The boys hauled themselves to their feet reluctantly. Rick walked to the door and looked out through the screen. He could see the creek glistening, and, out beyond the dock where the houseboat and runabout were tied up, he saw ripples spreading where a fish had jumped. The air was still, and he could hear cicadas in the trees and shrubs. "This is the land of pleasant living," he observed. "I'm surprised anyone on the Eastern Shore ever gets a lick of work done." "You certainly don't," Scotty retorted. "Come on over here and stop admiring the scenery." Steve had produced large sheets of white paper, a ruler, and pencils. Rick sat down. "I'll act as recorder." "Volunteering for the hardest job?" Scotty inquired. "The air must be affecting you." "Nope." Rick shook his head. "I have just enough energy left to be realistic. I can't read your writing. Suppose I put down the headings. Location, date of sighting, time of sighting, direction of sighting, number of persons who saw object. What else?" "Description," Scotty suggested. "Maybe that ought to be in two parts. One for shape and one for color." Rick nodded. "Good idea. I'll rule lines as we go." He drew lines for the columns, printed his headings, and put in the first several horizontal lines. "Ready," he announced. "We'll start with the first one. Location: five miles south of Wye Mills on Route 50." Rick printed: "5M S Wye Mls Rte 50." "Date of sighting, July 10. Time of sighting, between five and six in the evening." Rick printed industriously. Scotty read from his notes until over twenty lines of information had been printed on the chart. Then Steve interrupted, bringing a tray of tall glasses of iced ginger ale. The young agent put the tray down and scanned the columns while the boys helped themselves. In a moment Steve nodded. "There's a pattern taking shape, at least in the descriptions. But I can't make much out of the dates and locations, yet." "We'll keep plugging," Rick said. "Maybe we'll need to rearrange the columns before they make sense." "You have a point," Steve agreed. "Use the chart for the source, then we can fill out sheets on the individual items, or I have some four-by-five-inch file cards that would be ideal." "But we'll be at it all night," Scotty objected. "I don't think so. Once the basic data are on paper, it will go fast. Keep at it. Yell if you want refills on the ginger ale. I need to finish my own homework." The boys returned to logging the data while Steve settled down with a bulky report. In another hour the notebook had been exhausted, and the big sheet of paper was nearly full of ruled lines and columns, recording data. "We're done," Rick announced. Steve put his report aside and joined them at the table. The boys waited expectantly while the agent scanned the sheet.