"Not yet. I will, though, if you say the word." Again Steve hesitated, and Rick knew the agent was very much in his own position. There were no reasons to believe it would do any harm. Yet... "Let her go," Steve said finally. "Only ask her and Barby not to get into any public parades. You know." "I know," Rick affirmed. "All right, Steve. When is Marks coming?" "We're not certain yet. Ask your father. Marks is having some trouble with the computations." "Okay, Steve. See you soon." He hung up and turned to the others. "He says all right, but please don't get into any public parades. In other words, Barby, don't cover too much territory." Scotty spoke up. "We'd better tell Duke and Jerry to leave it out of the paper." Duke Barrows was editor and Jerry Webster the reporter for the Whiteside paper. Both were good friends. "They'll play ball," Rick agreed. "Well, young ladies, when is the big safari?" Barby consulted her watch. "Right now. We'll dress and you can fly us over." "Then right now means in an hour. Okay. We'll be ready." Upstairs, Rick and Scotty washed up and changed into what Scotty called "shore-going clothes" that were only slightly less informal than their dungarees and T shirts. As they finished and sat down to wait for the girls, Rick picked up one of the radio units on the workbench. All were finished, although untested. A few final decorative touches remained for Barby's plastic headset, including setting in some rhinestones for her. It would look like any other plastic bauble when he finished. "Let's get some fresh batteries while we're in town," Rick suggested. "Then we can check these out tonight." "Okay. And remind me to pick up a new mouthpiece for the lung Jan uses. She says the one that's on it now is too big and uncomfortable. It hurts her mouth." Jan had become proficient under water with only a few hours practice. Rick had led the girls through the entire series of underwater maneuvers with the lungs, including practice in sharing one lung between them. He was satisfied that they both had a thorough understanding of team swimming and enough sense to stay out of at least the more obvious troubles novices can get into. He was content now to let them go off on their own, which they did fairly often. After Rick's estimated hour the girls were ready--except that Barby had to make a phone call. She spent another fifteen minutes arranging a small get-together at a friend's home to introduce Jan to her chums. "Now," she said brightly. "We're ready. Are you?" Rick wisely refrained from comment. Ten minutes later the four were in the Brants' car, en route to Barby's destination. Rick dropped the girls off and arranged to pick them up in two hours, then he turned the car toward town. "Let's visit Duke and Jerry," he suggested. Scotty looked at him. "Still bothered, aren't you?"