"Appleton, Victor - Tom Swift Jr 10 - And His Ultrasonic Cycloplane" - читать интересную книгу автора (Appleton Victor)

"Looks like some kind of primitive animal god," Tom remarked in a slow,
puzzled voice. "Where'd you get it, Ed?"
"Picked it up in a San Francisco curio shop on my way back from South
America," his cousin replied.
The young inventor pointed to the figure's kangaroolike stomach pouch.
"Some kind of a marsupial, apparently. That may mean it came from the South
Pacific area, somewhere around Australia."
"What's it made of?" Bud inquired.
Tom shook his head, pinching his lower lip thoughtfully. "That's what has me
stumped. So far as I recall, I've never seen any substance quite like this. ... Of
course this yellow-orange color may indicate some kind of an oxide, due to
weathering."
With his fingernail, Tom scratched the bottom
THE WEIRD FIGURE 7
of the figure slightly, then hefted and tapped the object, noting its metallic
ring.
"Wait a minute!" he exclaimed suddenly. "I may be wrong, but I've got a
hunch about this. Let's hop over to my lab."
Using one of Enterprises' jeeps, they drove to Tom's all-glass private
laboratory. Here the young inventor examined the statue quickly under a
spectroscope. When he raised his head from the instrument, his blue eyes
sparkled with excitement.
"Well, give out, genius boy!" urged Bud tensely. "What is it?"
"It's an ore of holmium-pure holmia-one of the rare earths!" Tom replied.
Bud's face remained blank. "Rare earths? What are they?"
"A group of very rare metals with tongue-twisting names like dysprosium,
praseodymium, ytterbium-"
"Okay, okay, professor!" Bud put in hastily.
"Just tell us what's so unusual about them."
"For one thing, they practically never occur in ore deposits all by themselves-
at least not so far as modern science knows," Tom explained. "Ordinarily they
have to be separated, in tiny quantities, from other substances like monazite
sand, which is used in atomic energy production."
"Then where would the primitive people who made this statue get a whole
hunk of this stuff?" Bud demanded.
"Good question. I wish I knew!"
8 ULTRASONIC CYCLOPLANE
"Does holmium have any value, aside from being so rare?" Ed Longstreet
asked.
"Yes," Tom replied. "It can be used in making alloys, special glass and
electronic parts, not to mention its various hush-hush applications. And scientists
could probably find a lot more uses if there were a large enough supply."
"Hey!" Bud exclaimed, bouncing off his laboratory stool. "Then, if we could
find out where this object came from, it might lead to a valuable uranium strike-I
mean a rare earths strike!"
Tom nodded.
"Afraid I can't be of much help," said Ed. "I questioned the curio-shop owner,
but the only thing he could tell me was that it arrived in a consignment of art
objects he'd bought at auction."
Tom drummed his fingers thoughtfully on the workbench. "Maybe an art