Escape!

AT EIGHT O'CLOCK THE NEXT morning Pete sat bolt upright in his bed. Someone was scratching on his window. He looked more closely and saw the branch of a tree brushing against it. He laughed and turned over to go back to sleep. Then he jumped out of bed and ran to the window. There wasn't any tree outside his room!

Down in the grey morning light Jupiter and Bob were waving frantically for him to come down. The neighbours' yard would have to wait till later. He dressed hurriedly and tiptoed down the stairs so that his parents, eating breakfast in the kitchen, wouldn't hear him. Outside in the morning fog, Bob and Jupiter were waiting with their bikes.

"What's up guys?" Pete asked.

"Jupe thinks something's happened to Captain Joy and Jeremy," Bob said as he mounted his bike.

"What's happened to them?" Pete exclaimed.

"Get your bike and come with us. We can talk on the way to Pirates Cove," Jupiter said grimly.

As the Three Investigators pedalled hard up the northbound highway, Jupiter continued, "I don't know what happened to Captain Joy and Jeremy. I tried to call them this morning and there was no answer at the trailer. I tried to call Mr. Evans too, but the tower didn't answer either."

"But isn't there a police guard at the tower?" Pete said.

"Not now. I called Chief Reynolds' office and they told me that Hubert was captured very early this morning a hundred miles north of Rocky Beach. Karnes, Carl and Santos are still in jail, so they took the guard off the tower."

"But," Pete said, frowning, "who would want to hurt the captain, Jeremy, and Mr.

Evans if the whole Karnes gang is in jail?"

"I have a strong suspicion, Second, that the whole Karnes gang is not in jail!"

When the boys reached Pirates Cove, they stopped outside the broken gates of the Purple Pirate Lair. The gates had been totally wrecked by Hubert's smash through them the night before.

As they locked their bikes to the gates Jupiter said, "Bob, you check the trailer.

Pete and I will go to the tower." At the stone tower Pete and Jupiter found the door open! Inside there was only silence.

"Mr. Evans?"

"Captain Joy! Jeremy!"

There was no answer. Pete climbed to the upper floors. Jupiter searched the ground floor and the cellar. They found no one, and there was no sign of the treasure chest. Bob ran in the front door with Salty Sam right behind him.

"The captain and Jeremy aren't at the trailer, First! Sam says he hasn't seen them this morning, but their van is still here!"

Sam was full of remorse. "All my fault! If I'd spilled the beans about findin' the tunnel instead of tryin' to grab whatever it was those crooks was after, everythin'

would've been dandy."

"Don't blame yourself, Sam," Jupiter said, trying to comfort the handyman. "The question now is, where are they, and what is Mr. Evans doing?"

"Evans?" Sam said. "Why, him I knows about. Saw him drive off not half an hour ago."

"Sam," Jupiter cried. "Was he carrying anything?"

Old Sam shook his head miserably. "I don't know for sure, only saw him in his car.

Think I maybe saw a couple of suitcases on the seat with him."

"The treasure!" Jupiter exclaimed. "He'd want to keep it right beside him. He's gone, fellows! We're too late! I only hope we're in time to help Captain Joy and Jeremy. We must find them!"

"Mr. Evans?" Pete said puzzled. "The treasure? Why would Mr. Evans run off with the treasure, Jupe? It was his anyway."

"I think it was his all along, Second, and that's the problem. That's why Karnes and his gang watched the Purple Pirate Lair around the clock, and why they were trying to get into the tower unseen. Joshua Evans has fooled us all!"

Salty Sam said, "He run so fast he didn't even take his cat. Look at the poor critter tryin' to get through that door."

They looked into the kitchen where Joshua Evans' black cat was pawing and meowing at the door into the well with the ladder to the second floor.

"Why does it want to get in there?" Pete wondered. "No one's upstairs, and a cat can't climb a ladder."

Jupiter narrowed his eyes. "Open that door and let it through, Records."

Bob opened the door. The black cat ran straight to the wall at the rear of the well.

It began to meow and claw at the wall, then sniff and rub itself against the stones while looking back at the boys and Sam. It seemed to be asking them to help it through the wall.

"First?" Bob said. "Maybe there's a hidden room in there."

"Look for an iron ring!" Jupiter exclaimed. "And a loose stone with a lever behind it like the one that opens the tunnel!"

Pete found the ring, cleverly made to look like part of an old light fixture that had once been an oil lamp. The stone beneath the lamp came out. The lever behind the stone moved easily and had obviously been oiled recently. The wall in front of the meowing cat opened, and the boys and Sam followed the animal into a small study lined with books and leather furniture. Captain Joy and Jeremy sat on the leather couch with their hands and feet tied and their mouths covered with tape!

"Cap'n!" Sam cried.

"Jeremy!" Bob and Pete called.

"What happened?" Jupiter exclaimed.

"Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!" Captain Joy and Jeremy mumbled, their eyes saying. Cut us loose before asking questions! Captain Joy and Jeremy mumbled, their eyes saying. Cut us loose before asking questions!

Pete got out his pocket knife and cut the ropes while Bob pulled off the tape as gently as he could.

"It was Evans!" Captain Joy cried as he rubbed at his mouth where the tape had been. "I don't know why. He just-"

"He took the treasure!" Jeremy said as he stamped his feet to get the circulation back. "He aimed a gun at us, made me help tie up Dad, and then tied me up!"

