nt to
be seen. It's obvious that the object you found must be recovered.
You've got a plan. I'm sure of it."

"We do," Rick agreed.

Scotty added, "First of all, we have to warn Orvil Harris. If he goes
crabbing in the middle of the night, he might foul a prop on the stake
we left there."

"The people in the mansion can't be suspicious of Orvil," Rick went on.
"He goes crabbing there every day. They must be used to him by now.
Suppose we call him, to warn him about the stake, and to see if he'll
help out."

"He'll be glad to help," Scotty said.

"Help how?" Steve asked. "By providing cover?"

Rick nodded. "Exactly. Scotty and I will suit up, so our skins won't
show at night, and have our Scuba equipment on. Harris could come by and
take the runabout in tow with us in it. We would drop off near the creek
entrance and push the runabout into the channel where it would be
hidden. Then we would swim into the cove and recover the object. With
two of us, it would be a cinch to find the fish line."

"If the thing is too heavy to swim with," Scotty went on, "we'll hand it
into Orvil's boat. Of course we'll pull up the sapling and hand that to
Orvil. If the gadget is light, we'll swim back to the runabout with it,
push the runabout away from the cove into the river, and then get aboard
and come home."

Rick concluded, "With Orvil's motor going, no one would hear our
bubbles."

Steve had followed the plan carefully. "Fair enough," he agreed. "It's a
good plan. No one will see you enter the cove, and no one will see you
leave. There will be only Orvil Harris catching crabs as usual."

Scotty spoke up. "We could make one change, Steve. You could be with us,
either in the water or in the runabout."

Steve shook his head. "No thanks, Scotty. I have some business of my own
later tonight. You carry out your plan and I'll carry out mine."

"Is your business connected with ours?" Rick asked.

"Yes, but I'm going to follow a different line of investigation. If it
brings results, we'll compare notes at breakfast."

"We could postpone recovery and help you tonight," Scotty suggested.

Steve smiled warmly. "Thanks, but no thanks. What I have to do is for a
lone hand. Rick, you phone Orvil Harris and make arrangements."

Rick consulted the telephone directory and turned to Steve. "Any chance
the line may be bugged?"

"I doubt it. You might ask Orvil if he's on a party line, though. If he
is, be careful. If not, go ahead a