Pete said in a low voice, “We know there’s something wrong at your carnival, Andy. We’re investigating the details.”
“But you can’t,” Andy said. “You don’t know.”
“Science and our training will tell us what you won’t, Andy,” Pete declared, sounding as pompous as Jupiter.
Suddenly Jupiter stood up. “A professional criminal released Rajah, fellows,” he announced as if unaware that Andy was in the room. “There is no doubt. The indentations on the exterior face of the lock are proximate patterns of a type-seven pick-lock! The purpose was certainly to cause trouble.”
Andy stood and blinked at the stream of words he only half understood. Before he could gather his wits, Bob started talking.
“It’s certain, now, that three weeks ago the deaths of three ponies caused the pony ride to be abandoned,” the Records and Research man of the trio stated. “Then a fire destroyed three tents and part of the shooting gallery. This has caused financial loss, and Mr. Carson has been unable to pay wages.”
Still acting as if he didn’t know Andy was present Jupiter nodded and asked. “What do we know about the performers?”
“The strong man, Khan,” Bob announced, “has no previous record of work in carnivals. Possibly he is an impostor.”
Through this whole big act, Andy’s mouth had dropped lower and lower. Now he could contain himself no longer.
“Who told you all that?” he blurted out.
Both Bob and Jupiter turned as if amazed to find Andy in the room with them. Jupiter looked his most innocent.
“Andy, I didn’t know you were here,” he said.
“Someone had to tell you all that!” Andy said hotly.
“No, Andy,” Jupiter shook his head. “We’re investigators, and we simply found out Do I understand we’re correct?”
Andy nodded. “All of it, even Khan. He’s using a false name because he’s really a circus performer. He needed money, so he came to work for us. But carnivals are lower than circuses, and he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s working for us. We don’t even know his real name, but he’s a good strong man.”
“I suppose that’s all possible,” Jupiter acknowledged. “But one thing is clear, Andy — someone is causing trouble at your carnival. We’d like to help find out who, if your Dad will let us.”
Andy looked at them all. “If no one told you about all that, tell me how you found out? I don’t believe in magic, no sir. How’d you do it, fellows?”
“Elementary, my dear Andy,” Jupiter said, and grinned.
Bob and Pete grinned, too, as Jupiter explained what they had done to find out about the problems of the carnival. Andy was all admiration when Jupiter finished.
“Jiminy, you fellows are good detectives! I’ll bet you could find out what’s happening at the carnival. But carnival people are very proud, and my Dad doesn’t want outside help.”
“He could lose the carnival soon, Andy,” Jupiter said.
“I know. If we can’t pay next week — ” Andy stopped and his face became determined. “All right, if Dad won’t let you help, I will! Fellows, I know someone is trying to make Dad lose the carnival because of me!”
“It happened a long time ago,” Andy said. “Anyway, my grandmother — Mom’s mother — never liked Dad or the carnival. She didn’t want Mom to marry Dad, and when Mom died, my grandmother blamed it on Dad and the carnival. She hates the carnival, says it’s no place for a boy. Well, after Mom died, Dad was kind of broken up, and the carnival wasn’t doing well. I was awful young, you know? Grandma wanted me to live with her. She’s not rich, but she’s got some money, and Dad was moving around a lot, so he let me live with Grandma.”
Andy’s face darkened. “When I got older, I hated living at my grandmother’s. She was nice to me, but she’s scared of everything and wouldn’t let me do anything! I wanted to be with Dad in the carnival. So this year I ran off and joined Dad. Jiminy, but Grandma was mad. She came after me, but she never did have me legally, so when I said I wanted to stay with the carnival. Dad told her to go home!”
Jupiter broke in, “Did she threaten trouble, Andy?”
Andy nodded. “She told Dad she’d never let me be like him and get hurt like my mother. She threatened to go to court to prove Dad couldn’t take care of me. So Dad decided to try the show out here in California. That was party to get far away from Grandma, and partly to try to make enough money to prove he could take care of me. But now, with these accidents, Dad could lose the whole show!”
Jupiter was serious. “Do you really think your grandmother would go so far as to ruin the carnival?”
“I don’t know, Jupiter,” Andy said slowly. “I’ve tried not to think about it. She was always nice to me, even if she does hate Dad. But I can’t think of anyone else.”
