The Mystery of Wreckers Rock Read online

  The Three Investigators

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  The Mystery of Wrecker’s Rock

  Text by William Arden

  Based on characters created by Robert Arthur

  Contents

  A Word from Hector Sebastian ………………………… 4

  1. A Sea Battle ……………………………………… 5

  2. The Empty Boat ………………………………….. 8

  3. An Angry Viking ………………………………….. 12

  4. Followed! …………………………………………. 17

  5. A Moving Target ………………………………….. 22

  6. An Odd Encounter ………………………………… 27

  7. A Live Ghost! …………………………………….. 31

  8. Painful Interviews …………………………………. 35

  9. The Masked Men ………………………………….. 42

  10. Scares in the Dark ……………………………….. 47

  11. A Shape in the Fog ……………………………….. 51

  12. The Ghost Ship ………………………………….. 55

  13. Sam Reappears …………………………………… 58

  14. A Surprising Discovery ……………………………. 63

  15. Unwelcome Proof ………………………………… 67

  16. Bob and Pete Find an Answer ……………………… 71

  2

  17. A Puzzling Visitor ……………………………….. 74

  18. Strange Behavior …………………………………. 78

  19. The Trails Meet ………………………………….. 81

  20. Prisoner! ………………………………………… 84

  21. A Daring Rescue …………………………………. 88

  22. Sam’s Game ……………………………………… 92

  23. Back to the Rock …………………………………. 96

  24. Jupiter Exposes a Fraud …………………………… 99

  25. A Visit to Mr. Sebastian ………………………….. 102

  A Word from Hector Sebastian

  Welcome, mystery lovers! Once again it’s time to catch up with the latest doings of the amazing Three Investigators. This time the tireless young detectives fall headlong into a case when they innocently photograph a family reunion. Reunions are usually jolly occasions, but this one turns out to be filled with mysterious threats — ghosts, howls in the night — and people who don’t want their picture taken!

  In case you’ve never met the Investigators before, let me fill you in. First there’s Jupiter Jones, the overweight leader of the team. Jupe, as the others call him, is known for his remarkable brain power. Next is Pete Crenshaw, a tall boy and a fine athlete, but a little nervous around ghosts. Last but not least is Bob Andrews, a slight, studious boy with a quiet sense of humor and a knack for research.

  The boys all live in Rocky Beach, California, a town on the Pacific Ocean not very far from Hollywood. The boys’ Headquarters is in a trailer cleverly hidden from sight in The Jones Salvage Yard. That unique junkyard is owned by Jupiter’s aunt and uncle, who are his guardians.

  That’s enough for now. Adventure awaits on Wreckers’ Rock!

  HECTOR SEBASTIAN

  1

  A Sea Battle

  The outboard motorboat heaved on the long swells of the Pacific Ocean near a small island with an enormous rock jutting up at its western end.

  “It looks like the Rock of Gibraltar” Bob Andrews said.

  “Vaguely, Records,” Jupiter Jones said, consideringly, “but a little smaller, don’t you think?”

  “Like about a thousand times,” Pete Crenshaw put in. “I’d call it the Pebble of Gibraltar!”

  The three members of the junior detective team of The Three Investigators were fishing out in the sea some ten miles south of Rocky Beach, California. Jupiter resembled a plump Day-Glo sausage in his fluorescent life jacket. The First Investigator, though an athlete of the mind, was far from being a physical athlete. That was more true of Pete, the tall, well-muscled Second Investigator. He looked like an ad for sporting goods in his life jacket. Bob, the Investigator in charge of Records and Research, was studying the water as if a hard stare could produce a fish.

  The boys were casting light sinkers and live anchovies near the kelp beds where the calico bass lurked. So far, the bass had shown little interest in their efforts. There were only three medium-size fish swimming lazily in their pail.

