could feel the blood rush to his face. He picked up the breeze and headed for the place on the Dunes where he was going to make camp.
When the Professor arrived, he had a roaring fire going but his tent was still lying on the sand. It was almost dark.
“What happened, Pete?” he asked. “I came over twenty minutes ago and you weren’t here.”
As Pete finished telling his story, he said, “It must have been done on purpose!”
The Professor shook his head slowly. “You can’t prove it, Pete. And the rope was worn through.”
Pete nodded, but did not say anything. He had spoken to Fannin too soon, without thinking. Now he was doing the same thing with the Professor. He got busy with the food. In a few minutes he handed his friend a paper plate loaded with hot dogs and beans.
They ate in silence and, when they had finished, the Professor said, “Why don’t you sleep in my tent tonight? It will give me a chance to show you the skin diving gear.”
As they walked across the sand to the Professor’s camp, the sky grew dark and the stars came out. Wading through North Inlet, they heard the sound of hammering echoing across the water from the house boat.
“Now why would they be hammering in the middle of the night?” Pete asked.
“Beats me.”
“Something funny is going on over there,” Pete said.
“Forget it, Pete,” the Professor said. “Come on in and look over the equipment.”
They were talking quietly when the shattering noise of a speed boat engine cut through the night air. They listened in surprise as the boat roared away from the dock and headed out into the middle of the harbor.
“Now do you believe me?” Pete asked. “Why would anyone go buzzing around like that in the dark?”
The Professor puffed on his pipe for a few seconds. Then he said, “I don’t know, Pete, but that doesn’t mean there is anything wrong. When you get to know Fannin you may find yourself laughing at your suspicions. Come on, let’s hit the sack.”
As Pete stretched out in the Professor’s spare sleeping bag, the whole day went through his mind. His father had told him many times, “Pete, look before you leap. You have to think first, son, then act.” Pete knew his father was right.
But even as he fell off to sleep, he thought, “Something strange is going on in Hidden Harbor. I have to find out what it is.”
CHAPTER TWO
Keep Within the Law
Pete was up early in the morning. While the Professor cooked breakfast over an open fire, Pete took a quick swim. When he had dried himself and dressed, Professor Nevins handed him his breakfast of eggs and bacon, two slices of bread and a small mound of jelly.
“Nothing fancy,” the Professor said, “but you won’t starve.”
They ate in silence for a few minutes.
“What are you going to do today?” Pete asked.
The Professor lit his pipe and leaned back against a log.
“My project this summer is to study the nesting habits of the sea birds living here in the marsh and out on Sea Bird Island. I finished two dozen nesting boxes and set them out during the Easter vacation. Today I’m going to check them out in the marsh. In the next couple of weeks I hope the eggs will start hatching. Then I can study how the nests are built and how long the young birds use them.”
“Want me to help you?” Pete asked.
“Thanks, Pete, but I had better do it alone. Even one person going into the marsh will frighten the birds. Two people will make it worse. Anyway, you have to put up your tent.”
“All right,” Pete said, “but I can help you with your boat.”
Pete and the Professor went down to the edge of the water and Pete waded out to get the Professor’s rowboat. It was tied between two posts just off shore so that it wouldn’t be left high and dry when the tide went out.
Pete called back to the Professor, “Boy, you sure hit this boat a hard whack against something!”
“What are you talking about?”
“Your boat. You cracked a plank in it.”
Pete pulled it in to shore. On one side there was a long scrape in the paint and under it a side plank was broken. Something had certainly hit the rowboat hard.
The Professor looked surprised. “I didn’t do that,” he said. “The boat was in perfect shape when I tied it up there yesterday afternoon.”
Pete said, “I’ll bet it happened while we were having supper.”
“But how?”
“That speed boat,” Pete said. “Remember? It made a run down this end.”
“You mean Fannin?”
“Who else? It’s just like him. Look!” Pete leaned over and pointed. “Looks like red paint to me, and red is the color of Fannin’s boats.”
“We don’t even know for sure that it was Fannin’s boat speeding around last night,” the Professor told him.
“I do,” Pete said. “I would bet my life on it.”
“Is the boat going to leak?” the Professor asked.
Pete nodded. “Sure is.”
“That’s no good. I have to carry valuable instruments around in it.”
Pete took a closer look at the damage. “We can fix it over at the yard in a couple of hours. I can have it back right after lunch.”
The Professor smiled gratefully. “Fine. I can write up my reports while you are gone.”
Pete pulled the boat through the shallow water down to his camp. Then he tied it behind his sailboat, raised sail and started across the harbor.
When he got to the boat yard, Nick was standing on the upper dock.
“Hi, Pete!” he yelled. “Did you catch only one?”
Pete grinned. “Sure, but look at the size of it.”
When Pete told him what had happened, Nick raised his eyebrows. “Well, it could be Fannin with that red paint on it, but how can you be sure?”
Nick tied Pete’s boat up to the main dock and raised the Professor’s rowboat on to a sort of wooden cradle where he could get at it. Then he started the repair work.
“Where