“Still, those accidents could have hurt you, Andy,” Jupiter said thoughtfully. “I don’t think she’d resort to such desperate measures. Maybe there’s some enemy of your Dad’s you don’t know about. Someone with a stronger reason to ruin him.”
“I don’t know, Jupe, but their scheme is going to work if we don’t find out,” Andy said. “The whole carnival is scared about the next accident.”
“The next?” Jupiter said, surprised. “But they should be feeling safer. You’ve had three accidents.”
Andy shook his head. “They all decided that Rajah’s escape doesn’t count because no one was hurt and nothing bad happened, thanks to Pete. So they’re still waiting for the third one.”
“That’s dangerous,” Bob pointed out “When people start expecting an accident they get nervous, and accidents are sure to happen.”
Jupiter agreed, “That’s what superstition does, fellows. What people fear will happen does happen almost all the time.”
“Anyway,” Pete added, “if someone’s making these accidents happen, I guess there will be more.”
“I think we can be sure of that Second,” Jupiter said grimly. “One thing bothers me a little. Rajah’s escape isn’t quite like the other two accidents. It’s not the same pattern. The other two accidents happened when the carnival wasn’t open. No one was there to get hurt. Only the carnival suffered. But if Pete hadn’t stopped Rajah, it could have been very dangerous to other people.”
“Maybe Rajah’s escape was a real accident?” Pete said.
“No, I’m convinced it wasn’t,” Jupiter insisted. The stocky First Investigator frowned. “It’s most baffling, fellows. When something doesn’t fit a pattern, we have to look for some other pattern that everything will fit. I think it’s time for us to return to the carnival. Can you get us in, Andy, even though it’s not open?”
“Sure,” Andy said. “I’ll say you want to see the carnival rehearsing and getting ready. They all know about Pete and Rajah, so they won’t be surprised.”
“What do we look for, First?” Pete asked.
“I don’t know for sure,” Jupiter admitted. “Some kind of connection linking the three accidents, or something that looks like a new accident being planned. Anything that looks unusual or suspicious. We’ll have to be careful, so — ”
They all heard it — a far-off voice calling from somewhere outside. Pete hurried to the See-All.
“It’s Aunt Matilda,” he reported. “She wants Bob. Something about an appointment”
“My dentist’s appointment!” Bob groaned. “I forgot.”
Jupiter frowned. The First Investigator hated to have his plans interfered with. He sighed.
“I suppose you’d better go, Records,” he said. “We’ll start alone. In case we have to leave, or follow someone, we’ll take my new directional signals so you can locate us”
“The new what?” Pete exclaimed.
“Directional signal and emergency alarm,” Jupiter beamed proudly. “It was what I was working on yesterday, Second. I completed it this morning while waiting for you two. I only had time to finish two units, so we’ll take one and Bob can take the other. It’s just what we need this time. Our walkie-talkies would be too obvious. We mustn’t look as if we’re watching at all.”
“What does your signal do, Jupe?” Andy wanted to know.
“First, it’s a directional signal,” Jupiter explained. “What they call a ‘homer.’ It bleeps at a steady rate that gets louder and faster as you get nearer to it with another signaller, and there’s a dial on it that indicates direction. It’s a simple arrow-dial, showing if the signal is coming from right, left or straight ahead. Each unit is a sender and receiver, and they’re small enough to carry in a pocket.
“For emergencies the unit has a small, flashing red light that is activated without even being touched! It works on voice command. When one of us is in trouble, all he has to do is say the word ‘help’ near the unit, and the red light will flash on the other units!”
“Jiminy,” Andy said with awe. “You can do almost anything, can’t you, Jupiter?”
“Well, Andy” Jupiter preened for an instant “I try to keep our investigating work up to date. Our signal can only be picked up by our own units, and the range is three miles.”
“I’ll take mine and get to the carnival as soon as I can,” Bob said.
Bob went out into the salvage yard to get his bike and let Aunt Matilda know that he was on his way to the dentist. Jupiter, Pete and Andy soon followed and rode off on their bikes for the carnival. The sunny day was turning grey and the wind was rising. If they hadn’t been in Southern California in early September, the boys might have expected rain.
Even without rain, the day had become gloomy and brooding as the boys rode into the carnival lot.
“Andy,” Jupiter instructed as they dismounted from their bikes, “you go to your work so no one will become suspicious. But keep your eyes open round the shooting gallery. Pete can watch the performers rehearsing in the field over there and I’ll wander round the booths and tents. Look for anything even a little strange or suspicious. Is that clear?”
