The Flying Saucer Caper

"Maybe someone better go find her," Pyle suggested. "She should have been down here a long time ago."

"Usually she doesn't visit with Miss Mabel and Katrinka for this long," Denise agreed.

And then the lights suddenly went out.

"Power failure," Vince said, just as a loud clap of thunder sounded.

"Golly!" Pyle exclaimed.

"We'd better go find Sam," was Denise's contribution to the conversation.

"Boyle and I will go," Vince decided, feeling around for the staircase. "Pyle, you'd better stay down here with Denise and Louis."

Pyle looked around doubtfully. "Well . . . alright Sergeant. Be careful, you two!" he called up after us. "You might get abducted by aliens or crooks or . . ."

"Pyle!" I exclaimed. "Don't scare the kids!"

"Vince?" I called softly. "Where did you go?"

No reply.

I looked down the hall. It almost appeared like something wearing a glass bubble was retreating down the hall.

"Hey! Come back here!" I called, beginning to chase it. "Who are you? Do you know where Sergeant Carter is?"

Whatever it was just kept running.

Was it possible that we were having an alien invasion? I wondered.

As I chased whatever it was down the hall, I suddenly heard an alarm go off. I paused. "What in the world?" I exclaimed. It didn't sound like any burglar alarm I'd ever heard. Maybe it was one of Sam's new creations. Yeah, that was probably it.

Then the alarm stopped. The thing with the glass bubble turned and came back down the other way, and then I saw some guy who looked like a '20s gangster appear and run after it.

I followed, unsure of what was happening. There was only one thing I knew for certain, and that was that the Lodge house was being bombarded by intruders.

I kept close to the wall, hoping that if one or the other turned around, I could hide in the shadows of the curios and bookcases. Suddenly, a panel opened up in the wall and I fell through.

"What in the world??" I exclaimed. After feeling around, I located a staircase going down. Thinking that maybe I could find Sam and Vince, I cautiously walked down the stairs.

At the end of the long, winding, spiral staircase, I found another panel. This one led outside to the roofed, wooden patio.

Oh brother! Crooks could get in that way, I realized. All they had to do was open the panel, go up the stairs, and then open the other panel. This was dangerous. Mr. and Mrs. Lodge would have to be told about that.

I slowly crept around, looking for any sign of the missing people. The entire street was dark, and the only light came from a very occasional flash of lightning.

From those occasional flashes of lightning, I concluded that Sam and Vince weren't around. I wandered off the patio and into the yard. The rain had let up, but the thunder was still booming. I didn't really think anyone would be outside in that weather, but maybe something had come up, for instance, chasing an intruder. I was searching over in the far corner of the yard when suddenly something hard hit me and I blacked out.

As I slowly regained consciousness, I realized I was laying on the patio. I also realized someone was gently shaking me. I opened my eyes and, when my vision cleared, realized it was Vince.

"Boyle, are you alright?" he exclaimed.

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay. Except for a minor headache," I added, grinning ruefully.

"Well, what happened to you?" Vince asked.

"I might ask the same of you," I replied.

"Well, you remember when I was trying to find a flashlight?" Vince began.

I nodded.

"Well, while I was searching, someone snuck up and whacked me. When I came to, I was in the dumbwaiter and Mr. Fritz was on my shoulder, meowing."

"Smart cat," I remarked. "The only thing he can't do is speak English.

"I found a secret staircase that led out here," I continued. "I was looking for you and Sam when someone hit me. I was over in the far corner of the yard when it happened. I guess whoever it was dragged me here."

"A secret staircase?" Vince repeated.

"Yeah." I pointed to the panel. "Through there."

"Crooks could just sneak in that way!" Vince exclaimed.

"I know. That's probably how all these crooks got in now." I told Vince about the '20s gangster look-alike and the thing with the glass bubble.

Just then, Pyle, Denise, Louis, Mr. Fritz, and Sam all came racing out of the house. They seemed surprised to find Vince and myself out on the patio.

"Shazam! What're y'all doing out here?" Pyle burst out.

"Someone knocked me on the head and Vince found me," I replied. "He had some trouble himself," I added, telling him of Vince's problems.

"That's awful!" Pyle said at the conclusion, his eyes big as marbles. "I just saw three men climbing out of a window downstairs in the library. Two of 'em looked like '20s gangsters, and the other looked like . . . well . . ."

"Come on, Pyle, out with it!" Vince yelled. "It looked like what?"

"Well . . . I don't think you're going to like this, Sergeant," Pyle said apologetically.

"Well, tell us, Pyle!" I exclaimed.

Pyle said something so softly that none of us could make it out.

"Pyle," Vince said, his patience weakening, "if you're going to tell us, you might as well say it in a voice that can be heard!"

"It looked like a Martian!" Sam spoke up eagerly. "Imagine that—we're having a Martian invasion!"

"Martian invasion?" I repeated.

"And that's another thing," Vince said, trying very hard to ignore all the talk about Martians. "Where did you come from, Sam?"

Sam waved a hand nonchalantly. "Oh, I've been figuring out how to work new crook-catching traps. Seems like they almost always come in via the fourth floor and I'm trying to figure out how."

"I know how." I pointed to the panel. Everyone turned to look at it. "There's a staircase behind that panel and it leads to the fourth floor."

Pyle gasped. "Oh, mercy! Criminals are probably coming in swarms!"

