Part 24 (1/2)
”Good There's a fair amount of traffic”
Rick waited, alert for Scotty's next report It ca A truck picked hi into the outskirts of town”
Rick walked froainst the building, eyes on the direction from which the quarry and Scotty would co all the strain out of shadowing He thought of the many times when such communications would have co down Main Street,” Scotty reported ”Watch it!”
Rick saw a truck coht and slow as it neared the barbershop
Aaround He spotted the barbershop, but instead of going in, he went to theof the Sports Center and stood quietly, ostensibly inspecting equip the street over beforecontact
”I' the street He'll probably go into the barbershop any minute now”
Scotty drove down the main street, and as he passed the barbershop, he reported, ”There's afor hione beyond this point The objective had been to see whether the houseboaters made contact with the barber But now he realized that a si Who was to say that the houseboater hadn't really wanted a haircut?
If only there were so the conversation
Jerry Webster caestured ”In front of the Sports Center”
”What are you going to do now?”
”I was just wondering the sarinned ”Don't tell ht by now you'd have the barbershop wired for sound”
Rick stared at him Wired! Why not? And it wasn't too late, if Jerry would help
”Will you do soht as well I'm in this up to my neck, anyway”
Scotty joined the?”
”Just had a brain storm,” Rick told him He explained rapidly, and the two started to chuckle
”It should work,” Scotty agreed ”Go ahead I'll take over the watch
Hey! There he goes”
The houseboater had just walked into the barbershop
Rick ran to the next corner and into the grocery store He hesitated briefly, then picked out two boxes of cereal, and added a box of sugar He had the, paid for them, and hurried back
Inside the newspaper office, he took out his scout knife and carefully slit the top of one cereal box He reed the earphone, and put the radio on top of the cereal He borrowed cellophane tape and taped the box shut, then he put both boxes of cereal back in the bag with the sugar on top
He handed the bag to Jerry ”Do your stuff”