Chapter Eight
EARLY the next morning, Hacker dropped by to report that another sack of flour had disappeared.
"This is uncanny!" he burst out. "Why would anyone want my flour?"
"Maybe Boyle was right," Carter suggested. "Maybe there are items hidden in the flour and the crooks are trying to get them back."
"But that would be so crazy!" Hacker protested.
"So's everything else lately," Carter retorted.
Corporal Jensen happened to enter then. Both sergeants turned around.
"What's up, Jensen?" Hacker asked.
"Someone stole that shipment of radishes," Jensen replied.
"Radishes?" Hacker and Carter repeated in astonished unison.
"That's right. And a third sack of flour," Jensen added.
Carter looked appalled. "Someone around here sure has a strange diet!"
Carter was repeating the events of the morning to Boyle and Gomer that evening just after sunset.
"And more flour," he added.
"Who would steal radishes?" Gomer wondered.
"This case is getting odder by the minute!" Boyle declared.
Carter began pacing the floor, which was a habit of his. "Let's start reviewing all the incidents that have happened. Maybe we'll turn up some clues."
"Well, the first thing was that green glow in the sky when we were baby-sitting," Boyle recalled.
"And then someone plastered pictures of aliens all over Sergeant Hacker's mess hall," Gomer said.
"And then there were those crazy incidents at the Lodges," Carter put in. "With the intruders."
"There was that flying saucer I saw out in the field," Gomer remembered.
"And that piece of metal," Boyle added.
"And the professor," Carter said, "with his phone calls."
"And someone stole the government papers and ransacked the duty hut," Boyle stated.
"And there were all those peculiar things happening the next day," Gomer joined in. "Like that grenade going off, and the tree branch, and the first disappearance of flour, and that little man I saw running across the base."
"And someone threw that rock at us," Boyle asserted.
"And then Professor Merriweather disappeared," Carter declared.
"And Corporal Boyle and I saw a green light last night," Gomer rejoined.
"Really?" This was something Carter hadn't heard yet.
"That's right," Gomer confirmed.
"It seemed to hover over this field, like it was going to land," Boyle said, "but it suddenly vanished instead."
Carter threw up his hands in despair. "This is all so confusing!" he burst out. "This is the craziest mystery we've tried to solve yet!"
At that minute, the phone abruptly rang. Carter motioned for Boyle to answer, which he did.
"Hello, Company B, Corporal Boyle."
"Charles, I think someone's stalking my house!" came the reply.
"Stalking your house, Miss Harper?" Boyle repeated, shocked.
"Uh huh." Mary Ann glanced nervously toward her window. "I keep seeing this silhouette pass my front window every fifteen minutes or so. 'Course, I'm used to it. Back in Turtle Creek, when I'd get confronted with a mystery, people peered in all the time."
Boyle was just going to ask her if she'd called the police when he heard a click.
"Hello, hello?" he called.
Carter and Gomer had crowded around by now.
"What's going on, Corporal?" Gomer exclaimed.
"Miss Harper's in trouble." Briefly, Boyle explained about the stalker and the scream. "I'd better get over there," he added hastily, rushing to the door.
Carter and Gomer followed.
"It's alright, Miss Harper, it's just us," Boyle assured her.
Mary Ann set the pot on a nearby end table. "Thank goodness!" she breathed. "This man came bursting in here, behaving in the most rude manner!"
"Mercy!" Gomer cried.
"It's looks like you handled the situation well," Carter commented.
"What else was there to do?" Mary Ann replied simply. "Let him wander through my house and steal things?" Pointedly, she added, "I can catch crooks with the best of 'em."
"Well, we'd better call the police," Carter said, rushing to the phone.
"You definitely know how to catch a criminal," Boyle praised. "You must have had a lot of practice back in Turtle Creek when you caught criminals with Lou-Ann."
Mary Ann blushed slightly and her blue eyes got that dreamy look in them.
Turned out Carter didn't have to call the police. They came barging in just then.
"What's going on in here?" Officer Kelly asked, shining a flashlight at the Marines. "We've had reports of loud screams and shadowy figures."
