Jupiter shook his head. "I don't think it would make any difference right now, Jeremy. He doesn't want to believe us, and we'll need something more definite to convince him. It's time we turned to research for some clue as to what Karnes and his gang could be after. Bob, you research the local history of the Purple Pirate. Pete, you examine the records of Pirates Cove. I will delve into Captain Joy's background.

Jeremy, may I enlist your aid in solving this mystery?"

"You bet," said Jeremy eagerly. "What can I do?"

"To start with, cudgel your brain for anything in your father's past that might have brought Karnes to him. The last voyage of the Black Vulture is at four o'clock, I believe. When could you join us at my uncle's salvage yard?"

"Uh, about five thirty."

"Good. Is that okay with you both?" Jupiter asked, turning to Bob and Pete.

They nodded.

"Then," Jupiter said, "I suggest we all get to work, and meet at Headquarters at five thirty to make our next move!"

Chapter 10.

Jupiter Sees the Answer!

IT WAS EXACTLY FIVE-THIRTY when Jeremy Joy rode his bike through the main gates of The Jones Salvage Yard. The Three Investigators were nowhere in sight. He looked around the piles of old machines and salvaged fixtures from hundreds of torn-down buildings, but he couldn't see anything that looked like a headquarters except the yard office.

"You, boy! What do you want?" The strong voice was almost on top of Jeremy, loud and booming. He turned and saw a large, powerful woman eyeing him.

"I ... I'm looking for Jupiter, and Bob, and ..."

"Well, boy, I'm Jupiter's Aunt Mathilda, and you'll have to wait your turn if I find those scamps first! Gone all day, and just when I do find them in the yard, I turn my back for a second and Whooosshh! They're gone again!"

"They were here, ma'am?"

"Not five minutes ago! Those scalawags have built-in radar and know I have work for them five minutes before I know it myself!" Under the gruff manner Jeremy heard a kind of amused admiration. "No way of knowing when they'll appear again - maybe you better come back."

"I think I'll just wait, ma'am, if you don't mind."

"Suit yourself, boy. You'll find Jupiter's workshop over that way, but don't expect them back too soon. They know I'm after them for some work!"

She chuckled and went back into the salvage yard office. Jeremy grinned as he walked through the junkyard. He guessed that Jupiter's Aunt Mathilda wasn't as stern as she pretended to be.

He found the outdoor workshop in a front corner next to a giant mound of junk, but still saw no sign of the three boys. He sat down to wait on a large corrugated pipe that jutted out from under the mound. He glanced around the workshop, and ...

"Jeremy!"

It was a hollow whisper nearby!

Jeremy jumped up and stared all around.

"Not out there, in here!"

The whispering voice seemed to come from inside the great mound of junk itself!

"P-Pete?" Jeremy stammered.

"Jupiter?"

"Shhhhhhhhh! " the voice whispered straight from the junk heap. "Aunt Mathilda is after us for work! If she spots us, we'll never solve the Karnes mystery!" " the voice whispered straight from the junk heap. "Aunt Mathilda is after us for work! If she spots us, we'll never solve the Karnes mystery!"

Bewildered, Jeremy looked all around, high and low, but saw no one anywhere!

The unseen voice laughed. "Make sure no one's watching, then get down and crawl right into the big pipe."

Jeremy stared at the big corrugated pipe that vanished into the mound of junk.

Sure no one could see him, he dropped on to his hands and knees and crawled into the gaping mouth of the pipe. He could just make out Pete lying on his stomach a few metres in, grinning in the dim light.

"This is Tunnel Two," the tall Second Investigator explained. "We've got other entrances to HQ, but we use this one most."

"HQ?" Jeremy exclaimed. "You mean you meet inside all this junk?"

Pete laughed. "Yes and no. Come on."

Jeremy crawled along the pipe behind Pete until there was a sudden square of light above. He followed Pete up through a trapdoor into a small, cluttered room. There were chairs, tables, filing cabinets, all kinds of equipment, even a stuffed raven! Bob and Jupiter smiled as he climbed up.

