uch. Besides, some of the types used here are
fantastically expensive. A couple of hundred dollars might pay for a
transistor the size of a kidney bean."

Scotty whistled. "They must be made of diamonds! Anyway, a quarter of a
million is a lot of money, and even at two hundred bucks each the
transistors would make quite a bundle. The Earthman would have to hide
them, and then get them off the base. And I'll tell you one thing: If
Big Mac stole them, he didn't take them off the base in his own car."

"How do you know?" Rick challenged.

"He's got a Porsche. There's about enough room in the luggage
compartment for a spare handkerchief."

"I'll buy it." Another idea hit him. "But he has some other
transportation, hasn't he? How about the radar unit he and Pancho run?"

Scotty snapped his fingers. "Now you're cooking! It's a panel truck,
loaded with equipment, and they pull the radar antenna behind it on a
trailer. There would be plenty of room in the truck. Only he doesn't
take it into town, remember?"

"Would he need to? He could drop the transistors somewhere to be picked
up later."

"Careless Mesa."

"What?"

"That's his station. Come on. Let's look at a map of the area." Scotty
turned and led the way to their barracks.

One thing about the robbery was a major puzzle to Rick. He could see
that a rocket shoot might provide the opportunity to commit the theft,
and he could see how use of a radar van might get the stolen goods off
the base. But the thief had carefully emptied cartons, leaving the
cartons as camouflage. That took more time than any thief would have. He
considered various ways in which it might have been done and rejected
them all.

Tacked up in the entryway of their barracks was a large-scale map.
Scarlet Lake was marked with crayon. The boys studied the area, looking
for Careless Mesa. Finally Scotty found it, almost due north of the
base. "About twenty miles. Only one road to the mesa, but two roads lead
away from it. Let's see where they go."

The first road from Careless Mesa ended at a point in the mountains
marked "_Dry Spring_." The second road led to the town marked
"_Steamboat_," where the road forked again. One branch eventually joined
other roads in Pahrump Valley, the other led to Death Valley.

The boys looked at each other triumphantly. Rick said, "So you can get
from Careless Mesa to state highways without returning to the base."

Scotty scratched his chin. "Any idea what's