d asked for Steve's extension. In a moment he
had the agent on the wire.

"Let's scramble," he said, and threw the switch. Then, "Steve, Barby
wants to take Jan to Whiteside. What do you think?"

Steve hesitated before he answered, "It's a little hard to give
reasons why she shouldn't go, Rick. Have you checked her on the cover
story?"

"Not yet. I will, though, if you say the word."

Again Steve hesitated, and Rick knew the agent was very much in his
own position. There were no reasons to believe it would do any harm.
Yet...

"Let her go," Steve said finally. "Only ask her and Barby not to get
into any public parades. You know."

"I know," Rick affirmed. "All right, Steve. When is Marks coming?"

"We're not certain yet. Ask your father. Marks is having some trouble
with the computations."

"Okay, Steve. See you soon." He hung up and turned to the others. "He
says all right, but please don't get into any public parades. In other
words, Barby, don't cover too much territory."

Scotty spoke up. "We'd better tell Duke and Jerry to leave it out of
the paper."

Duke Barrows was editor and Jerry Webster the reporter for the
Whiteside paper. Both were good friends. "They'll play ball," Rick
agreed. "Well, young ladies, when is the big safari?"

Barby consulted her watch. "Right now. We'll dress and you can fly us
over."

"Then right now means in an hour. Okay. We'll be ready."

Upstairs, Rick and Scotty washed up and changed into what Scotty
called "shore-going clothes" that were only slightly less informal
than their dungarees and T shirts. As they finished and sat down to
wait for the girls, Rick picked up one of the radio units on the
workbench. All were finished, although untested. A few final
decorative touches remained for Barby's plastic headset, including
setting in some rhinestones for her. It would look like any other
plastic bauble when he finished.

"Let's get some fresh batteries while we're in town," Rick suggested.
"Then we can check these out tonight."

"Okay. And remind me to pick up a new mouthpiece for the lung Jan
uses. She says the one that's on it now is too big and uncomfortable.
It hurts her mouth."

Jan had become proficient under water with only a few hours practice.
Rick had led the girls through the entire series of underwater
maneuvers with the lungs, including practice in sharing one lung
between them. He was satisfied that they both had a thorough
understanding of team swim