"Why, it's a real room," Jeremy said. "I know, we crawled clear under all the junk to a building behind it, right?"

"Wrong," Jupiter said with a twinkle in his eyes. "As a matter of fact, you're in the exact centre of the whole junk pile!"

"B-but how did you get a room under the junk?"

The three boys laughed.

"Easy," Bob explained. "It's a house trailer just like yours, but smaller. We just parked it here and piled all the junk over it."

"No one knows we're here," Pete continued, "but we can see anyone outside through our See-All See-All periscope." periscope."

"In here," Jupiter added, "no one can see us or find us."

"And," Pete finished, "in here we're safe from Aunt Mathilda and her work!"

This time they all laughed. Jupiter waved Jeremy to take a seat on the last chair and suggested they get to work.

"Jeremy, have you thought of anything that happened in your dad's past that explains what Karnes could be after?"

"Nothing, Jupe. I thought about it all afternoon. We've lived in Rocky Beach as long as I can remember, and Dad's never been in trouble or done anything shady.

Before that he and my mum lived in San Francisco when Dad was in the navy. After Mum died, we came down here and ran a fishing boat for a while. Then Dad leased the Evans place and made it into the Purple Pirate Lair."

Jupiter nodded. "Yes, that's just about all I found out about your dad. Nothing unusual that I can see. What about the Purple Pirate, Records?"

Bob shook his head. "Not much we didn't hear from Captain Joy at the cove, Jupe. The Spanish were sure the Purple Pirate was really William Evans, but they could never catch him to prove it. They thought they had him trapped in his tower more than once, but he always got away. After he came back with the Americans, he was just another respectable citizen."

Pete said, "There's a lot of stuff on Pirates Cove, a couple of whole books and a lot of articles. Besides the Purple Pirate, lots of other people used the cove as a headquarters-smugglers, highwaymen, and even bootleggers smuggling whisky during Prohibition. All kinds of crooked things went on, but I didn't find anything about a Joy or a Karnes or even an Evans except the Purple Pirate."

Jupiter frowned. "Well, none of that helps much, I guess. It looks as if the only really important clue is the Purple Pirate himself. We know that the major and his gang have been digging, but we don't know why they're watching the Purple Pirate Lair, or why they set up the interviews with Jeremy's father."

"Maybe they think there's pirate treasure around," Pete ventured, "and they want Captain Joy out of the way so he won't find it before they do."

"Or won't see them find it and claim it," Bob suggested.

"Or," Jupiter considered, "perhaps the captain knows something Karnes needs to know in order to dig in the right place! Even the captain doesn't know what it is, and Karnes hopes that if he keeps the captain talking about the Purple Pirate, sooner or later it will accidentally come out!"

"Or already has come out," Jeremy said.

Jupiter thought. "If the captain has already given away the treasure's location, then why do the interviews continue? And if Captain Joy isn't aware of what he knows, why are Karnes and his gang watching the Purple Pirate Lair around the clock? I think we have to try to find out everything the captain said or says in the interviews, fellows."

"Gosh, I can help you with that," Jeremy said. I can swipe the tapes we've made, and maybe take a small recorder with me to tape what we say from now on."

"We?" Jupiter said. He stared at Jeremy. "That's right. You accompanied your father last night as well. I, uh, had the store under surveillance."

"Sure I went along, Jupe," Jeremy said, puzzled. "Why not? I mean, the Major insisted, you know? He says since Dad's been telling me the stories for years, I can make sure he doesn't forget anything."

Jupiter's eyes were bright. "Am I correct in a.s.suming Major Karnes has never been present at the evening taping sessions? "

Jeremy nodded.

"And where does Sam Davis stay at night, Jeremy?"

"He's got a room here in Rocky Beach."

"Does anyone besides you and your dad live at the Purple Pirate Lair?"

"No. Except Joshua Evans, of course."

"One more question, Jeremy. How long do the sessions usually last?" asked the First Investigator.

"From about nine to eleven," the younger boy said.

"Jeremy, go to the taping session tonight as usual, but make Karnes's cohort turn off the air conditioner and open the window. I'll be on a stakeout outside and must hear what's said."

