Part 8 (1/2)
”I'et lost You put on your gear and swam out, not with any particular destination inof the kind where you could see fish The shadoatched you Suddenly he got excited, grabbed a boat, and tried to run you down”
Steve grinned at the boys ”In fact, he got so excited that he stole a boat right out from under the owner's nose What do you think of that?”
Rick scratched his head ”We'd about decided he was either desperate or stupid I guess he was both”
Kelly continued ”The big point is, what , as I see it You were getting close to so, and he was afraid you'd find it So he lost his head That's borne out by the reh stupid stunts for one day”
”But what could we have been getting close to?”
”I don't know Whatever it was, it isn't there now”
Scotty and Rick sat up straight Scotty demanded, ”How do you know?”
Steve s”
At the boys' surprised looks, Kelly explained, ”You told the Shore Patrol enough to get us interested We put tea there”
”But there could have been,” Scotty pointed out ”If they suspected we knew about it, they could have reht”
”Correct,” Steve agreed ”They orried, too Otherhy the call on you last night? And the questions?” Steve paused while the waiter served the they value was in the water near where you swa, and they had already identified ton arned the in on the case Since it's no secret that I' me easily When you swam out toward this object, whatever it was, they were convinced that soot desperate and tried to knock you off Then, last night, they tried to find out what you knew, and how”
”Who are 'they'?” Rick asked
”If I knew that, I'd wrap the case up and go ho on it for a week, but he hasn't any answers yet I've been here twenty-four hours, and I know even less”
”Could you identify the two men?” Scotty queried
”Yes Both sreen at this kind of business, otherwise you'd be a pair of real cold turkeys by now”
That was true, Rick knew Experienced agents wouldn't have given him and Scotty the chances that they'd seized
”The men must knoas under the water,” Scotty said
”Not necessarily They just kneas important, and they may have been ordered to protect it But your forht, and told all he knew It wasn't much He didn't even knoho had hired hi, either”
”What's the next step?” Rick wanted to know
”Jimmy and I will drive you to the plane Then you take off for Clipper Cay And stay there until your vacation is over Have you a short-wave radio, by the way?”
”Yes Why?” Rick had an all-wave battery portable
”Monitor the Navy command frequency Here, I'll write it down for you
Listen every night at six for five e I don't think I will, but it won't do any harm to set up a schedule”
Steve lowered his voice ”Now listen to ainst yesterday were not good sah professionals I don't knoho they are, but froerous So you two are to stay out of this case That is an order Stay on Clipper Cay and have fun”