He could see only the upper half of the small building. Probably it had once been a fisherman’s house. The other fishermen’s buildings must have rotted away and fallen into the weeds. The dampness of the seashore could rot timbers out if they weren’t kept up properly. Even the structure that still stood about two hundred yards away was badly weather-beaten and without paint. The shingles of the roof were crooked and partly blown away, leaving gaping holes. [Illustration: “_Come on, Eddie, let’s go back._”] “Well, I don’t know why anyone would want to go to that place,” Teena said. “Surely, no one lives there. It—it almost looks haunted. Come on, Eddie, let’s go back. It’s getting too late to visit Captain Daniels, anyway.” “I’d like to get a good look at that shack,” Eddie said. “But why?” Teena insisted. “I can see enough of it from here.” Eddie didn’t have a ready answer for wanting to look more closely at the shack. He couldn’t even explain it in his own mind, let alone give a good reason to Teena. Still, a lot of things seemed to be in need of some explanation. Why did the two men named Simms and Benton come to the cove? Why did their footprints lead up the bluff and disappear into the brush? Did they lead to the old shack? If so, why? And what about that disappearing metal cylinder which Eddie had seen in their boat last Saturday? Maybe none of it meant a thing. Even if it did, he certainly had no idea what it was. Eddie shrugged. Sometimes his curiosity got the best of him. Anyway, why bother Teena with it? “All right,” he said, “let’s go back.” CHAPTER SEVEN The following few days were sultry and hot. Eddie stayed pretty close around home. He saw little of his father. Between regular teaching duties and the search still going on for the stolen radioisotope, Mr. Taylor was very busy. Each day he looked even more tired. Eddie could only imagine how much the loss of the secret radioactive substance bothered him. Then, Friday, something happened which set all Oceanview astir. The cause was a story on the front page of the _Globe_. There wasn’t positive proof, but one of the Coast Guard planes on regular patrol the previous Saturday night had picked up a strange blip on its radar screen. By the time the plane had circled back to drop a flare and investigate, the image on the radarscope had disappeared. Upon dropping the flare, they had found nothing but the smooth water of the ocean just outside the entrance to Moon Bay. The immediate belief was that the object had been a submarine. Further, if it was a submarine, it certainly had been a foreign craft. The locations of all American submarines were well charted and known by the Coast Guard. Finally, after a week of secret investigation had revealed no proof of the object’s actual identity, the story was released to the newspapers.