Part 15 (1/2)

”You're right” Rick shook his head in dismay Lefty Camillion, whose first name was Thomas, was a notorious crime syndicate leader who had coations of racketeering In three days Camillion had become a television personality, of sorts, when it became clear that he apparently was responsible for a nuh he his There was insufficient evidence to jail hiht while his lawyers were fighting the deportation proceedings Now he had shown up again, on the Eastern Shore

”A criarees, an oldcrabber What does it add up to?” Rick deed He didn't answer There was no answer--yet

CHAPTER XI

On the Bottoth closet in the houseboat cabin Rick and Scotty took the two bulkiest to the cockpit and opened the equipment The boys had made the cases thele air tank, regulator, ht belt, equipment belt, and knife The third case contained spears and spear guns, but they wouldn't need those in searching for the object that had splashed near the houseboat

While Rick checked the equipment, made sure there was sufficient air in the tanks, and put on the regulators, Scotty searched for a heavy stake and soe hae of the woods was a pile of saplings that had been cut tothat would serve as a stake and took it back to the boat

One of the spare lines that the houseboat carried was quarter-inch nylon Scotty fastened one end of the s, about halfway up, and secured it with a ti as s the equipment and announced that he was ready

”Saet into swied, Rick asked, ”Suppose we find soet it up without help? Hoe mark the place?”

Scotty paused Normally they would simply attach a line to a float and secure the float to the object But a float would attract attention

”Take bearings?”

Rick shook his head ”The boat will be swinging at anchor It s Would a piece of fish line work? We could tie it to the object, carry it to the shore, and secure it to so underwater The line would sink Later, we could just drag until we caught the line”

”It would work,” Scotty agreed ”There's a new spool of heavy line on the shelf in the closet Fifty yards That should do”

”Especially since the reed

”I'll stick it in a belt pocket, just in case”

Back on deck, Rick started the houseboat's outboardsmoothly Scotty walked up the pier and untied the bowline At Rick's signal, he stepped aboard on the foredeck, bringing the line with him Rick cast off the stern line, pushed the houseboat away froear

The trip to Swa he had enough water under the keel, heading directly for the creek entrance Scotty came back to the cockpit and joined him

”Do you suppose Orvil Harris will be around?”

Rick shrugged ”It's pretty late for a crabber He's probably gone by now”

”I wonder if he'll ever see any flying stingarees come out of the creek”

Rick shook his head ”Most of the sightings are in the lateor late afternoon Only a couple were around dawn”

While the houseboat moved across the Little Choptank, Scotty checked the tide tables He reported that the tide was coh tide Rick had been studying the chart ”No problees four feet in the cove, with seven feet in the h?”