thought this was strange since she had been told the eye belonged to Emerson's science department, and students from there were in charge of it.

Suddenly the eye began to quiver in Nancy's hand. The catch had become unfastened. Before she could close it, a voice from inside the gadget said, "Don't touch me! I am the deadly Cyclops!"

The young detective quickly closed the lid and laid the eye back on the floor. The voice stopped speaking.

"Let me see it," Reilly said in bewilderment.

Nancy handed it to him and in a few seconds the message was repeated. Reilly closed the lid and the voice stopped.

"This will bear closer investigation," he said. "I'll take it along. I don't quite trust the mechanism inside. Possibly it could trigger another explosion-if the person handling it does not obey. Girls, you'd better leave the lab at once to avoid any further danger! Hurry!"

CHAPTER VIII.

Puzzling Package

THE three girls returned to the fraternity house. It was nearly lunchtime and Burt and Dave had come in.

"Well, how did the three detectives make out this morning?" Burt asked. "Did you uncover Cyclops?"

"No, but we heard from him," George replied with a mysterious air.

"What!" Dave exclaimed.

Little by little the events of the morning in the lab were unfolded. Burt and Dave stared in astonishment.

"A bomb explosion!" Burt gasped. "You're lucky you weren't injured. So you think maybe Crosson was hiding something that he didn't want anybody to see. What could it have been?"

Nancy said, "Plans and perhaps drawings for some experiment on which he was working." Suddenly she stopped speaking and stared into s.p.a.ce.

Then she went on, "I suspect that Crosson was trying to learn something from Ned, which I'm sure he wouldn't reveal, so Crosson either stole it or was trying to. That file cabinet may even have contained some of Ned's work that Crosson didn't know about. It would be a shame if it's ruined."

The conversation was interrupted by a student who said there was a telephone call for Nancy Drew. She went off to answer it and found that an agent from the FBI was on the line.

"The police asked the Bureau to keep you advised of any new developments concerning Ned Nickerson," the man said. "I regret that so far we have no trace of either him or Zapp Crosson."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Nancy replied. "My friends and I haven't had any luck either, but we're continuing our search."

The agent said that two FBI men were coming to investigate Ned's college room. "We'll be there in about two hours. Will you try to meet us at the fraternity house?"

Nancy said she would be glad to and was looking forward to the men's report.

In the meantime she and her friends had lunch. Burt and Dave had to leave directly afterward to attend more lectures.

"Will it be all right for Bess and George and me to go to Ned's room to watch the FBI men work?" Nancy asked the boys.

Burt grinned. "If the agents have no objection, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't watch. But be sure you ask for identification when the men arrive. We don't want any impostors going through Ned's personal belongings."

Nancy nodded, then smiled. "Maybe by tonight we'll have another surprise for you."

The boys went off. Soon two men came to the house and asked for Nancy. After they had shown identification, she led them upstairs. George and Bess followed.

A sudden wave of panic came over Nancy. Would Ned ever return to this room?