ginia State Police. His car was radio equipped, although not
identified as a police car. It kept him in touch with his men.

"Your boy went into the mine a few minutes ago," he reported.

Rick breathed a sigh of relief. Now, if the ghost producer didn't
examine things too closely ... but he wouldn't. Everything looked
normal, and the extra film wasn't prominent.

It was almost nine o'clock.

Rick found Scotty. "Let's get grandstand seats."

"Okay."

Barby, Jan, and the Millers had a table directly under the tree in which
the boys had waited in vain for the Blue Ghost, and had hidden from the
night prowlers. This was no accident. Rick's mother and father were with
the group. Weiss was off at another table with Bennett of the AEC, deep
in a discussion of some obscure point of nuclear physics.

A car drove up and Rick waited to see who emerged. One person who was
missing had arrived just in time. Rick walked over and told the FBI
agent to get a good location from which to watch the show.

"Just got in from Washington," Taylor said. "We picked up Hilleboe and
three associates. They talked freely when they saw we had 'em cold. Been
actually selling pieces of the land, through Collins, at fantastic
prices. We'll pick up Collins on the way back tonight."

Rick saw him to a good location and rejoined Scotty. They hurriedly told
the folks at the table that they wanted grandstand seats and went up
into the tree. Besides having a good seat, Rick also wanted to see if he
was correct about being able to see the bright projector lens from the
tree.

Now that they knew what to look for, it was absurdly simple. They
couldn't see the port open, but they saw the white flash of dry ice as
it dropped from the port into the pool.

The mist rose.

The party group was silent now. Only a very few knew what the outcome
would be; most knew only that the Blue Ghost was about to appear.

The mist thickened, expanded.

The Blue Ghost materialized. He held out his hands to an invisible loved
one. He looked appealing.

He recoiled, then put hands to his chest. They came away bloody. He
stretched them out ...

And then a new sequence materialized in the mist, a sequence of words in
stark red against the icy white of the background.

BE PREPARED!
BUY
BLUE GHOST
HEALTH INSURANCE

For a long breath there was shocked silence, then the crowd below
dissolved into laughter.

"Let's go," Rick shouted.

He would ha