"When did all this happen?" Jupiter wanted to know. "About an hour ago, Jupiter," Captain Joy fumed. "We'd been up all night sorting out the treasure, and we'd just finished when he pulled his gun and tied us up!"

"Captain Joy, did he say where he was going?"

The captain shook his head. "No, and what I don't-"

"Dad? He made that telephone call," Jeremy said.

"But we didn't hear what he said, son," Captain Joy declared. "I just don't understand it. The treasure was all his."

"Think, Captain! Anything he said on the telephone."

Captain Joy shook his head again. "I told you. We heard nothing. We'd been tied up, and all I was thinking about was why. We'd finished helping Evans sort the treasure. Jeremy did tell Evans that some of the treasure seemed a little funny to him, but ..."

"What seemed funny, Jeremy?" Jupiter asked.

"I don't know for sure, Jupe," Jeremy said, frowning. "I mean, some of the rings and things looked too ...too ...new."

"Yes," Jupiter said. "That's-"

"First!" Bob suddenly cried.

The Records and Research man of the team was standing at the study desk looking down at the notepad beside the telephone book. Jupiter and the others went to the desk. On the notepad there was a crude drawing, a doodle of the sort made unconsciously while talking on the telephone. The drawing of a bird, or an airplane, or ...

"It's a seaplane!" Jeremy realized. "See the pontoons for landing on water!"

Captain Joy said, "It looks like one of the air taxis over in the Pirates Cove village."

"The air taxi service!" Pete and Bob cried.

Jupiter was already running out of the study towards the outside door.

"Wait!" Captain Joy called. He looked at his watch. "It's eight forty-five, boys.

The taxi office opens at eight-thirty. We'd never get there in time to stop him even if he hasn't gone off already."

"Call the taxi office," Jupiter said. "Maybe we can prevent Evans from taking off!

Tell them he's a dangerous criminal!"

Captain Joy looked up the seaplane service in the telephone book, then dialled the number. He told the man who answered that a dangerous criminal was escaping in one of their planes, and he described Joshua Evans. The man said yes, Evans was there. In fact, he was already aboard the air taxi, ready to leave.

"Try to stop him!" Captain Joy said urgently. "Use your radio, tell the pilot anything to get him back!" The captain waited. "What? You can't?" The captain looked back at the boys and Sam. "There's no answer from the air taxi plane! They think Evans has a gun and won't let the pilot answer! They're calling the sheriff, but the plane's already leaving the dock!"

Jupiter and the others ran outside and stood on the sh.o.r.e of the cove looking across to the air taxi dock in the distance. They could see the small seaplane moving slowly away from the dock.

"Too late!" Jupiter said in despair. "We can't stop him now."

Captain Joy joined them at the edge of the cove. He looked at the distant seaplane and then started to run. "Yes, we can! Come on!"

And the captain ran straight towards the Black Vulture!

Chapter 22.

Attack of the Black Vulture CAPTAIN JOY STOOD AT THE wheel of the Black Vulture, his eyes bright, as the pirate ship plunged out across Pirates Cove. A wind was blowing the thin fog away.

Salty Sam had scrambled up to the foremast crow's nest, where he shouted down instructions to the captain. The Three Investigators and Jeremy stood in the bow of the ship as it ploughed through the water of the cove on its first real attack!

"Which way will the air taxi take off?" Jupiter asked anxiously.

"Straight down the main channel, towards the ocean," Jeremy said, pointing.

"Between those red buoys and those black buoys. It has to use that path to face into the wind coming in from the sea."

Up in the crow's nest Sam Davis yelled down, "He's left the dock, Cap'n, and he's pickin' up some speed towards the channel!"

In the bow the boys gauged distance and angles as they stared towards the far-off seaplane.

"We won't make it!" Pete wailed. "It'll get off before we can block the channel!"

"I think we will make it!" Bob cried. "It hasn't even reached its takeoff point yet!"

Pete eyed the distance. "Going to be pretty close."

"If we don't get near enough," Jupiter groaned, "it could take off right over us."

"Not with our masts," Jeremy pointed out. "All we have to do is cross the channel in time."

Going at full speed, with all its flags streaming and its banners whipping in the wind, its bow slicing white water and its motor shaking the whole ship, the Black Vulture charged towards the middle of the cove.

The air taxi had moved now to the head of the long line of channel buoys. It sat motionless in the water.

As the boys watched from the bow of the plunging Black Vulture, and Salty Sam peered from the crow's nest, the single propeller of the seaplane began to whirl faster and faster as its motor revved up. The plane began to shake in the water, the speed of its engine going higher and higher.

Then, slowly, it started to move!

Gathering speed, the frail craft began to race down the channel on its slim pontoons.

Jupiter shaded his eyes. "I can see the pilot and the pa.s.senger! It is Evans, and ..."

The seaplane grew larger every second!

"That red buoy is the halfway mark for take-off!" Jeremy shouted.

The air taxi pa.s.sed the red buoy just as the prow of the Black Vulture surged into the channel. Everyone on the ship held his breath. In the plane the white face of the pilot was open-mouthed. Joshua Evans leaned out his window. He held a gun aimed straight at the Black Vulture as the ship moved across the channel.

"Down!" Captain Joy shouted.

The gun fired once, twice.