The Secret of the Crooked Cat, стр. 20

“You mean Khan solved it by chasing us!”

“Yes, in a way he did,” Jupiter said vaguely, still thinking. “I know where to find what that robber has been searching for!”

“You mean you don’t think he has it?”

“No, I don’t. I think we’ve all been looking in the wrong — ”

The small boat gave a violent roll and lurch, and seemed to bounce wildly on the water. Jupiter held on, and Pete sat alert under the canvas.

Pete’s head was cocked, listening. “Jupe, there’s something funny! This boat’s rocking too much! I don’t hear it scraping against the wood any more! What’s happened? Open the canvas!”

Together, they pushed the heavy tarpaulin back and tried to stand up. Wind struck their faces, and the boat rocked so violently they fell back. Pete stared around.

“We’re out on the ocean!” he cried.

The dark shape of the abandoned amusement park was far behind them already, and the lights of the carnival grew rapidly smaller. Jupiter looked at the boat’s rope.

“It was cut, Pete! That old tunnel-of-love ride must be open to the ocean, and the robber knew it! He towed the boat out along the catwalk and set us adrift.”

“The tide’s going out, and the current’s strong here on an outgoing tide!” Pete said. “We’re drifting out fast.”

“Then we’d better get back fast!”

Pete shook his head. “This boat doesn’t have any oars, Jupe! No motor, no sails! We can’t get back.”

“We have to! We’ll swim!” Jupiter cried. The stocky leader dived over the side without another word. Pete followed, and both boys struck out for shore. But the current was too strong.

“I can’t… do it, Pete,” Jupiter gasped. Pete was the more powerful swimmer, but even he struggled in the grip of the current. “We’ll never make it! Back to the boat!”

They swam with the current and gradually caught the drifting boat. They clambered over the side and lay panting. Then Jupiter struggled up. “The signaller!” he said. “Bob will see our signal!” The First Investigator took the small instrument from his pocket and spoke urgently into it to start the signal.

Then he stared at it in dismay. “It won’t work, Pete! The water ruined it!” They began to yell for help, but their words were lost in the wind. Already they were too far from land to be heard, and no boats moved anywhere on the dark water.

The shore lights were distant points as the boat wallowed on the surging moonlit ocean. Water broke over the gunwales.

“Bail, Jupe,” Pete ordered. “Those two cans are bailers!”

Jupiter bailed. “We must get back, Pete!”

“Not against this current!” Pete declared. “The wind is on-shore now, that’ll slow us, but without oars or sails — ”

Pete stopped. He stared at Jupiter. The stocky boy had ceased bailing, his hand suspended in mid-air as he looked straight ahead over Pete’s shoulder. His hand moved to point shakily straight ahead.

“Pete! What’s that big, black — ”

Pete whirled in the boat to look.

Vague in the moonlight, directly ahead of the rocking boat, an enormous black shape seemed to rise out of the ocean and tower over them.

18

Marooned!

Bob and Andy had cautiously circled the opposite way round the old roller coaster and returned to where they had started — without meeting Pete and Jupiter. Bob looked round slowly.

“Andy, something’s wrong,” he said. “We should have met them, or found them back here.”

“Look!”

The carnival boy pointed to the jagged hole in the fun house wall.

“That hole’s new, Bob! I’m sure.”

The two boys stared all round them in the gloom of the moonlit amusement park.

Bob called, “Pete! Jupe!”

“I hear someone coming!” Andy said.

They heard running outside the amusement park, and two men came through the hole in the fence.

“It’s your Dad,” Bob said to Andy.

Mr. Carson ran up. “Are you boys all right?”

“We are,” Bob said, “but we can’t find Pete and Jupe.”

Andy said, “We chased a man from my equipment trailer and split up in here, and now Pete and Jupiter are gone, Dad!”

Mr. Carson frowned “Then Khan was right.”

The bearded strong man walked up behind Mr. Carson, his muscles and heavy boots shining in the moonlight. He nodded to the boys.

“I saw someone searching Andy’s trailer,” Khan explained. “I chased him in here, but lost him in the fun house.”

Bob asked, “You didn’t see Pete or Jupe?”

“No, boys. I didn’t see them.”

“All right, be calm,” Mr. Carson said, taking charge. “Andy, go and get a crew of roughnecks with lights. Khan, Bob, and I will start searching the grounds in the open.”

Andy raced off, and Bob followed Mr. Carson and Khan as they began to search the abandoned amusement park. They found no trace of Pete or Jupiter. Soon Andy came back with the crew of roughnecks. Carrying powerful electric lanterns, they spread out to search inside all the old buildings. Mr. Carson and Khan went with the roughnecks, telling Bob and Andy to stay outside. Bob stood with puzzled eyes.

“Andy,” he said, “Khan says he chased a man from your trailer. If he did, why didn’t we see two men?”

“I don’t know, Bob. We should have, I guess.”

“I don’t think there were two men! I think it was Khan we chased!”

“You mean,” Andy gasped, “that Khan’s the robber?”

Bob nodded. “Jupiter was suspicious of him all along. You don’t even know his real name. He’s been sneaking around. He’s watched us. He’s tried to convince your Dad to close the show. Now I think he’s caught Pete and Jupe, and he’s trying to lead us in the wrong direction! Let’s find your Dad, quick!”

They hurried towards the fun house where lights flashed and bobbed through the cracks in the rotted walls. Just as they got to the entrance, Mr. Carson came out, mopping his brow.

“No sign yet, boys,” he said, “but we’ll find them.”

“I don’t think you will, sir!” Bob declared hotly. “I think Khan is fooling us! He’s the robber, and he knows where they are!”

“Khan?” Mr. Carson said, his face serious. “That’s a grave charge, Bob. What proof do you have?”

“I’m sure he was the only man at Andy’s trailer. He was the man we chased. But he caught Pete and Jupe, and now he’s leading us away from them. I know he is, sir!” Mr. Carson hesitated. “That’s not exactly proof, Bob. And don’t forget Khan is in charge of security at the carnival. He has a right to be poking around. But it’s funny that your stories don’t agree. Let’s find Khan and ask him for more details.”

Mr. Carson went back into the fun house. The boys waited nervously outside. Ten minutes passed. Bob paced in the dark. What if he was wrong? He was sure, but if he — Mr. Carson came back walking quickly. His face was dark and grim. “Khan isn’t in the fun house any more! No one has seen him. He told some of the roughnecks he had to go back to the carnival, but he never told me that! Come on, boys.”

They hurried through the fence and back to the carnival grounds. Khan wasn’t in his tent, or at his trailer. No one had seen him anywhere. And no one had seen Pete and Jupe.

“I think,” Mr. Carson said. “We’d better get the police.”

Out on the ocean, where the giant black shape loomed high ahead of the bouncing boat, Pete gave a cry:

“It’s Anapamu Island! It’s the smallest of the channel islands, and closest to shore — less than a mile. Let’s try to reach it!”

“I don’t think we can miss it, Pete!” Jupiter pointed out. “We’re drifting straight for it.”

The boys held on to the gunwales of their wallowing craft as the small island loomed closer. They began to make out trees and rocks on the steep sides and a line of breakers.

“The beach is over there,” Pete pointed to the left “But there are rocks, Jupe! I think — ”

Instead of finishing what he was going to say, Pete dived over the side and came up behind the boat. Grasping the stern of the boat and kicking, he steered it past the rocks and into the quiet waters of the sheltered beach.