Part 8 (1/2)
”Mr. Davis?” Jupiter said.
The Purple Pirate raised the cutla.s.s and charged, swinging the great long sword.
Bob dived one way over a ma.s.sive chest, Jupiter the other behind some heavy chairs.
The Purple Pirate tripped over Bob's foot and sprawled across two long oak tables, sliding to the back wall.
Jupiter and Bob didn't wait. With nothing but escape on their minds, they ran out of the storeroom and up the stairs into the kitchen. Suddenly Pete's hushed voice seemed to be in the kitchen with them.
”Alarm! Evans is coming back! Alarm, you guys!”
The back door of the tower was locked as well as bolted from inside! The boys could hear the Purple Pirate, whoever he really was, stumbling across the cellar towards the stairs. And outside, in front, Joshua Evans was returning.
They had nowhere to run.
Chapter 15.
Trapped!
AMONG THE OAKS in the lifting fog Pete whispered again into the walkie-talkie.
”Alarm! Evans coming, guys! Get out!”
There was no response!
Pete glanced quickly towards Joshua Evans, who was still walking from the gates towards the grove of oaks. There was barely time for the two boys to escape unseen.
”First? Records? Alarm! Get out fast!”
He saw the front door of the tower start to open! They would make it out! Then he blinked. No one was coming out! The door was slowly swinging open by itself, as if Bob and Jupiter had neglected to close it properly. Then Pete saw the black cat. It had pushed open the tower door by itself and was now bounding off towards the cove. But Bob and Jupiter remained inside.
Pete whispered desperately into his walkie-talkie, ”Records! First! Evans is -” -”
”Evans is what, you young punk!”
Pete looked up, straight into the angry face of Joshua Evans!
”So, trespa.s.sing again after I warned all of you! Just what the devil are you up to, and who are you talking to on that thing?”
Pete gulped, ”W-we're looking for where they've been digging, sir. I mean, we think they're after some treasure or something.
Buried around here, you know? We've looked most places. First and Records thought maybe it was in your tower somewhere. I stayed out here as...as ...”
”Lookout,” Evans said. He glanced towards his tower and its open door. ”Digging, you say.” His dark eyes looked down again at Pete. ”Just who are 'they'?”
”They?” Pete was confused.
”The people who're looking for something. The diggers.”
”Oh,” Pete said. ”Major Karnes and his gang. Hubert, Carl, and Santos, the bald guy.”
Startled, Mr. Evans looked quickly towards his tower again. ”But you haven't found where they're digging yet?”
”No,” Pete admitted. ”We've looked everywhere except ...”
His walkie-talkie seemed to pant softly. A low, breathing, blowing sound. The silent signal. Pete bent to the unit.
”Jupe? Bob?”
Jupiter's voice came very low, ”Someone is in the tower, Second, and he's after us!
We got out of the cellar, but we couldn't get out the front without Evans seeing us, and the back door is locked, so the only place we could go was up! We're on the second floor. There are just some old crates and chests in here . . .” There was a sudden silence. ”He's coming up! We've got to go higher!”
The walkie-talkie went dead.
On the second floor of the tower, Jupiter and Bob listened to the slow, heavy steps climbing up the ladder from the kitchen. There were sounds of grunting and hard breathing.
”Hurry,” Jupiter said.
By the light from the one tiny window, the two boys tiptoed over to the ladder to the third floor, on the opposite side of the room. They went up quickly, with Jupiter puffing a little. The third floor was another dimly lit room with a few old barrels and dusty wooden crates that looked as if they had been stored in the tower for a hundred years. Jupiter and Bob sat on two of the crates. Below they heard the man in the Purple Pirate costume tramping around on the second floor.
”Who could it be, Jupe?” Bob whispered. ”I mean, if it isn't Salty Sam?”
”If it is Sam,” Jupiter said, ”why would he attack us?”
The boys listened to the slow footsteps below. ”Records!” Jupe suddenly said. ”I don't think that man down there, whoever he is, is chasing us at all! I think he's just searching the tower.”
”He sure chased us out of the cellar!”
”That's true,” Jupiter conceded, ”but he's not acting as if he were chasing us now. In fact, he's acting as if he doesn't even know we're here. As if he thinks we escaped outside.”
”Maybe it is Major Karnes himself,” Bob suggested.
Jupiter shook his head. ”The man we saw is much too big for Major Karnes, and much too small for Hubert. But it could be one of the other two, Carl or Santos. At least we know it's not Joshua Evans - he's right outside.”
Bob nodded. ”Jupe! The guy is coming up here now!”
The ladder to the fourth floor ended in a trapdoor. The boys pushed it open and climbed out into a dazzle of light! The fourth and last floor was the smallest but had windows on all sides. Quickly closing the trapdoor, the boys went over to the windows. They could see the cove, the Black Vulture still tied up and waiting to start the first show, the ocean, and the sun through the last haze of fog.
”Jupe?” Bob said. ”What do we do if he comes up here?”