s head. Otherwise he'd have waited on shore and
continued to follow us when we came out of the water."

"We'll probably never know," Scotty returned. "After all, we'll be gone
in the morning."

"I know. But meanwhile, we'd better have eyes in the back of our heads."

The taxi discharged them in front of Alexander's Rest and they climbed
out and surveyed the hotel with interest.

Scotty spoke first. "Alexander's Rest? Which Alexander? The Great, or
Hamilton? If it was Hamilton, as Dr. Ernst said, he must have built it
personally."

It was a two-story frame structure that had definitely seen better days.
On closer inspection Rick decided that the second story had been added
as an afterthought. It looked like the second layer of a poorly
constructed cake.

Inside, however, the hotel proved to be very comfortable. It was cool,
and the rooms were large and clean. The boys learned that they had been
registered in a twin bedroom on the second floor, while Zircon and
Briotti were on the first floor.

The boys found the scientists attired only in shorts, cooling off over
long, cold drinks. They accepted glasses of iced ginger ale and told the
scientists of their adventure.

"It's amazing." Tony Briotti shook his head. "Do you realize that you
two are a phenomenon? I should write you up for one of the scientific
journals."

"You mean because we turned the tables on the shadow?" Scotty asked.

"No. Because you're adventure-prone. Did you ever hear of people who are
accident-prone?"

Zircon chuckled. "A good observation of these two. I agree absolutely,
Tony. They are adventure-prone."

Rick sighed. "All right. What's the joke?"

"None. I'm quite serious." Tony found more ice for his glass. "Insurance
statistics show that certain people are accident-prone. Accidents happen
to them. They're going along minding their own business and bang! A
streetcar jumps the tracks and hits them. Or they step into open
manholes. They're the kind of people who always manage to be walking
under things when workmen drop tools."

"And you," Zircon concluded, "are adventure-prone in the same way.
Consider this. Had you walked down the street either a minute earlier or
later this morning you would not have seen Steve Ames. It's quite likely
that you would never have known of his presence in town. But what
happens? You walk right into an adventure. One thing leads to another,
and suddenly a stranger is trying to run you down with a moto