"At any rate, Pyle, we'd better call the police in case there's still crooks in the house," Vince said.

"Our place is just crawling with secret panels," Denise said cheerily.

"Old mansions always are," Sam added. Obviously, the girls weren't very disturbed by the news.

"Well, secret panels or not, we'd better call the police," Vince insisted.

"Sergeant?" Pyle looked like he had a serious question he wanted to ask. Vince walked over to him.

"What is it now, Pyle?" he said in a moaning voice.

"Maybe we ought to use a neighbor's phone," Pyle whispered. "Maybe if there's still any crooks hanging around inside, they'd knock us all out and then kidnap Denise, Sam, and Louis!"

"Pyle!" Vince was definitely not pleased with the thought.

It was odd that two police officers suddenly walked onto the scene just then. They shined bright flashlights at us.

"Alright!" said the one. "What're you doing? Going to abduct these children?"

Pyle's eyes grew wide. "Why, I never! We're baby-sittin'! Sergeant Carter and Corporal Boyle and me, why, we'd never dream of doing anything of the sort!"

"That's right!" Sam chimed in. "These are our baby-sitters. In fact, they're the best baby-sitters you could ever have!"

"Of all the nerve!" Vince burst out. "Imagine—accusing us of being kidnappers!"

The second officer said to his partner, "Hey, don't these guys look familiar?"

The first one studied us closely. "You know, Kelly, I do think I've seen them somewhere before. And those names—Sergeant Carter, Corporal Boyle—they sound familiar."

Then I realized which officers they must be. "Aren't you guys officers Hansen and Kelly?" I asked.

The first one looked surprised. "Why, yes."

Officer Kelly then said, "Of course! They're the ones who solved that crazy Jewel Pendant case!"

To Pyle, Officer Hansen said, "You're the one who saw those two guys fighting in the alley, aren't you?"

Pyle nodded. "Uh huh, that's right, Officer. These kids here are friends of ours and we're tendin' them."

"Yeah! And we've been having more than our share of trouble too," Vince spoke up. "With crooks!"

The policemen perked up. "Crooks?" they repeated.

"That's right," Pyle verified. "Why, we've just been having all kinds of trouble. Sergeant Carter and Corporal Boyle both got knocked right out by crooks, and I saw three intruders tearin' out the window in the library!"

Hansen turned to stare at Vince and myself. "Are you boys sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, we're fine," Vince answered for the both of us.

"We were worried that maybe there's some more crooks in there," I said suddenly, gesturing at the house.

"We were going to call the police," Vince added, "but you two officers came along and nearly carted us off to jail!"

"Someone called us and said that they thought someone was prowling around at the house next-door," Hansen confessed. "So we rushed on over here. Either the neighbors saw you guys or those intruders."

"You say you're worried that crooks still might be in the house?" Kelly broke in.

"That's right, Officer," Pyle responded.

"You're all wise to be cautious. It could very well be that criminals are still hiding in the house. We'd better go look."

The girls, who had listened to our conversation intently, spoke up now. "If there's any crooks, I'm sure we've caught 'em!" they said in unison.

"I'm sure you have," I agreed, remembering a close encounter I once had with one of their traps.

"Oh? Well, little ladies, Officer Kelly and I will just go on in and search for any crooks." Hansen and Kelly opened the patio doors.

"By the way, officers," Pyle said, remembering, "there's a secret panel over there in that wall. It leads right into the house. If the criminals knew about it, they could definitely get in that way."

The two officers paused and then walked over to where Pyle was pointing. "Hmm. . . . Yes, it does look like criminals could easily get in," Kelly mused. "Hansen," he said to his partner, "those children's parents ought to board something like that up."

Hansen nodded in agreement. "We'll just use this panel as a means of entry, in case any criminals are staked out behind it."

"That panel has a staircase that leads up to the fourth floor," I called after them.

The officers both nodded. "We'll keep that in mind. That's probably how they all snuck in. Unless the children's parents don't lock the patio doors. But we'll talk about that later. Right now we'd better search for crooks." The two policemen disappeared into the panel.

Suddenly we all heard a soft tapping sound.

"What's that?" Vince exclaimed.

"It's Mr. Fritz," Denise replied, pointing at the cat, who was saying something via Morse code.

"He said, ‘No crooks allowed,'" Sam interpreted.

Pyle and I were amused. Glancing at Vince, I noticed he rolled his eyes and looked slightly cynical. That only made me more amused. Pyle didn't seem to notice.

We had just managed to get the kids dinner when Mr. and Mrs. Lodge returned. They didn't seem to think anything was out of the ordinary, so we had to fill them in on the nights events.

"The police thought you ought to keep that panel boarded up and the patio doors locked," Pyle said.

"Goodness!" Mrs. Lodge exclaimed. "Phil, I think we certainly need to," she said to Mr. Lodge, who agreed.

Vince glared. "Oh, Pyle, there's no such thing as Martians!" he burst out.

Paying no attention to Vince's remark, Pyle rambled on. "Aren't you supposed to report things like that?" he asked, those innocent brown eyes looking at Vince.

"If you want to tell them so badly, Pyle, call them tomorrow," Vince said dismissively. He absent-mindedly turned on the news.

"Do Martians exist? is the question on nearly every Southern Californian's lips after the mysterious green glow in the sky!" blared out.