Pete had played a lot of basketball. He was pretty good at it. For an instant he reacted as he would have done in a close game. For an instant he forgot Slater. He almost forgot Slater’s gun. He was holding the ball. Constance was shouting at him to throw it.
He bent his knees, lowered his elbows, then, quickly straightening his whole body and shooting up his arms, he threw the box in a long high curve out to sea.
Constance caught it.
Pete ducked underwater.
He stayed there as long as he could, holding his breath. When he couldn’t hold it any longer, he slowly, cautiously raised his head. Constance was twenty yards out. She was treading water, watching the shore. Fluke was floating beside her, holding the flat metal box in his jaws.
Keeping his head low, Pete turned and looked toward the beach. Slater had put his gun away. He was standing at the water’s edge with his bald head lowered in a way that reminded Pete of a snorting bull. A bull that had lost its momentum for the present and was gathering its strength, waiting to see what would happen next.
Jupe and Bob were standing in front of him. Jupe seemed to be doing all the talking. Pete waded ashore and joined them.
“We’re not trying to rob you, Mr. Slater,” Jupe was saying. “We agree that half of anything in that box belongs to you. All we’re trying to do is to protect Constance and her father. All we want is to see that she gets her fair share.”
Slater didn’t say anything for quite a long time. He was breathing hard through his nose.
“What are you suggesting, boy?” he asked.
“I’m suggesting we take that box into town. I think we ought to take it to Chief Reynolds. He’s the head of the Rocky Beach police. He’s a very fairminded man. And there’s no question of anyone having broken any laws. You just tell him your story. And Constance can explain her father’s side of it. Then Chief Reynolds can decide how much of the contents of that box belongs to you. And how much of it belongs to Constance.”
There was another long silence. Slater looked out to sea, where Constance and Fluke were floating side by side. There was no way he could ever get that box away from Fluke. Not without Constance’s permission.
“Okay.” Slater nodded sullenly. “We’ll all get back on the boat and sail around to the marina in Rocky Beach. Then we can go and see this Chief Reynolds you’re talking about. That suit you, boy?”
Jupe shook his head. Slater had put his gun away, but it wouldn’t take him long to pull it out of his pocket again. Back on his own boat he would just wait for the right moment, his chance to get his hands on that box and make off with it.
“There’s no need to go all that long way around by the coast,” Jupe suggested politely. “We can just call Chief Reynolds from here. He’ll send a squad car for us.”
“Call him? How?” Slater was beginning to snort again. “You think there’s a phone at this cove? Boy, the nearest call box —”
“The nearest call box is less than a mile down the coast road,” Jupe said. “At the Clifftop Cafe. Bob can bike down there in a couple of minutes and call Chief Reynolds.”
“Can do,” Bob agreed.
“Now, if you wouldn’t mind leaving your gun on your boat, Mr. Slater,” Jupe continued pleasantly, “Constance will tell Fluke to bring in the box and then we’ll all go up to the road to wait for the police car. Don’t you think that’s a good idea, Mr. Slater?”
Slater obviously didn’t think it was a good idea at all. He looked as though he thought it was a terrible idea. But he nodded anyway. There was nothing else he could do.
Bob went ahead to phone Chief Reynolds. Constance fed Fluke while Jupe and Pete made sure Slater put his gun back in the boat locker. Then Constance said goodbye to Fluke. She told him she would be back in a little while to see that he was all right. Fluke seemed to hate to see her leave. He came in close to the beach to watch her go.
It wasn’t until all four of them were walking up toward the road, with Constance carrying the metal case, that Jupe suddenly remembered Paul Donner.
He had disappeared.
They didn’t have to wait long before Bob reappeared and the police car picked them up. Fifteen minutes later they were all being shown into Chief Reynolds’ office.
Jupe couldn’t blame the chief for staring at them as they entered. The Investigators had picked up their sweaters and sneakers from their bikes, and Pete had brought Constance a terry-cloth robe from the boat, but they were a strange, bedraggled-looking crew. They must have looked as though they had all just walked in out of the ocean.
“Now what’s this about, Jupe?” Chief Reynolds asked as soon as he had found them all chairs.
The chief had known Jupe for years. There were times when he thought the Three Investigators went too far on their own in working on their cases. They were only kids, and the chief didn’t approve of the way they sometimes stuck their necks out. But he had respect for Jupe’s brains. There had even been times when the First Investigator’s ideas had helped the chief solve one of his own police cases.
Jupe looked at Slater. “This is Mr. Oscar Slater,” he explained. “I think it would be best if he tells you his whole story himself.”
“Go ahead, Mr. Slater.”
Slater stood up. He pulled out his wet billfold and showed Chief Reynolds his ID. Then, while the chief had one of his men check it out, Slater started his story.
He told the chief quite frankly about his smuggling trip to Mexico with Diego Carmel. He told him about the storm, the wreck of the boat, the way they had salvaged the metal case from the cabin.
“My young friend, Jupiter Jones here,” Slater went on, “thought it would be a good idea if we opened the case in your office. That way there wouldn’t be any arguments later about how much of what’s in it belongs to me and how much belongs to Miss Carmel’s father. And, I must say, I thought that was a pretty good idea, too, Chief.”
He took a key out of his pocket and handed it to Chief Reynolds.
“If you’ll just bring the box over, Constance,” he suggested.
Jupe couldn’t help admiring the way Slater was handling it. He was behaving like an honest citizen who only wanted to see justice done. He watched Constance set the box on the chief’s desk.
He watched the chief put the key into the lock and open the metal case.
He saw the surprise on Constance’s face. Even Chief Reynolds seemed a little startled for a moment. Jupe stood up and, with Bob and Pete beside him, walked over to the desk.
Bob and Pete both looked as though a sudden bright light had been flashed into their eyes.
The First Investigator felt no surprise at all.
Inside the box were thousands of crisp new ten-dollar bills.
They were arranged in neat stacks held together with rubber bands. Figuring five hundred bills would be about an inch thick, Jupe calculated that there must have been close to a million dollars in the box.
“So there it is, Chief,” Slater explained smoothly. “The proceeds of my trip to La Paz. Part of that money —”
He broke off as the phone rang on the chief’s desk. Chief Reynolds answered it and listened in silence for a few seconds.
“Go ahead, Mr. Slater,” Chief Reynolds said, replacing the phone. “Your ID checks out clean. No record. No warrants out for you anywhere. You were saying part of this money —”
“Yes, Chief. Part of it is what Captain Carmel and I received for those pocket calculators we sold in La Paz. The rest of it is mine. The proceeds of the sale of some private property — several acres of land and a small hotel I happened to own down there. Now if Miss Carmel will just tell me how much of it she wants to claim as her father’s share in those calculators, I guess we can get this whole business over with.”
Chief Reynolds nodded thoughtfully. “Just as long as you keep things straight with the tax people, Mr. Slater,” he said. “I can’t see there’s anything wrong with your suggestion.” He looked at Constance. “How much do you claim as your father’s share, Miss Carmel?”
Constance smiled. “I don’t know. I just want to pay his hospital bills,” she said. She glanced at Slater. “Ten thousand dollars is fine with me.”
“Ten thousand dollars it is.” Slater leaned forward to pick up the box. “If you’ll come to the bank with me tomorrow morning, Constance, I’ll give you a cashier’s check for the whole amount.”
He had his hand on the box now. He was closing the lid. Another moment and he would be out of the office with the money.