Duke Barrows was apparently taking the same tack. He looked up as the boys entered, grunted, then continued working on the following day's editorial.
"Something just occurred to me," Rick said, after greeting the editor. "Isn't this pretty early for you and Jerry to be at work? I thought a morning paper didn't open for business until afternoon."
"We never sleep," Duke said, without interrupting his work. "What do you think this is, The New York Times?"
"Never occurred to me," Rick said politely. "Although the quality of the paper is about the same."
The editor looked at Jerry. "When he talks like that, he wants something. What is it?"
"Search me. I don't know what these two want, and I don't know when they got deaf. Notice they're both wearing hearing aids?"
Duke hadn't. The boys grinned at his look of astonishment.
"What we'd like," Scotty said, "if you care to co-operate, is to have someone take a look at the barbershop. We want to know if the new barber is on the job."
Duke sharpened his pencil with loving care, using a penknife. "I won't ask why you can't take a look yourselves," he said finally. "It's pretty obvious."
"Not to me," Jerry objected.