Hakim Farid took the boys to the tape setup he had established and
explained it to them. It was simple enough. The output signal from the
receivers was fed into a regular tape-recording circuit. The tapes
themselves were on huge reels good for about four hours of recording. It
would only be necessary to watch the volume control and to see that all
was running smoothly. Changing tapes was only a matter of slapping a new
reel into place, dropping the tape into the recording head, and
threading it into the empty reel.

"How will we work it?" Scotty asked, while they rechecked the setup and
tried out the tape motors.

Rick frowned. "It kind of throws a monkey wrench into our plan, doesn't
it?" He and Scotty had worked out a way to recover the Egyptian cat,
again with Scotty distracting the guard.

"One of us will have to get it alone," Scotty said.

Rick watched the tape run through and searched his mind for a method.
There was only one way he could think of that would get the guard out of
the way. "Looks as if that third kitten is going to have a home," he
said finally. "I'll wrap it in an old newspaper, then pretend to find it
under something. I'll hand it to the guard. With luck, he'll get so
excited he'll run for his boss, thinking someone has tried to steal a
museum exhibit. Then I'll snaffle kitty off the shelf and hike out."

Scotty rubbed his chin. "Could work," he said finally. "Unless the guard
insists that you go with him."

"No speak Arabic," Rick said. "I won't understand. Let's hope the guard
speaks no English."

"Well, if anything goes wrong, Moustafa will just have to wait. So I'll
take the first shift and you go get puss. That means I'll be waiting for
ol' Kemel alone tonight at the hotel."

"Looks that way."

There seemed to be no solution except to turn the cat over. Bartouki had
approved, and the cat was his. Much as the boys hated to let go of an
unsolved mystery, there wasn't any other way.

Hassan drove Rick back into town, with the boy sitting in back. He would
have preferred to be in the front seat with the dragoman, but the taxi
meter took up too much room.

The guide parked directly in front of the museum and asked, "I go with
you?"

"Not this time, Hassan. I won't be long." If Rick's trick was to work,
no translator should be at hand.

He paid his piastres at the entrance and walked into the huge entrance
hall, very conscious of the kitten in his pocket. It was wrapped in a
week