Chapter Thirteen
"THIS is it!" Professor Merriweather moaned. "We're doomed!"
"Not necessarily," Boyle replied. He somehow had managed to undo his ropes. "We'll get out of here yet!"
He helped the others get untied.
"Golly, thanks a million, Corporal, but how in the world did you get yourself untied like that?" Gomer asked, puzzled. The others were equally perplexed.
"An old escape artist trick," Boyle replied with a wink.
The clock kept on ticking. Tick, tick, tick, tick . . .
They all rushed to the ladder. The trapdoor wasn't locked, but something heavy had been pushed over it, making it impossible to open.
"Hey! How do we get this thing open?" Hacker exclaimed.
"Well, we have to somehow," Boyle resoluted. "It's ten minutes to one!"
"Mercy!" Gomer gasped. Then a pause. "Why didn't Brandon realize that the police would find it suspicious for this tunnel to all of a sudden blow up?"
"All criminals are a little bit silly like that," Carter replied. "He must not have thought that far ahead. Besides, who'd ever pin it on him?"
The trapdoor simply would not budge. They began searching through the tunnel for something they could use to ram the door open.
"This is terrible!" Professor Merriweather cried. "I don't care what happens to me, but I'm worried about you Marines and Nancy."
"Don't worry," Boyle assured him. "We'll all get out of here yet."
Gomer wandered around and suddenly saw a log right by the door. Because of the darkness, it was difficult to see anything.
"Shazam! Here's a log. Maybe we can use this!"
Quickly everyone rushed over and picked up the log.
"This might work!" the professor declared.
They rammed the log into the trapdoor. It took several rams, but finally it broke loose. The Marines and the Merriweathers quickly scurried to safety. About twenty seconds later, a loud BOOM! sounded from down in the tunnel, and smoke suddenly came pouring through the opening.
"Golly! That was close!" Gomer gasped.
"Hey! Something's wrong!" Boyle was looking at the Lodge mansion. "It's all dark!"
"You're right!" Carter realized.
"It was brightly lit before," Hacker added.
"I don't understand," the professor said. "Where are we?"
"About two blocks from the university," Boyle replied.
"How'd you get caught anyway, Professor?" Gomer asked, as they all rushed up to the house.
"I went to my office to find the plans I'd promised Mallerby," the professor replied, "and suddenly this bright light glared at me. I must have passed out. The next thing I remember is being in that room where you Marines found us. He kidnapped me before I ‘did anything stupid,' he said, such as telling the police. Of course I wouldn't've done that and endangered Nancy's life."
The Marines rushed into the house. "Sam? Denise? Miss Harper? Miss Poovie? Miss Olsen?" Boyle called. "Louis? Mr. Fritz? Where are you?"
The cat came tearing madly over to them. "Meow!" he said frantically.
"What is it, kitty?" Gomer asked.
Mr. Fritz tapped something out in Morse code.
"He said everyone just disappeared!" Boyle translated, horrified.
"Oh, dear! Oh, goodness!" Professor Merriweather wrung his hands nervously.
"What're we going to do, Dad?" Nancy asked.
"Go to the field!" Boyle said suddenly.
"The field?" everyone else said blankly.
"Sure! The one where we keep seeing that flying saucer," Boyle revised.
Everyone dashed outside. Mr. Fritz insisted on coming too.
"It's going to take off!" Gomer cried.
"We can't let it!" the professor said, determined.
Without warning, he rushed to the saucer and jumped in the door as it was closing.
"Oh, mercy!" Gomer gasped. "We've got to help him!"
Worrying that the girls and the Lodge kids were being taken prisoner, the others agreed and rushed over too. They had tried to get Nancy to stay behind, but she would have none of it. "I'm coming, and that's all there is to it!" she said. "We're in this together, and we've got to catch this terrible people!"
Mallerby was counting more jewels while one of the midgets worked at the cockpit. Suddenly the crook whirled. When he saw who was rushing into the saucer, he nearly fainted.
"Oh my! I'm being haunted by their ghosts!" he cried.
Gomer was about to protest, but Carter decided to go along with the ruse.
"You got it, buster!" the sergeant said.
"Oh! I . . . I . . ." The crook was at a loss for words.
"Hey! There's something wrong here!" the midget called, oblivious to what was happening with his boss. "I can't take off!"
Mallerby wasn't paying any attention. "Oh! I'll be haunted forever!" he moaned. "Please go away!"
At that minute, the flying saucer, which had just started to take off, abruptly landed again.
"I tell you, boss, I just can't get this thing airborne!" the midget said.
Mallerby looked again at the Marines and the Merriweathers and then suddenly the door burst open and the police rushed in, followed by the girls and the Lodge kids!
"Alright! You're under arrest!" the officers called.
Mallerby quite willingly gave himself up. The midgets and thugs didn't want to comply, but soon they were also hand-cuffed.
"Oh, we were so worried about you!" Mary Ann cried, and the others agreed.
"What happened to you girls?" Gomer exclaimed.
"Well, when we went to call the police, we suddenly heard this hideous laughing and then we found the lines cut," Lou-Ann stated, "so we decided to just rush to the local precinct and tell them everything. Of course we couldn't leave the kids here, so we had to take them with us."
