forgot one thing. I didn't pick a
quiet breakfast food. That noise is the radio settling through the
Crummies--the loudest cereal on the market."

The three looked at each other helplessly. There wasn't a thing that
could be done about it.

"Noisy breakfast food," Scotty said unbelievingly.

Jerry promised, "I'll never eat it again!" The reporter straightened
his coat and tie and gave his hatbrim a jaunty flick. "Well, here I go
for my haircut. Might as well do something constructive."

The crackling, popping, snapping continued unabated. "Listen to it,"
Rick said hopelessly.

Three quarters of an hour later, when Jerry brought the bag back, the
Crummies were still crackling happily. Not a word of conversation had
been overheard.

CHAPTER XV

A Matter of Brain Waves

Barby, Jan, and Scotty were kind to Rick, which annoyed him
considerably. If they had scolded him for bad judgment, called him a
chucklehead, or even ignored him, it would have been all right. But
they all had to reassure him and tell him it could have happened to
anyone, and so on, and on. All of which made it unbearable.

He was more sure than ever that the houseboaters and barber were
connected, but he still had no clear evidence. Of course he had made a
report of the day's activities to Steve, who at least hadn't tried to
be nice about it.

"An agent can't always think of everything," was Steve's comment. "But
he can try. Sometimes, when he fails to take a factor into
consideration, he gets away with it. Sometimes he fails. Sometimes he
ends up dead, because of his poor judgment. Be glad your lives weren't
hanging in the balance."

Rick took the lesson to heart. He wouldn't make the same mistake
twice.

On the evening of the cereal fiasco, Parnell Winston returned to
Spindrift after another visit to Dr. Chavez. He called Steve Ames and
spent a long time talking to the JANIG agent. Then he called the
project team and the boys into the library.

"We're on the track of something," he reported. "At least we think we
are. It's so incredible that I simply can't believe it. If true, it
means some unfriendly nation is so far ahead of us scientifically that
we should all be trembling in our boots."

Rick had realized that only agents of a hostile country could be
involved in the actions against the project team. Everyone present had
known as much, without a word being spoken. Only another country could
gain from disruption of the proj