He shrugged. "Who knows? It could have been just a coincidence. Anyway, should we check up on them!" He gestured toward the window.

"I — I don't know. This is making me

nervous."

"I'm kind of nervous about it, too. In fact, I didn't sleep very well last night. But wouldn't we feel better if we were doing something?"

I guess this is why Quint and I are friends: we really are a lot alike.

"That's exactly what I was thinking," I said. So we walked over to the window and peeked through the blinds. Our window was open, and so were most of the ones across the way, including the one we were most interested in. But nobody was in sight. I started to turn away when suddenly I heard a familiar voice.

"Listen, numbskull," it said.

"That's him," hissed Quint. "They must be in another room."

We strained to hear the conversation.

"We're almost ready for this job," the voice went on. I recognized it as Frank's. "We could even do it tomorrow. But there are still a couple of details to take care of, and I need your help. So are you in? Or are you out?"

It was the same argument they'd been having the night before.

"I'm in, I'm in," said Red. "You talked me into it."

I guess "If you back out now, I'll kill you" is a pretty persuasive argument.

"All right then," said Frank. "Let's get going."

Quint and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows. "Come on," he said. On our way out of the apartment, Quint called out to his mother. "We're going out for awhile. See you later!"

"Just be sure you're back from your lunch by two o'clock," she answered. Quint had a rehearsal that afternoon in preparation for the evening performance. His parents were going out with friends at the same time, so Stacey and I had volunteered to baby-sit for Morgan and Tyler.

We ran out of Quint's building just as Red and Frank were emerging from theirs.