"Mr. Fritz said you just disappeared," Gomer replied.
"I'm afraid we didn't have time to find Mr. Fritz and say goodbye," Bunny said apologetically.
Mr. Fritz, who had been listening to the conversation with interest, let out a loud meow of protest.
"We're sure sorry, Mr. Fritz," Mary Ann said, stroking the Persian's fur.
Officers Hansen and Kelly, who were among the policemen who showed up, said, "Looks like you Marines have solved another baffling case." Then they noticed the Merriweathers. "Why, these are the missing people!"
"Yes, and I'm going to testify against these terrible criminals!" Professor Merriweather said determinedly.
"So will I!" added Nancy.
Mallerby started to laugh. "Ghosts? It'll be the first time ghosts testified in court!" The girls and the policemen stared at him curiously.
"Now, where are the jewels?" Kelly demanded.
"I think they're right here." Gomer pointed to a trapdoor he'd just discovered.
Hansen opened it. Jewels began flowing out, along with the stolen government documents.
Mallerby stared at the midget who'd been attempting to fly the saucer. "You fool! That's not the jewel compartment! That's the fuse box!"
"Oops," said the midget, embarrassed.
"So that's why this thing wouldn't take off," Boyle realized. "The jewels must have interfered."
Mallerby turned pale. "You're . . . you're . . . not . . . ghosts?" he asked finally.
"Ghosts?" Gomer repeated. "Oh, mercy, no!"
The girls looked befuddled. "Why would he think you're ghosts?" Sam and Denise said in unison.
"Oh, it's a long story," Hacker replied. "We'll tell you all about it sometime."
"But how did you . . .?" Mallerby queried.
"Well, you're not looking at a bunch of babes in the woods, you know," Carter replied, looking gratefully at Boyle.
Then, realizing he'd been tricked, Mallerby flew into a rage as he was escorted to the police car.
"I was tricked! Imagine that! Outwitted—when I had the perfect plan!"
"Even if we hadn't escaped, the girls still would've called the police," Gomer said.
"Yeah," Hacker added, "and you would've had more charges."
"As it is, you tried to get rid of us for good," Boyle put in. "And you've been smuggling all these jewels and creating a national panic with this flying saucer thing."
"You'll get a lot of years in jail," Carter said, heading for the Jeep.
"Shame, shame, shame!" Gomer reprimanded. "I still can't believe that you would do all this, Brandon!"
"Well, he did do it—or try to," Carter sighed.
Hansen and Kelly and the other officers got in their squad cars and drove off. Hansen turned back and called,
"Great work, Marines! Another case closed!"
The Marines offered to drive the Merriweathers to their house. They gladly accepted.
"Golly! It sure has been some day," Gomer said. "Didn't the Colonel want to know when we solved the case?"
"Yes," Hacker confirmed. "But let's tell him in the morning. This would be a crazy time to tell him."
Everyone agreed.
"One other thing," he called after them as they were about to leave after dismissing them, "are the plans going to be returned?"
"Oh, yes, sir," Carter responded. "The police took them along with the jewels, but they'll return them later today."
"Good. Once again, great work," the Colonel said.
"You don't say!" Duke gasped when Gomer told them. "I never thought Brandon would smuggle jewels and leave you in a tunnel that was going to explode."
"Well, it's just like they say," Frankie said. "The criminal is always who you'd least suspect."
"Very intriguing case, Pyle," Lester put in. "Do you suppose that we might assist you on your next case?"
"Oh, sure!" Gomer replied. "Y'all are welcome to help." He paused. "But I don't know if there will be another case."
He didn't realize, of course, that soon they would be involved in another intriguing case soon—Nightmare on Tour—and that Duke, Frankie, and Lester would indeed play a large part in helping them solve it.
"There's one thing I still don't get," Gomer said. "How'd you know to bring the police to that field?"
"Well," Lou-Ann began, "I remembered hearing you say that you'd seen a flying saucer in that field before, and I thought it'd be a good place to go. First we went to the Lodge mansion. No one was there, so we hurried over to the field, and that's where we found you guys."
"Another thing," Bunny spoke up. "Why didn't the police notice that trapdoor in Professor Merriweather's office? Surely they investigated it after he disappeared."
"They did," Boyle replied. "They didn't see the trapdoor because the whole place was covered in carpet. Sergeant Hacker just noticed this ring sticking up from under the edge of the carpet and pulled it, and, of course, found the trapdoor."
"Since the only one involved we know is Mallerby, that means that Professor Grant and Dr. Holden are innocent," Gomer stated.
"Hey! That's right, Pyle!" Boyle realized.
"What a case!" Mary Ann cried. "Mystery sure seems to follow you boys around lately."
"I hope we have peace and quiet from now on," Lou-Ann chimed in.
Everyone agreed. For tonight, at least, there wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary. But who knew what tomorrow would bring?
"It wasn't?" the girls all exclaimed.
"No. And that might mean . . ." Gomer didn't need to finish his sentence.
Everyone glanced up at the sky.
"Do you suppose . . .?" they all said, looking at each other. Was it possible?
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