They stood paralyzed on the narrow catwalk. Far ahead, in a patch of the moonlight through a hole in the roof, they saw something move.
“He’s coming at us!” Pete whispered.
“Back the way we came! Hurry,” Jupiter urged.
The ghostly figure ahead of them moved again, and both boys heard the unmistakable click of a pistol being cocked! Pete touched Jupiter.
“First!” Pete hissed. “If we go back we have to cross moonlight! He’ll see us for sure! He’ll shoot!”
“The boat!” Jupiter said desperately.
The old rowing boat was tied up close to them. A heavy canvas tarpaulin covered the front end. Careful to make no sound, they slipped down into the boat and slid under the tarpaulin. They lay motionless in the dark, even trying not to breathe. Minutes passed.
Then they heard soft steps on the catwalk above them. There was the faint squeak of soft rubber soles against wood, and a clink of metal against wood, as if the man’s pistol had struck against a wall. They heard nothing more. Silence.
The boat rocked on the sluggish water of the narrow channel, and scraped against the wood of the catwalk.
The unseen man above them moved again, softly, his rubber soles squeaking directly over their heads for a time. The boat began to rock more, as if the unseen man had touched it. Then the rocking became gentler, lighter, with the sound of the man’s soft shoes moving close alongside. Under the canvas the boys could only wait, holding their breath. And after some more minutes, they no longer heard the shoes above them. They heard nothing but the slap-slap of water against the boat “He’s gone!” Pete whispered.
Under the tarpaulin in the rocking boat, Jupiter didn’t answer. Pete peered at his companion and saw dimly that the First Investigator was staring into empty space, his thoughts miles away.
“Pete,” the stocky leader said suddenly, “we must get back to the carnival at once! I think I’ve solved the puzzle!”
“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.
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.”