agreed. "Except for one small thing. Why
attack Dr. Morrison when all they have to do is turn on a gadget and
his mind goes blank?"

Jan shuddered visibly. Scotty added hurriedly, "Sorry, Jan."

"Maybe it's not that simple," Rick said thoughtfully. "If they only
have to turn on a gadget, why did they need to drug Dr. Marks?"

There was no answer to that. As soon as they were air-borne, Rick
headed north, searching the coastline, swinging low now and then to
examine marinas where numbers of boats were tied up. Scotty kept the
binoculars working, but there was no sign of a pram.

"Do you suppose it's under cover somewhere?" Barby asked.

Rick shrugged. "Maybe. They might cover it if they thought anyone
would come looking for it."

"They'll surely think of that, won't they?" Barby asked.

"Not necessarily. After all, they tied up at the pier in plain sight.
I think they assumed no one would worry about a small rowboat. They
just didn't know prams are uncommon."

Scotty put the glasses down for a moment and rubbed his eyes. "How far
could they have come, anyway? We're miles above Spindrift, and no one
would row that far."

He was right, of course. Rick admitted, "I've been racking my brains,
and I can't remember whether or not the pram had an outboard motor.
Just as I was about to take a close look, Jerry yelled. Do you
remember, Scotty?"

Scotty shook his head. "But even with an outboard, they probably
wouldn't have come this far."

"Check." Rick swung the Sky Wagon around and headed south on a
straight course to Spindrift. As the fast little plane passed over the
Brant house he throttled back and dropped lower. "Let's start the
search again."

Every cove was investigated, and anything that might have been a boat
was inspected carefully. Then, as they reached the summer colony north
of Seaford, Barby exclaimed, "Look! There's that fancy houseboat
again!"

The houseboat was putting out from land, swinging on a northerly
course. Rick saw that it was powered by twin outboards and that it
cruised at about fifteen knots.

Scotty yelled, "Hey! Behind the houseboat! Look at the dory they're
towing!"

Rick swung low and craned his neck to see. It was! The houseboat used
a pram as a tender, and the pram had its own low-power outboard motor.

"That's enough," he said with satisfaction. He kept the Sky Wagon on a
southerly course until Seaford passed below, to keep the houseboaters
from thinking the plane's sol