Andy and Pete both nodded, and the three boys began to stroll casually to their posts among the workmen and performers.
Bob arrived at his dentist to find him busy with an emergency patient, so he had to wait. Impatient, he read all the magazines and fumed at the delay that was keeping him from the carnival.
After he had finished all the magazines, he decided to see if the early edition of the Rocky Beach evening newspaper had any story about the carnival or Rajah’s escape. He found no mention of the lion, but he did find a feature story about the carnival, saying what a fine show it was and urging people to go.
Bob, whose Dad was a newspaperman on a large Los Angeles daily, knew at once that the story was what newsmen call a “hand-out”. The reporter hadn’t gone to the carnival at all. He had simply written the story from an information release given to him by the carnival.
This was common practice with small newspapers that couldn’t spare a reporter for such a small story. All the newspaper was really interested in was helping the carnival do good business and helping local businessmen sell to the customers attracted by the carnival. Bob realized that it was lucky that no reporter had been at the carnival last night — he might have seen Pete and Rajah or heard about the incident. If Rajah’s escape had been reported, the town authorities might have revoked the licence of the carnival. Suddenly Bob’s attention was caught by a small advertisement:
Bob jumped up. The description exactly fitted the crooked cat Pete had won — and then lost last night! Bob tore out the advertisement and ran to the door of the dentist’s inner office.
“Doctor! I have to go,” he cried, and before the dentist could protest, he was running out towards his bike.
The two clowns were practising a different routine from the one the boys had seen last night. The tall, sad clown had a tiny broom and a long-handled dustpan. He went round sweeping up rubbish, and every time he raised the dustpan the bottom fell open, dumping out everything he had swept up. The tall clown looked gloomily at the fallen rubbish, and the fat little clown did flips of joy and ridicule.
The fire eater worked with flaming wads on the end of his swords. As Pete watched with wide eyes, the fire eater calmly put the flaming wads into his mouth!
Khan the strong man lifted weights and tore thick books. Pete watched him particularly, but Khan did nothing suspicious.
The Great Ivan worked inside his show cage with Rajah, teaching the magnificent lion a new trick on the striped tubs the boys had painted. Two wire walkers practised their dazzling show of skill and balance on a wire stretched between two high poles.
Pete watched it all, trying to look like a boy just interested in the feats of the performers.
But nothing happened in the open field.
Meanwhile, Jupiter had been prowling among the booths and tents where the roughnecks and booth operators were repairing and setting up for the night’s opening. He missed no booth nor show tent and retraced his steps many times. But he, too, found nothing that seemed suspicious. He had stopped to watch the whirling carousel when Andy Carson joined him. Andy had finished his work at the shooting gallery.
“Don’t you test the Ferris wheel, Andy?” Jupiter asked. He pointed to the motionless wheel, its gondolas covered with canvas.
“It costs too much to run,” Andy explained. “We start it up just before the carnival opens and give it a trial run then.”
“You have a mechanic to maintain it?”
“Sure, my Dad does that himself, Jupiter.”
Jupiter was thoughtful. “It’s your most important single ride. Almost the symbol of the whole show. If — ”
“Jupiter!” Andy broke in, “here comes Bob! He looks excited!”
They watched as Bob pedalled up to Pete, and both boys came up to Jupiter and Andy. Bob began to talk before he was even off his bike.
“Jupe! Someone wants crooked cats!”
“Cats just like the one I lost!” Pete exclaimed.
“I don’t think Pete lost it at all,” Bob cried, digging into his pocket for the advertisement he had torn out of the newspaper. “I think it was stolen! Look at this, First!”
They all crowded round Jupiter as he read the small ad. The First Investigator’s eyes became bright.
“It certainly sounds like Pete’s crooked cat,” he agreed. “Andy, how many of those crooked cats did you have?”
“Five here in Rocky Beach, Jupe,” Andy said. “Pete’s was the last one I gave out”
Jupiter nodded. “The last one, and Pete lost it or, as Bob says, maybe it was stolen. If it was, that was the second time the same cat was stolen — remember that moustached old man who stole it but dropped it. Fellows, I think we’re beginning to see the pattern!”
“What pattern, First?” Bob wanted to know.
“Someone wants those crooked cats, Records,” Jupiter stated firmly. “Maybe all of them, or just one. It explains why Rajah was let loose!”
“It does, Jupe?” Pete said. “How?”