“I’m not an idiot. Go change your tire.”
While Sweeney worked, Mike located the main input lead
for the little invisible chatterers and spliced a line into it.
To this she rigged a spring-driven switch which would snap to
“Off” as soon as current was delivered to a solenoid which
actuated its trigger. One strand of reel-wound cable went to
the solenoid, another to a red-splashed terminal on the side
of the aluminum keg. She checked the thumb-plunger at the
other end of the cable. Everything was ready. When that
plunger was pushed, the little chatterers would go Off, at the
same moment that the barrel went On.
“AH set, Mike?”
“Ready and waiting. Five minutes until take-off time.”
“Good,” Sweeney said, taking the reel from her. “You’d
~ better get in the truck and take it on across the poleover
the horizon from here.”
“Why? There’s no real danger. And if there is, what good
would I be over there alone?”
“Look, Mike,” Sweeney said. He was already walking back-
wards, still to the north, paying out cable. “I just want to get
that truck out of here; maybe we can use it, and once that
barrel starts, it just might set the truck on fire. Besides, sup-
posing the cops decide to take a close look down here? The
truck’s visible, or at least it’s suspiciously regular. But they
couldn’t see me. It’d be far better to have the truck over the
horizon. Fair enough?”
“Oh, all right. Just don’t get yourself killed, that’s all.”
“I won’t. I’ll be along after the show’s over. Go on, beat it.”
Scowling, though not very convincingly, she climbed back