The other three boys in the trailer looked at Jupe with puzzled expressions.

"I think I know the answer to our mystery," Jupiter said, "and I think we can solve it tonight!"

Chapter 11.

Night Stakeout IT WAS 8:00 P.M. when the Three Investigators met again in their hidden headquarters to begin carrying out Jupiter's plan.

"All right," the leader of the team said, "Jeremy will go with his father to the taping session at the store. I'll stake out the store so I can observe them. Pete will watch at the Purple Pirate Lair. My new walkie-talkies have a range of about three miles, but it's over five miles from the empty store on De La Vina to the Purple Pirate Lair. So Bob will position himself halfway in between and relay messages from one stakeout to the other! Is that all clear, fellows?"

Bob and Pete nodded, and they all went out to their bikes and rode off to their posts.

It was almost dark when Pete rode along the country road to Pirates Cove. He switched off his bike lights just before he arrived and coasted into the grove of trees across the road from the gates of the Purple Pirate Lair. He waited for a few moments until his eyes were totally accustomed to the dark.

Then he slowly surveyed the night. He saw that the Allen's Tree Service truck was still parked among the trees across the road from the stone tower. The sharp glow and fade of a cigarette showed that someone was sitting behind the steering wheel and still watching. Pete spoke softly into his walkie-talkie.

"Records. Report to First that the major's helper Carl is still staked out at the Lair."

Almost three miles away, on a small rise above the county highway. Bob bent to his walkie-talkie in the now dark night.

"First? Pete reports that Carl is still watching Captain Joy's place."

Two miles from Bob, Jupiter crouched in the brush behind the windows of the back room of the empty store on De La Vina Street.

"Very well. Records. Karnes, Hubert, and the bald man are here in the store doing nothing at all yet. Tell Second to keep on his toes."

Hidden in the shadows of the trees, Pete did not need Jupiter's warning, not with Carl only a few hundred metres away. With his back against a tree, Pete sat where he could see the entire area of open parking lots, the gates, the top two floors of the stone tower, and the tree-service truck with its solitary occupant.

Just as the last light faded in the west over the cove a pole lamp came on by the Lair's entrance. Then Pete heard a van start inside the Lair, and Captain Joy and Jeremy drove through the gates. Jeremy jumped out and locked the gates, and then the van drove away.

Pete looked towards the dim shape of the tree-service truck.

It didn't move - the invisible Carl was still smoking slowly inside the cab.

Pete reported, "Captain Joy and Jeremy just left the Lair. Carl is staying put. He's still watching."

Bob pa.s.sed Pete's message on to Jupiter. When Bob had signed off, he looked down at the dark road and a few minutes later saw the Purple Pirate Lair van pa.s.s on its way into Rocky Beach.

Behind the empty store Jupiter listened to Bob's message and watched the three men inside the back room at the same time. Even before Bob had finished talking, Jupiter saw Major Karnes look at his watch, stand up, and start for the door.

The ma.s.sive Hubert quickly jumped up and followed Karnes out. The man with the moustache remained behind in the back room.

Jupiter quickly crawled through the bushes around the side of the stores and peered into the courtyard. Karnes and Hubert walked quickly out of the store and got into the van with the sacks and digging tools. The van drove away.

Jupiter relayed this information to Bob. Then he returned to his hiding place in the overgrown rear yard. The bald man was checking the tape recorder, putting on a tape, and setting two chairs at the desk. Jupiter heard a van drive into the courtyard out in front. Soon Captain Joy and Jeremy entered the back room. Jeremy hugged his shoulders as if he were cold and exchanged a few words with the bald man, who reluctantly turned off the air conditioner and opened the window. While the bald man was seating the captain at the desk, Jeremy came to the open back window and peered eagerly out into the night, his eyes searching for Jupiter!

At the opened window Jeremy seemed to suddenly realize that he might give away the whole stakeout. He quickly turned and went back to the table and the tape recorder. The bald henchman didn't seem to have noticed him.

"Mr. Santos," said the captain, "I'd like to listen to the tapes we've already recorded."