  “I told you it’d be better back in off Genoa Reef” Pete complained, reeling in to change his bait. “What does your dad want us to photograph way out here anyway, Records?” Bob’s father was a reporter for a Los Angeles afternoon newspaper.

  “He wouldn’t say,” Bob said. He let line out slowly, alert for the quick bite of the bass. “Just that on Tuesday we should fish way out here off Ragnarson Rock and take my camera with us. He’ll pay us if we get good pictures, but he didn’t say of what. Just laughed when I asked, said we’d know it when we saw it.”

  “The fee is what interests me,” Jupiter said. “The Three Investigators’ treasury is abysmally low. If we don’t replenish our reserves soon, we may

  A Sea Battle

  have to go to work for Aunt Mathilda.”

  “Oh, no,” Pete groaned.

  They all shuddered at the dismal prospect of working in The Jones Salvage Yard for Jupiter’s Aunt Mathilda. The junior detective team was on summer vacation, and Jupiter’s formidable aunt considered this her golden opportunity to get some extra work done around the yard. The boys concentrated on their efforts to lure the elusive calico bass out of the safety of the kelp. If they caught enough fish, they would earn the needed pocket money. But no more fish would cooperate. Pete yawned and scanned the blue water around them. His eyes widened.

  “Fellows!” the Second Investigator cried, and pointed toward the mile-long island of Ragnarson Rock.

  A long, low Viking ship was sailing around the east end. The afternoon sun reflected off the shields hanging along its sides. A fierce dragon’s head with a gaping mouth full of carved teeth knifed the air as the ship swept ahead. Wild warriors in horned helmets, beards, and thick fur jackets brandished swords and battle-axes. Flags flew from the mast and the high stern post. The warriors shouted hoarse battle cries.

  “That,” Jupiter said, “is certainly ‘it’!”

  Bob had his camera out. “My dad says he’ll buy all the pictures we can take.”

  The Viking ship swept closer. The boys saw that it was really only a large outboard motorboat with the replica of a Viking ship built on top of it. There were only six or seven “warriors” on the ship, and most of the swords were painted wood, the beards fake. The men waved their wooden weapons and laughed as the “long ship” sailed on past the boys and into a small cove on the island.

  “What is that all about?” Pete wondered.

  “I don’t know,” Bob said, “but I got some good pictures of them.”

  “I think — ” Jupiter began.

  The stout First Investigator stopped with his mouth open. A second boat had come racing around the eastern end of the island.

  “What’s that one?” Pete gaped.

  The second boat was long and low and looked half like a rowboat and half like a canoe. It was made of big planks with both ends higher than the middle, like a big dory pointed at both ends. The unusual boat was being paddled in unison by six whooping “Indians” in full headdresses, beards, and buckskins.

  “It’s a Chumash plank canoe!” Jupiter realized. “They were our local Indians. They had a big village up in Santa Barbara and traces have been found of their seagoing canoes. Appar
ently they went out to sea to fish and

  6

  A Sea Battle

  chase whales and seals. They were very peaceful, and some of them lived out here on the Channel Islands.”

  “You don’t have to give us a history lesson, Jupe,” Pete retorted. “I remember them from the Mystery of the Laughing Shadow.” He was referring to an earlier case the boys had solved involving the local Chumash tribe. “I just didn’t know they lived right here on Ragnarson Rock.”

  Jupiter shook his head. “They didn’t, Second. They lived farther up the coast on the bigger islands.”

  “Never mind where they lived!” Bob cried. “Hold the boat steady so I can get some more shots.”

  The Records and Research man of The Three Investigators aimed his camera at the plank canoe and its war-whooping Indians, who were racing on, brandishing spears, toward the same cove where the Vikings had landed. They landed, too, and a mock battle began between the Vikings and the Indians for possession of Ragnarson Rock. Flags waved and weapons collided. Headdresses tossed and spears were flung against shields. Tucked in the belt of each Viking and Indian was a piece of colored cloth — red for the Indians, white for the Vikings. The men grabbed at one another’s “flags” and raced for the giant rock itself.

