Word: lomblot
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Every night Lomblot stations two of his men on the river to guard a stretch 39 miles long. Their principal piece of equipment is a "people sniffer," an electronic sensing device developed to catch the prowling Viet Cong. Despite its name, the instrument actually detects the minute seismic vibrations caused by a person walking. The agents place the gadget-the size of a briefcase-near the banks of the Rio Grande and don earphones. When they pick up a vibration, they move in to seize their prey...
...sunset. Mexicans swim the river at night, pick okra in the early morning when it is fresh, then swim back home. The farmer returns at midday and, lo, his boxes are full. A Mexican labor manager, who hires the workers, arrives later in the day for his pay. Says Lomblot: "The farmer gets cheap labor, the Mexicans keep from starving, and everybody's happy but the border patrol...
...dawn other agents go out to search for aliens who may have slipped by during the night. One day TIME'S Bill Starr accompanied Lomblot on a search. Starr's report...
...were headed into the morning sun. 'Fresh tracks are easily seen when you look into the sun,' Lomblot explained. 'We can also tell how long ago they were made by how windblown they are.' We passed a sugar-cane field. 'Hate to see sugar cane grown this close to the river,' he said. 'Good place for aliens to hide. Good place to hide dope or smuggled merchandise and later pick it up.' [Drugs as well as people do indeed flow north across the river...
...some tracks. Lomblot studied them. We backtracked to where a road turns off the river and, sure enough, the tracks came from that direction. We followed the tracks until the next intersection, where they turned north. On the radio we learned that one of Lomblot's night agents had spotted three Mexicans walking north with inner tubes. Perhaps the tubes helped them cross the river, and now, desperate for money, they would try to sell them. For a while, Lomblot lost the tracks, but he continued along the road, always angling toward the north. The paved road stopped...