le through the driving rain. "We'll have to go see," Rick
said.

"After dark," Scotty added. "In about an hour. It will be pretty dark
then."

"Do you suppose the brass ball is still on the boat?" Rick inquired
thoughtfully. "We might be able to sneak aboard after dark and get a
picture of it from close up, and we could examine it and have something
definite to report to Steve."

"That's a possibility," Scotty admitted. "Anyway, we can get ready."

Rick rechecked the camera and infrared unit. He loaded the camera with a
fresh roll of film. Then the three sat in the living room over coffee
and listened to the storm batter at the front of the house until it was
nearly dark outside.

"What now?" Tony inquired. "Do we all go? Or just one of us?"

"No point in all of us getting soaked," Scotty said. "Have you had any
experience in this kind of spying, Tony?"

The archaeologist had not. He grinned. "Until I came to Spindrift, I led
a rather quiet, academic sort of life. Except for the war, of course."

"Then Scotty or I had better go," Rick said. "Or both of us."

Scotty shook his head. "No need for both. It's only a reconnaissance,
anyway. Toss you for it."

Rick produced a coin. "All right. Call it." He flipped it as Scotty
claimed heads. It was a tail.

"Best two out of three?" Scotty invited.

Rick grinned. "And after that, best three out of five?"

Scotty growled, "All right. I'll go." He got ready by taking off shoes
and socks. He could change his shirt and shorts when he returned. He
slipped through the back door and was gone.

Rick turned on the radio, tried for a weather report, and settled for a
Miami disk jockey who was playing some good records. The static was bad,
but the station came through clearly enough to make listening worth
while.

Scotty was back before a half dozen records had been played. He sat
down, ignoring the water that dripped from him. "Listen, our friends
just rounded the northern tip of the island in the boat and they're
heading south just inside the eastern reef. What do you make of that?"

Rick pictured the movements of the enemy boat from Scotty's description.
"They can't be putting out to sea, otherwise they'd be outside the reef.
And they're not interested in anything on the island or they'd have
walked. I'd say they're planning to do some night diving on the eastern
side of the island."

"In this kind of weather?" Tony asked incredulously.

"Sure. It's stormy on top