ctronics specialist; Joe Vitalli and
Chuck Howard, JANIG agents; and Roy McDevitt from Wallops Island.

McDevitt, who had just driven over from the rocket range, was a tall,
lean engineer dressed in slacks and a spectacular sport shirt emblazoned
with tropical flowers. He shook hands cordially. "You're Hartson Brant's
boys. We've certainly enjoyed having your family over at the island.
When Barby and Jan leave, the whole base will go into mourning."

Rick grinned. "Somebody loses, somebody wins. We're anxious to have them
back with us again."

Vitalli and Howard greeted the boys as old comrades. Although they had
had no chance to become well acquainted, the two agents had been part of
the JANIG team during the case of _The Whispering Box Mystery_.

Dave Cobb, who was scarcely older than the boys, had been hastily
borrowed from the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington. He spared no
time for greetings other than a cordial wave, and immediately got to
work on the rocket Rick had found in the cove.

The group pulled chairs up to the kitchen table on which Cobb was
working, and watched.

Cobb studied the rocket for a few minutes, then took a pointed tool and
pressed it into a spot five inches below the rounded nose. He rotated
the cylinder and pressed a similar spot on the other side. Rick saw a
thin line appear around the rocket below where Cobb had pressed.

The electronics specialist gripped the cylinder above and below the thin
line and twisted. The nose of the rocket came off. Cobb pointed to a
pair of metal prongs that extended out of the nose into the rocket
casing. "Contacts," he said. "They press against strips inside the
rocket casing. The whole assembly acts as a dipole antenna."

No one commented. Cobb took a tiny screwdriver and removed two screws
from a metal plate in the bottom of the nose cone. The screws were long
ones, holding the entire nose assembly in place. With the screws laid
carefully aside, Cobb tapped the cone and the assembly dropped into his
hand.

"A terrific job of miniaturization," he commented. "First-rate design."
He pointed with a screwdriver to a segment about the size of two silver
dollars stacked together. "Tape recorder. It accumulates data, then
plays it back in a single high-speed burst."

Rick watched, fascinated, as the electronics expert identified
components and circuits. The whole unit, scarcely larger than a common
soup can, contained receiver, tape recorder, trans