"Wait!" bleated Henry, his goatee waggling excitedly.
"What"s the matter?"
"I"m going with you!"
"You?" Major Coggleston stared. "What for?"
Henry started in indignation at the other"s tone. He drew himself to his full height and thrust his chin out aggressively.
""What for?"" he mimicked. "Hmmph! Let me ask you a question, Mister Officer: how are you going to identify the man who bought my gla.s.ses if I"m not along?"
The major considered this. Then, at last:
"All right. I guess you"ll have to come."
"Then so do I."
It was Professor Paulsen.
"Joe, there"s no need to talk like that," Major Ray Coggleston began.
"If Henry goes, I go," the savant reiterated stubbornly. "He gets in enough jams with me around to look after him. Lord knows what he"d do if he got away from me."
And so it was, ten minutes later, that the three appeared at the main gate of the Sunset Glow Nudist Colony: Let Old Sol Bring You Health.
From within the fenced enclosure came the glow of firelight and the sound of festivities. A burly short-clad gateman was on duty.
"Well?" he demanded.
Major Coggleston displayed his credentials.
"You"ve got a man in there whom we suspect of being a spy," he explained. "We"ve got to come in and investigate."
The gateman hesitated and chewed his lower lip.
"O.K.," he said finally. "Ditch your clothes in the brush, over there."
"Ditch our clothes!"
"Sure." The gateman nodded determinedly. "You didn"t think you could come in the way you are, did you?"
"But we represent the United States Government--"
"I don"t give a d.a.m.n who you represent." The gateman was adamant. "If you want to enter Sunset Glow, you"ll do it in bare skin or not at all."
The three stared from one to another. At last the major broke the silence.
"All right," he snapped. "Have it your own way. I suppose we _would_ stand out like sore thumbs if we wore clothes."
It took the trio but a minute to disrobe. They slipped through the gate, a strange sight: Henry, small and spindly, chin-whiskers waving animatedly; Professor Paulsen, gaunt, lean-shanked, stooped; and Major Coggleston, still strong and well-built, but with a noticeable spare tire beginning to develop around his midriff.
Inside, a great open fire was burning, with a throng of male and female nudists disporting themselves about it. Some were toasting wieners and marshmallows; other only their own epidermis. There was much laughter and good-natured raillery.
"Joseph!" exclaimed Henry tensely, his goatee quivering to a point like a setter"s tail. "There! See her? That blonde girl--"
His colleague turned on him.
"Henry Horn, I"m warning you for the last time!" he clipped. "We"re having a hard enough time as it is, without your calling that young lady"s anatomical details to our attention. So keep quiet!"
"Oh, all right," the little man sulked. "Just because you think you"re smarter than I am--"
"Joe! Henry!" Major Coggleston interrupted excitedly. "Look! That man walking off into the shadows! Hasn"t he red hair?"
The two friends shot quick glances in the direction the officer pointed.
"That"s him!" squealed Henry, dancing about like a monkey on a stick.
"That"s the man who bought my gla.s.ses!"
"Come on!" The major darted forward, looking for all the world like an oversize kewpie doll. Henry and the professor followed close on his heels.
Ahead of them, the red-headed nudist hurried farther and farther out of the firelight and into the brush. Bushes began to slap against the three friends" faces.
"d.a.m.n that devil!" fumed Major Coggleston. "I can"t see him. Has he lost us?"
"Ouch!" yipped Henry, close beside him. "Oh! The mosquitoes!"
Professor Paulsen slapped vigorously at his own anatomy.
"They"re awful!" he agreed. Then, to his friend, the major: "Do you see him? Where is he?"
And from the darkness behind them a voice answered:
"Right here I am, gentlemen! At your service, now and always!"
As one man, the trio whirled. A burly figure loomed in the gloom.
It was the red-headed man!
"Did you buy a pair of binoculars--" the major began.
The other waved him down.
"Sure, I bought "em. And tonight I used "em to snag onto the most important military secret I"ve seen in a month of Sundays. Believe me, mister, I"ll make my fortune from this job!"
"Then you admit you"re a spy?" the officer rasped, starting to move forward. "You admit you"re the dirty dog who murdered our sentry--"