  In the boat the three boys laughed and cheered, Pete and Bob siding with the Indians, and Jupiter urging on the Vikings. As the battle approached the great rock at the western end, Bob reloaded his camera.

  “Let’s get in closer, fellows! If we get the whole battle, it’ll make a great human interest feature for my dad’s paper, and he’ll buy more photos.”

  “An excellent idea, Records,” Jupiter agreed.

  They started the motor, and Pete steered them into the mouth of the cove. Bob took picture after picture until the battle was over and the Vikings stood on top of the rock with all the red flags. They waved the captured red flags and their own white Viking banners. Everyone on the island was laughing now, congratulating one another.

  In the boat, Bob stopped taking pictures. All the boys smiled at the hilarious scene on the island. Until Jupiter happened to glance over his shoulder.

  “Second! Records!”

  Another boat was about to hit them!

  7

  2

  The Empty Boat

  The small motorboat came right at them — then gently bumped them, bobbed on the small swells of the cove, and bumped their boat again.

  “It’s just drifting,” Pete realized. “The motor’s not even running.”

  “And there’s no one in it!” Bob cried. “Look, the anchor rope’s trailing in the water. It must have broken loose from somewhere.”

  Pete examined the ragged end of the rope. “It sure wasn’t cut. It looks as if it just wore through when the anchor was down. Maybe rubbed against the rocks or a dock or something.”

  Jupiter had said nothing, his quick eyes examining the empty boat. Now the First Investigator suddenly pointed to the rail near the center seat.

  “Look, fellows. On the oarlock and near the seat!”

  The other two Investigators examined the dark stain on the gray metal oarlock and on the edge of the boat a dark red stain, almost black in the afternoon sunlight.

  “I-it looks like … ” Pete quavered.

  “Blood!” Bob finished.

  “Yes.” Jupiter nodded. “As if someone cut himself, or” — the stocky leader of the team hesitated and looked at his companions — “or perhaps fell and hit his head on the oarlock.”

  Pete held the empty boat close to them. They all stared into it. There was a tackle box on the bottom near the center seat, a bucket of water with dead anchovies floating thickly, an open lunch box that still contained some sandwiches and an apple, and a large jacket-type life preserver like the boys had on.

  “Everything,” Jupiter said slowly, “except a fishing rod and reel.”

  “Jupe?” Bob said uneasily. “Under the seat. See? Is that a hat?”

  Pete held the drifting boat with one hand and reached under its center seat. He came up with a long-billed fisherman’s cap. There was a tear in one side and more dark stains like those on the boat.

  The Empty Boat

  Jupiter’s voice was serious. “Someone was hurt in this boat, fellows. The question is, where was the boat when it happened?”

  “What do you mean, First?” Pete frowned. “What does it matter where the boat was?”

  “Jupe means, was the boat out on the ocean or maybe tied up to shore?” Bob said. “That’d make a lot of difference.”

  “And was the fisherman alone in the boat?” Jupiter added. “I mean, did someone in another boat pull alongside, take him ashore, and get help, and the boat was left alone and drifted away? Or did the owner just … fall overboard?”

  Pete and Bob glanced at each other in alarm.

  “Or,” Jupiter said, “was there someone else in this boat?”

  Pete paled. “You think the fisherman w-was murdered?”

  “Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Jupiter said carefully. “All we have here is circumstantial evidence.”

  The three boys sat silently for a moment, gazing into the empty boat with the dark stains. Bob finally spoke.

  “Maybe the boat belongs to one of those Vikings or Indians on the island. Someone got cut or something.”

  “That’s possible, Records,” Jupiter agreed. “I suggest we find out.”

