"Yes, but there was no word from Steve."
"Don't you think he might like to know about the presence of his shadow on Clipper Cay?" Tony inquired.
Rick pointed to the Sky Wagon resting on the beach. "Trouble is, that's our only communication. I could contact the St. Thomas airport and request that they pass a message, but that would be like broadcasting it to the world. Steve might not like it."
Zircon's deep voice cut into his comment. "Look! Our friends are apparently going to do some night work."
There were lights on the frogmen's boat, and it was putting out. As the Spindrifters watched, it slowly approached the reef, then stopped. Scotty got the glasses and examined the scene. "Something's up!" he exclaimed. "I saw a diver go over the side!"
Hobart Zircon coughed self-consciously. "Do you know, I have taken a certain amount of pride in the fact that I am by nature a conservative individual with a highly developed capacity for minding my own business."
Rick wondered what on earth the big scientist was getting at.
"The pursuit of truth has led me along many devious routes," Zircon continued. "I have tried, with some success and many failures, to plumb the mysteries of Nature. But while I have tried to make the business of our natural universe my own, I have never thrust my not-inconsiderable nose into the business of neighbors. However, this admirable reticence has limits, since, as a scientist, I am also possessed of that inherent trait of curiosity without which no person can succeed in science."
Rick exploded into laughter. "And what you're leading up to is, you want to go see what those people are doing!"
"Precisely," Zircon admitted.