“What are you going to do?”

“I’ve got a trick up my sleeve. If someone is following me, it might be because he thinks I might still have that letter.” Biff took out his address book and tore paper from the back of it. “You know he might be just stupid enough to think I was still carrying the letter with me.”

“Guess he’d have to be plenty lolo for that, Biff.”

“Plenty lolo? What does that mean?”

“It means dumb or stupid,” Li replied.

Biff grinned. He took a pencil and scribbled a word on the paper. Then he stuck the paper in his hip pocket, on top of his handkerchief.

“We’ll walk over to that boathouse,” Biff said. Halfway there, he stopped, pulled out his handkerchief, and wiped his forehead. As he did so, the paper fell to the ground.

“Come on,” he muttered. The boys entered the boathouse. They pretended to examine the boats, allowing themselves several minutes.

“Guess we’ve given our pursuer long enough, if we are being followed,” Biff decided.

They came back out of the boathouse and retraced their steps. At the spot where Biff had pulled out his handkerchief, he stopped again, and looked carefully about him.

“We’ve been followed, all right. The paper is gone,” Biff said to Li.

“What did you write on that paper, Biff?”

“‘Lolo,’” Biff said, and the boys burst out laughing.

Time had slipped by much faster than Biff and Li realized. It was midaftenoon when they got back to the hotel.

“Guess I’ve been so excited I forgot about eating,” Li said, “but am I ever hungry now!”

“I could eat my way through another luau, Li,” Biff agreed.

At the front desk of the hotel, they found a message from their fathers.

“We’re checking out the boat,” Biff’s father had written, “and getting supplies. Wait for us.”

 Prev. P 45/99 next