  With Bob and Jupiter holding the frayed anchor rope of the empty boat, Pete started their own motor and sailed in closer to the island. The Vikings and Indians were trooping down the giant rock toward the cove, still waving their battle flags and slapping each other on the back. Some of the jubilant combatants saw Bob and his camera. They shouted to the boys as their boat neared the shore of the cove where the Viking ship and Chumash canoe and some other boats were beached.

  “Hey, take our pictures!”

  “Come on ashore, we’ll pose!”

  “Take us Indians!”

  “No, the Vikings! We won!”

  “Come on and eat with us!”

  The three boys laughed and shook their heads.

  “Does this boat belong to any of you?” Jupiter called across the water.

  “Not us!” a Viking shouted back.

  “Come on, take some more pictures!” an Indian urged.

  To encourage Bob, some of the Vikings and Indians assumed ferocious poses, holding spears and axes to one another’s throats.

  Bob grinned and snapped more pictures of the activities on the island. Tents were being pitched in rows on a bluff above the cove’s beach, and around a large fire some women and children were setting out food for a

  9

  The Empty Boat

  picnic. Bob shot more pictures, sweeping his camera lens across the whole treeless island.

  “Hurry up,” Pete demanded, “or we won’t have time to catch enough fish to make any money.”

  “I’m almost finished with the roll,” Bob said.

  “I’m sorry, Pete, but I think we must take back the empty boat immediately,” Jupiter said. “Something terrible could have happened to its owner.”

  “Maybe we could radio the police,” Pete suggested. “One of those boats moored on the island might have a radio.”

  “Good idea, Second,” Jupiter exclaimed, and called to the warriors turned picnickers. “Excuse me, are those your boats?”

  Heads nodded.

  “Do any of you have a radio in your boat?”

  “Sorry,” an Indian called back.

  “Mine is broken!” a Viking shouted.

  Bob took his last picture. “No more film. What do we do, fish or go back to shore?”

  “I guess we take the boat in,” Pete said glumly.

  “That’s our first priority,” Jupiter insisted. “Someone might be in desperate need of help.”

  They tied the broken anchor rope of the empty boat to their stern, and Pete turned them for home. They were far out, and Jupiter looked anxiously at his watch from time to time as Pete drove them up and over the long blue swells of the ocean. They searched for a boat with a radi
o, but they passed none. Bob cleaned the few bass they had caught.

  “At least we caught enough for our own suppers,” Bob said cheerfully.

  The drag of the second boat slowed them down, and it was after four by the time they reached the Rocky Beach marina.

  “Hey,” Pete said from the stern, where he was steering. “Isn’t that Chief Reynolds on the dock?”

  Jupiter and Bob turned to look.

  “And he’s got some of his men with him!” Bob declared.

  They could see the imposing figure of Rocky Beach’s chief of police on the long public dock where most people tied up their boats. Three of his uniformed men and he were gathered around a slender woman in a fashionable green dress. Her red hair caught the late afternoon sunlight, and she seemed distraught. She wiped her eyes and stared out to sea as the chief talked to her.

  “Who’s the woman?” Pete wondered.

  “Gosh, I don’t know her,” Bob said, “but she’s sure watching us closely!”

  10

  The Empty Boat

  The woman had stopped scanning the water and was now focused on the three boys. Her blue eyes were wide.

  “Not us, fellows,” Jupiter stated. “It’s the empty boat. I think she recognizes it.”

  “Hey, maybe she’ll recognize the hat, too,” Pete said.

  As they neared the dock, Pete reached down and held up the torn and bloodstained fishing hat. The woman turned white as a ghost and fainted into Chief Reynolds’ arms.

  11

  3

  An Angry Viking

  The police and the three boys gathered around the pale woman as Chief Reynolds propped her up on a bench on the dock.

  “Give her some air, boys,” the chief said. “Now tell me where you found that boat.”

  Pete and Bob quickly related the events at Ragnarson Rock. Chief Reynolds listened carefully, and as they finished, the woman opened her eyes and struggled to stand up.

  “I have to go out there!” she cried.