erry.

Rick smiled as he hung up. "Duke will get a story out of this
somehow," he said. "He's so curious he could burst a seam. Come on.
Jerry will get started right away."

Just before nine o'clock the boys and Jerry arrived at the newspaper
office. Jerry was about to burst with curiosity, but he wasn't going
to let it get the better of him. He hadn't asked a single question all
the way from the wood road back of Whiteside into town.

Duke Barrows was apparently taking the same tack. He looked up as the
boys entered, grunted, then continued working on the following day's
editorial.

"Something just occurred to me," Rick said, after greeting the editor.
"Isn't this pretty early for you and Jerry to be at work? I thought a
morning paper didn't open for business until afternoon."

"We never sleep," Duke said, without interrupting his work. "What do
you think this is, _The New York Times_?"

"Never occurred to me," Rick said politely. "Although the quality of
the paper is about the same."

The editor looked at Jerry. "When he talks like that, he wants
something. What is it?"

"Search me. I don't know what these two want, and I don't know when
they got deaf. Notice they're both wearing hearing aids?"

Duke hadn't. The boys grinned at his look of astonishment.

"What we'd like," Scotty said, "if you care to co-operate, is to have
someone take a look at the barbershop. We want to know if the new
barber is on the job."

Duke sharpened his pencil with loving care, using a penknife. "I won't
ask why you can't take a look yourselves," he said finally. "It's
pretty obvious."

"Not to me," Jerry objected.

"It should be. They don't want the barber to get a look at them,
because he saw them in Washington. They don't want him to know they're
interested, or that they know he's in town."

Rick started to ask how Duke had known that much, then realized that
the editor had simply drawn the correct conclusion from the few words
that had been said before. Again Rick gained a clear insight into how
a little information can be built up into a lot. No wonder Steve and
his people had so much trouble protecting official secrets.

Duke put his pencil down and rose. "It happens that I need a haircut.
Stand by." At the door he paused. "Anything else you want to know?"

"We want to know about his massage machine," Rick said urgently. "Find
out all you can, Duke. Please? Particularly if it has any electrical
connections besides