4:00 p.m.
She walked to the edge of the hill and looked down with a stunned expression . `` He did make an atom bomb , '' she cried . Colonel Thurgood , who had snapped from his chair at her words , leaped forward to catch her as she collapsed in a faint . At 4:00 p.m. , the argument was still raging in the long , narrow staff room of the hospital administration building . Colonel Thurgood , looking more like a patient every minute , sat on the edge of his chair at the head of a long table and pounded with his fist on the wooden surface , making Miss Abercrombie 's chart book bounce with every beat . `` It 's ridiculous , '' Thurgood roared . `` We 'll all be the laughingstocks of the world if this ever gets out .