# get rid of trailing whitespace
chomp $rest;
# split on consecutive whitespace
# (includes tabs and mult spaces)
@rest_ary = split(/\s+/, $rest); 
# grab last item
$pass = $rest_ary[$#rest_ary]; 

print "pass = $pass\n";

# just to double check -
for ($x = 0; $x <= $#rest; $x++) {
  print "array item $x = $rest[$x]\n"; 
}