Inside the newspaper office, he took out his scout knife and carefully slit the top of one cereal box. He removed the little radio from his pocket, unplugged the earphone, and put the radio on top of the cereal. He borrowed cellophane tape and taped the box shut, then he put both boxes of cereal back in the bag with the sugar on top. He handed the bag to Jerry. "Do your stuff." Jerry took it and hurried out the door. Rick and Scotty watched as he went up the street and turned in at the barbershop. Scotty shook his head. "All I can hear in the earphone is a crackling noise." "Probably the paper bag," Rick said. "It would crackle as he walks." They waited impatiently. Presently Jerry emerged without the bag and walked down the street to join them. "The man in the chair is about done," he reported. "The one you're after is reading a magazine. I said I'd be back in a few minutes, left the bag, and walked out." "There's the other customer now," Rick said. A man had just emerged from the barbershop and was going up the street in the opposite direction. "Good! They'll talk fast now, because they'll be afraid you'll come back." "I still hear the crackling noise," Scotty objected. "Someone's talking in the background, but I can't hear it because of the snapping and popping." Rick swallowed hard. Was something wrong? "Let's see." He borrowed Scotty's earpiece and held it to his own ear. For a second he listened, horrified. It sounded like the Battle of Bull Run! Barby broke in faintly through the noise. "Rick! I've been listening. What's that noise?" He explained quickly. "We planted one unit in a box of cereal and Jerry put it in the barbershop." Barby gasped. "In a box of cereal? What kind?" "Crummies. Your favorite." "Oh, Rick!" The girl's voice rose to a wail. "Don't you remember the commercial? Crisp, crackly Crummies! The cereal that sings for your breakfast!" He got it, then. "Okay, Barby." To the others, he said unhappily, "Well, it was a great idea. Only I forgot one thing. I didn't pick a quiet breakfast food. That noise is the radio settling through the Crummies--the loudest cereal on the market." The three looked at each other helplessly. There wasn't a thing that could be done about it. "Noisy breakfast food," Scotty said unbelievingly. Jerry promised, "I'll never eat it again!" The reporter straightened his coat and tie and gave his hatbrim a jaunty flick. "Well, here I go for my haircut. Might as well do something constructive." The crackling, popping, snapping continued unabated. "Listen to it," Rick said hopelessly. Three quarters of an hour later, when Jerry brought the bag back, the Crummies were still crackling happily. Not a word of conversation had been overheard. CHAPTER XV A Matter of Brain Waves