put any notices of his business plans in the paper?”
“Is that right?” the Professor asked.
“That’s what my father said.”
“That’s odd, but not a full point against him. I can give you credit for only half on that one.”
Pete took a deep breath. “And the fifth thing is the way he handled his boat yesterday when he came over for gas. He used it as if it were a car. No real boat man would do that. A car is a car and a boat is a boat. I don’t think he knows enough about boats to tell the difference.”
The Professor pulled on his pipe for a minute. Then he said, “I will go this far with you: taken all together, it looks odd. So the question is, what do you want to do about it?”
“Watch him.”
“And you want me to help you?”
“Yes, if you will.”
After another moment the Professor said, “I won’t help you, Pete, but I will go with you if I have enough time. On one condition,” he added, “that everything you do is completely within the law.”
Later that evening, they moved silently around the curve of the beach, keeping the house boat in view. Lights were on. As they got closer, they stopped more often. They could hear voices but could not make out what was being said.
Pete and the Professor slid under the dock and sat on the damp sand. The hull of the house boat was only a few feet from them.
The Professor whispered, “What are you expecting them to do, Pete?”
“I don’t know,” Pete whispered back.
At midnight the Professor pointed to his watch, then toward their tents. Pete nodded. When they were far enough away to speak in normal voices, Pete said, “You go on back to your camp. I am going to walk up to the top of the dune and take a look at the ocean.”
Pete climbed slowly until he reached the top. There he sat down and stared out over the ocean. Far below him, the waves broke with a hissing roar on the beach, ran up the sand in a rush, and then slowly flowed back into the sea. As Pete leaned back, enjoying a sense of ease, something caught his eye far off to the right.
He stood and looked toward Lighthouse Point and could see the red and green light of a boat coming his way. At first it seemed to be heading straight for Main Inlet and he thought it was a fishing boat returning home. But it passed the inlet and kept coming toward him. Then a strange thing happened.
The lights suddenly went out.
Pete wondered what kind of fool would run at night without lights. Seconds passed . . . and then a full minute, before he saw the black shape again, drawing nearer. He could make it out quite clearly in the moonlight.
When it was directly opposite where he was standing, Pete said to himself, “That’s a PT boat, the kind that was used in the war!” He had seen too many of them at Hidden Harbor to make a mistake.
The PT boat kept on going. When it reached Sea Bird Island, three hundred yards off shore and in a direct line with the ocean side of shallow North Inlet, Pete heard the engines slow down.
A big anchor chain rattled down. After a moment it stopped. A man’s voice carried across the water.
“All right, that’s it!”
Pete watched for another fifteen minutes, but nothing more happened. Finally he could not stay quiet any longer. He had to tell Professor Nevins.
Getting up, he started back to the harbor. He turned to take one last look at the large black boat and got the surprise of his life.
A light was blinking from the pilot house of the PT boat. Pete ran back to a place where he could see the PT boat and still look down into the harbor.
Now there was a light blinking from the house boat!
Pete watched only a minute or so. Then he rushed down the beach. “Professor! Professor Nevins! Are you up?” he called when he reached the tent.
“Yes, Pete. What’s the matter?”
Quickly, Pete explained. In less than five minutes they were back on the dune.
The blinking had stopped. In fact, there was nothing to show that a boat had been near Sea Bird Island.
They walked back slowly. As they stood in the moonlight, the Professor said. “Pete, are you sure you saw a PT boat blinking its lights?”
“I couldn’t have dreamed up a boat that big. Honestly, Professor Nevins, you have to believe me,” Pete protested.
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