hem.

If only he had a weapon! But wishing was useless. He had to do
something! He called, "Barby! Can you hear me?"

There was no answer from inside. His pulse speeded. Were Barby and Jan
all right, perhaps gagged, or had the mind reader already worked?

Rick swam away from the houseboat a few feet and floated, his mind
racing. There had to be a way of getting aboard. There had to!

Where was Scotty? He listened, and heard the plane's engine on the
other side of the houseboat. In a few seconds Scotty came into view.
He was on the water close to shore, traveling at high speed. As Rick
watched, Scotty swung the plane on a line with the houseboat and
opened the throttle wide.

Rick stared. Was his pal out of his mind? If he crashed the houseboat,
the girls would be hurt, too! Then he realized Scotty would never pull
such a stunt, no matter how desperate he became.

The men on the houseboat were at the rail now, eyes on the racing
plane. In that instant Rick divined Scotty's plan, he hoped, and
turned to gauge his distance. The plane was on the upper step now,
almost air-borne. Even as he watched, the pontoons pulled away. But
Scotty held the plane on the water, roaring propeller pointed right at
the men at the rail.

Rick put his head down and sprinted for the front of the houseboat. He
had to time it perfectly!

To the horrified eyes of the men at the rail a collision was
inevitable. They could only assume that the madman in the plane was
going to smash right into them. And as Scotty had planned, they lost
all interest in Rick, in the presence of immediate, personal danger.

The men threw themselves to the deck, clawing frantically for some
kind of cover. At the last instant, Scotty pulled the plane up in a
power climb. So near disaster had he come that the suction of the
passing pontoons lifted a coiled rope into the air on top of the
cabin. Even as he mounted the rail and stood on deck, Rick gave a
prayer of thanks for his pal's perfect judgment and lightning
reflexes.

[Illustration: "_Stay away or I'll bend this pole over your head!_"]

He ran along the deck, jumped over the two prostrate men, swung around
and launched himself into the cabin. He stopped, eyes wide with
fright.

Barby was lashed to a chair just inside the door, a gag in her mouth.
Jan was on the other side of the cabin, also lashed. But Jan had a
plastic cap on her head, and wires ran from it to a machine on a
nearby table. Two women w