SANDY STEELE ADVENTURES

Black Treasure
Danger at Mormon Crossing
Stormy Voyage
Fire at Red Lake
Secret Mission to Alaska
Troubled Waters

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
INCLUDING THE RIGHT OF REPRODUCTION
IN WHOLE OR IN PART IN ANY FORM
COPYRIGHT © 1959 BY SIMON AND SCHUSTER, INC.
PUBLISHED BY SIMON AND SCHUSTER, INC.
ROCKEFELLER CENTER, 630 FIFTH AVENUE
NEW YORK 20, N. Y.

FIRST PRINTING

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER: 59-13882
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY H. WOLFF BOOK MFG. CO., INC., NEW YORK.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

1 The Man in Blue Jeans 7

2 Kit Carson Country 17

3 A “Poor Boy” Outfit 33

4 Learning the Ropes 46

5 A Light in the Window Rock 61

6 Cliff Dweller Country 75

7 Back of Beyond 90

8 Cavanaugh Shows His Colors 103

9 Fighting Fire with Fire 116

10 Pepper Makes a Play 128

11 Serendipity 144

12 Cavanaugh Makes a Mistake 154

13 Think Like a Dog 165

14 Showdown 177

15 The Fourth Touchdown 184

CHAPTER ONE
The Man in Blue Jeans

High jinks were in order as the Regional Science Fair drew to a close in the big auditorium at Poplar City, California. A board of judges had selected prize-winning exhibits entered by high-school students from Valley View, Poplar City and other nearby communities. Now the winners were blowing off steam while teachers who had supervised the fair sat in quiet corners and fanned themselves wearily.

“Step right up, ladies and gentlemen,” Pepper March whooped like a circus barker as he strutted in front of his First Prize winner, a glittering maze of electronic equipment. “Broadcast your voice over my beam of light. The very newest thing in science. Built through the co-operation of Valley View’s own Cavanaugh Laboratories. Step right up.... Yes, miss?” A girl had approached the exhibit, wide-eyed. “Please speak into this microphone.”

“What do I say?” As she spoke, a quivering pencil of light leaped from a black box in the booth and her words thundered from a loudspeaker in the balcony.

“Oh, recite ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb,’” suggested the big blond boy, and grinned.

“‘Mary,’” boomed the girl’s voice from the rear of the hall as Pepper twiddled a mirror that deflected the light beam to a second loud-speaker, “‘had a little lamb.’” (Those words seemed to come out of the floor.) “‘Its fleece was white as snow.’” (The last phrase blared from a chandelier.)

“Good old Pepper! Grandstanding again!” muttered Sandy Steele as the crowd cheered. Sandy stared glumly at a small sign reading Honorable Mention that perched on the exhibit which he and his pal Quiz Taylor had entered in the fair. It wasn’t fancy-looking like Pepper’s, he had to admit. It was just a mound of wet cardboard sheets stuck full of pins, plus a homemade control panel and some batteries. “Ours was better,” he added.

“I agree,” Quiz sighed. “After all the work we put into this thing! Molding sheets of cardboard to the shape of underground rock layers. Soaking them with salt water so they’ll carry electric currents that imitate the direction in which oil deposits flow.” He hooked a wire to one of the pins and pressed a button. A flashlight bulb on the control panel winked at him mockingly. “We sure deserve something better than a Mention!”

“Step this way, folks,” Quiz called halfheartedly to the passers-by. “Learn how petroleum can be located, thousands of feet beneath the earth.”

Nobody paid any attention except one Valley View boy who was pushing his way toward Pepper’s booth, a phonograph record under one skinny arm.

“Sour grapes,” jeered the boy. “You and Sandy better forget that mess. Come over and watch Pepper play this stereo record over his beam. It’ll be something!”

“Shall we?” Sandy looked at his friend miserably.

“Unh-uh,” answered the short, round-faced boy. “Here comes a customer—I think.”

A suntanned little man in faded blue shirt and jeans had ambled up to their booth and was studying the exhibit with his gray head tilted to one side.

“A reservoir behavior analyzer, huh?” he said. “Represents the Four Corners area. Right?”

“Why ... yes, sir.” Sandy stared at him, openmouthed.