The Three Investigators and the Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure E-Book

Robert Arthur

• Herausgeber: Kosmos
• Kategorie: Krimi
• Serie: Die drei ???
• Sprache: Deutsch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Seitenzahl: 185

Beschreibung

Every true "The Three Investigators"-Fan dreams about following the adventures of Jupiter, Pete and Bob in the original American edition. "The Three Investigators and the Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure", finally available for your reading device! Missing: One fabulous, jewel-encrusted belt, once owned by the ancient emperors of Japan. The Three Investigators are ready to jump into action, but officials at the Peterson Museum turn them away for being too young. Then a strange twist of fate brings Jupiter, Pete and Bob on the case, and the boys are soon surrounded by master criminals - who will stop at nothing to hold on to their stolen fortune! Is the priceless belt lost for good, or will the Three Investigators be able to save the day?

Leseprobe

Albert Hitfield and The Three Investigators in

The Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure

Text by Robert Arthur

Kosmos

Umschlagillustration von Aiga Rasch (9.Juli 1941–24.Dezember 2009)

Umschlaggestaltung: eStudio Calamar, Girona, auf der Grundlage der Gestaltung von Aiga Rasch, Leinfelden-Echterdingen

Grundlayout: DOPPELPUNKT, Stuttgart

Titel der Originalausgabe:

“Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators in The Mystery of the Vanishing Treasure”

© 1966, by Random House, Inc., New York

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Leicht veränderte Neuauflage der amerikanischen Originalauflage

© 2015, Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co. KG, Stuttgart

Alle Rechte vorbehalten

Mit freundlicher Genehmigung der Universität Michigan

ISBN 978-3-440-14780-1

eBook-Konvertierung: le-tex publishing services GmbH, Leipzig

Don’t Read This!

(Unless you’ve never met The Three Investigators before)

This volume is another case of my young friends, Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews, who call themselves The Three Investigators. In it they become involved in a baffling museum robbery, assist a lady troubled by a bad case of gnomes, find themselves on the way to the Middle East to become slaves, and otherwise engage in adventurous exploits that make my hair stand on end.

If you have read any of their previous cases, of course you know all about them. You know that First Investigator Jupiter Jones is stocky, almost fat; that Pete Crenshaw is tall and muscular; that Bob Andrews is slighter and more studious. You know that Headquarters for their firm is a carefully hidden, mobile home trailer in the super-junkyard called The Jones Salvage Yard, owned by Jupiter’s aunt and uncle with whom he lives.

You know that Headquarters is entered by certain secret entrances and exits known only to the boys, and bearing such code names as Tunnel Two, Easy Three, Green Gate One and Red Gate Rover.

You know they live in Rocky Beach, California, a town on the shores of the Pacific, a few miles from that strange and glamorous place, Hollywood. In fact, you know all you need to know, and therefore you have skipped all this. If it happens that you haven’t previously met the boys, let the foregoing words be an introduction to them.

And now, forward! The case begins!

Albert Hitfield

To Steal the Rainbow Jewels

“I wonder,” said Jupiter Jones, “if we could steal the Rainbow Jewels.”

His question took his two companions by surprise. Pete Crenshaw almost dropped a soldering iron, and Bob Andrews did drop the composing stick he was using to set type on their old printing press.

“What did you say?” he demanded, looking in dismay at the spilled type.

“I said I wonder if we could steal the Rainbow Jewels,” Jupiter repeated, “if we were thieves, that is.”

“Which we are not,” said Pete firmly. “Stealing jewels is dangerous. People shoot at you and chase you. Anyway, I believe in that old stuff about honesty being the best policy.”

“Agreed,” said Jupiter. But he continued to stare thoughtfully at the newspaper he had been reading.

The three boys, who called themselves The Three Investigators, were in Jupiter’s secluded workshop section of The Jones Salvage Yard. Here, out of doors but under a six-foot roof that extended from the Salvage Yard’s tall fence, they worked on rebuilding junk that came into the yard. The part of the profits they received from Jupiter’s Uncle Titus kept them in pocket money and helped them pay for such luxuries as a telephone in their hidden Headquarters.

It had been quiet around the Salvage Yard for the last few days. The Three Investigators had had nothing to investigate, not even a missing pet. So the boys had nothing more on their minds than fixing the small antique radio Pete had found in the yard’s latest batch of junk.

At least Bob and Pete didn’t. Jupiter preferred to keep his mind, rather than his hands, working. When he didn’t have a good problem to think about, there was no telling what he would come up with on his own.

Bob looked up from the type case. “I’ll bet you’re talking about the jewels in the Peterson Museum,” he said, remembering the newspaper story his family had been discussing the night before.

“Peterson Museum?” Pete looked blank. “Where’s that?”