"This is the shadowy figure," Mary Ann stated, pointing to the unconscious intruder. "He came bursting in here and I knocked him out with a pot."
Officer Kelly was quickly followed by Officer Hansen, who both quickly went to the criminal.
"This looks like a desperado we've been trying to lay our hands on for months!" Hansen declared.
The two officers carted the prowler out the door, after making sure everything was alright.
"I suggest, lady, that you get an alarm system," Kelly advised.
"I'll look into them!" Mary Ann replied, shutting the door.
"Golly, Miss Mary Ann," Gomer said, "I just knew you shouldn't've got involved in our mystery!"
Mary Ann waved a hand dismissively. "Every good detective has to deal with an intruder or two. Not just me. Besides, I'm sure he didn't have a thing to do with our mystery. Probably just an ordinary burglar."
Everyone looked at each other.
"Golly, Sergeant, this case sure is puzzling," Gomer remarked.
"Isn't every mystery?" Carter shot back dryly.
Suddenly Gomer looked up at the sky and gasped. "Sergeant Carter! Corporal Boyle! It's that green light again!"
Carter abruptly stopped the Jeep and they all stared up at the star-studded sky.
The green light, as with the past night, hovered in the sky, as if it would land, then suddenly vanished.
"Shazam! Sergeant, it's just like last night!" Gomer gasped.
"It sure is, Vince," Boyle agreed.
Carter started the Jeep again. "Whatever it was, it must have been logical. There's no such thing as flying saucers." He drove down a country road.
"What are you doing, Vince?" Boyle inquired.
"I thought we could scrounge around and see if that . . . that . . . thing landed somewhere," Carter replied. "Thing" was the only word he had been able to come up with again.
"Golly, Sergeant, it must have been a flying saucer!" Gomer exclaimed.
"Pyle!" Carter said, annoyed.
"Well, Sergeant, it must have been one," Gomer protested. "We don't know that they don't exist."
As they rounded a bend, they suddenly came upon a strange, glowing object.
"It's the saucer!" Gomer burst out.
"Well, it's something, at any rate," Boyle mused.
Carter parked the Jeep among the trees. "Well, let's go see what it is," he said.
The Marines cautiously crept toward the object.
"It sure looks like a flying saucer," Gomer commented.
As they got closer, the object's door was visible hanging open on the ground.
"Shazam! Sergeant, it's open!" Gomer gasped. "Maybe a whole tribe of little men will come marching out!"
Carter looked at Gomer like he was terribly annoyed at what he'd said, which he was.
Slowly they approached the strange, glowing flying saucer—or whatever it was. They watched for several minutes, but nothing happened. The object made no move to depart, nor did any little men come pouring out of the door.
Carter stealthily crept up to the object, then turned back. "Well, what are you guys waiting for? We'd better investigate!"
"Sergeant, are you sure it's safe?" Gomer asked.
Carter peeked up through the door. "I don't see anyone, Pyle, and it must be earthly. It couldn't be from outer space. Now come on!"
Boyle and Gomer came up next to Carter, who walked up the open door and inside the strange saucer.
The three Marines wandered around. There was a control panel and computer, and a large, tinted window.
"This place is creepy, Sergeant!" Gomer exclaimed. "Maybe we should call somebody to investigate with us!"
"Nonsense!" Carter said. "The Marine Corps might be called to investigate anyway."
"But not just three of them!" Gomer protested. "There'd be a whole horde!"
"Well, there's not a whole horde, Pyle. Just the three of us." Carter glanced about anxiously. "There doesn't seem to be anyone home," he added.
Suddenly a bright light shined at them
"Is it the police again?" Gomer wondered.
"I don't think so, Pyle," Boyle replied.
The light continued to glare at the three Marines, dazzling them.
"Maybe it's the aliens returning!" Gomer suggested.
"Don't be silly, Pyle!" Carter snapped. Then he ventured to call out, "Who's there?"
No response.
The light kept glaring . . . and glaring . . . and glaring . . .