“On top of a hill in Hollywood,” Bob told him. “A great big old house that used to be owned by Mr. Hiram Peterson, the oil millionaire. He left the house as a museum, open to the public.”

“And right now it has on exhibition a special display of fabulous jewels,” Jupiter said, “sponsored by the Nagasami Jewelry Company of Japan. It is touring around the United States as a means of getting publicity for its cultured pearls. Many of the items on exhibit are pearls or made from pearls.

“However, two other items are of special interest. The main attraction is the Rainbow Jewels. It is a group of gems – diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and stones of other colors – so arranged that they shimmer with all the colors of the rainbow. Some are very large, and even one of them would be worth thousands of dollars. Altogether, they are worth millions.”

“There’s also a belt,” Bob chimed in. “Something made out of huge gold links and set with square emeralds. The paper said it weighs fifteen pounds. It once belonged to the ancient emperors of Japan.”

“You’re crazy, Jupe,” Pete said. “No one could steal jewels like those. I bet they’re guarded like a bank.”

“Slightly better than most banks,” Jupiter said. “There are several guards always in the room with the jewels. A closed-circuit television set trained on the Rainbow Jewels is watched at all times from the main office. At night the room is crisscrossed by beams of invisible light. If anybody broke a beam, it would set off a loud alarm.

“In addition, the glass in the cases has fine wires set into it, which also work the alarm system. If the glass is broken, the alarm goes off. It has its own special electric system so even if a big storm, for instance, knocked out all power, the alarm would still work.”

“Nobody could steal those jewels!” Pete said positively.

“But it does offer a challenge, doesn’t it?” Jupiter asked.

“Why is it a challenge?” Bob asked. “We solve crimes, we don’t figure out how to commit them.”

“But we haven’t any to solve right now,” Jupiter pointed out. “I was hoping Albert Hitfield would write us about some interesting problem. But he hasn’t, and an investigator should use his time profitably. If we try to figure out whether or not the Nagasami jewels could be stolen, we will be gaining valuable experience for solving future jewel robberies. And we’ll be getting the criminal’s viewpoint.”

“We’ll be wasting our time,” Pete said. “We’d be a lot better off to go take some more skin-diving and scuba lessons. We still have a lot to learn about handling the diving gear.”

“I vote with Pete,” Bob declared. “Let’s practice our diving. As soon as we’re good at it, Dad has promised us a camping trip in lower California, where we can catch live lobsters in the rocks.”

“That’s two to one, Jupe,” Pete pointed out. “You’re outvoted.”

“The newspaper says,” Jupiter answered, as if he hadn’t heard them, “that this is Children’s Day at the museum. All children under eighteen get in at half price, and all scouts in uniform and their leaders will be admitted free. That means any Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts or Brownies.”

“We haven’t any uniforms,” Pete said. “That lets us out.”

“But we have earned some extra money from helping Uncle Titus all week,” Jupiter reminded him. “Also, I have time off coming to me. It is an ideal opportunity to go over to Hollywood and inspect the Rainbow Jewels in the Peterson Museum. At least we should see what real jewels look like. Someday we may be called upon to recover some.”

“I have a feeling,” Bob muttered to Pete, “that we’re going to be outvoted, one to two.”

“Hey, I have an idea!” Pete had suddenly become interested. “I know how a robbery could be worked. Jewels are stones, aren’t they? Well, what do you do with stones?”

“Study them under a microscope,” Jupiter said.

“Throw them at tin cans,” Bob answered.

“Sure,” Pete agreed. “But there’s something else you can do if they aren’t too big. You shoot them from slingshots.

“So that’s how the jewels could be stolen. Someone breaks the glass case that holds the Rainbow Jewels. He takes out a slingshot, shoots the gems through the open window, and his accomplices catch them in baskets. Then they make a fast getaway.”

“Great!” Bob said.

Jupiter looked thoughtful. Then, slowly, he shook his head.

“There are two weaknesses in the scheme,” he said. “First, the accomplices might get away with some of the jewels, but the other thief would certainly be captured by the guards. And,” he went on, “there is an even greater weakness. The jewels could not be sent by slingshot through a window of the museum because –”

He paused, dramatically.

“Well, why?” Pete asked impatiently.

“Yes, why?” Bob chimed in. “It seems like a good idea to me.”

“Because,” Jupiter told them, “the Peterson Museum doesn’t have any windows.”

Excitement at the Museum

An hour later, Bob, Pete and Jupiter arrived at the foot of the little hill on which stood the Peterson Museum. The hill was across the street from Griffith Park, where the boys had often gone on picnics. Several acres of green grass sloped up to an immense stucco house with two wings, each having a domed roof. A winding two-lane road led to the rear of the house, and another came down farther off for an exit.