The Adventures of Tintin

might work
, Tintin thought. He dared a glimpse over the lifeboat’s gunwale as the hulk of the
Karaboudjan
swung slowly around and bore down on the other lifeboat. “Full speed!” someone on the ship sang out. It sounded like Tom. A moment later the lifeboat was smashed to splinters by the
Karaboudjan
’s bow.
    The boat occupied by Tintin, Captain Haddock, and Snowy drifted farther away. The seas were starting to calm a little, but waves still slapped over the lifeboat’s gunwales. Captain Haddock bailed out water with his hat as the
Karaboudjan
corrected its course, aiming for Bagghar once more. They watched the spotlight from the
Karaboudjan
pick out the wreckage of the other lifeboat, waiting for the inevitable moment when Sakharine figured out what had happened and turned the
Karaboudjan
to look for them.
    But a minute passed, and then another, and still the
Karaboudjan
steamed on. The searchlight played back and forth over the wreckage and then winked out.
    “I think we can row now, Captain,” Tintin said.
    “Then row we shall, Tintin,” Captain Haddock said, and they put their backs into it.

    Looking over the railing of the
Karaboudjan
, Sakharine thought he was going to explode. “You idiots!” he raged. “What have you done?”
    Next to him, Tom gazed down at the wreckage with pride. An empty whiskey bottle floated amid the pieces of the lifeboat, a sure sign that Captain Haddock had been there. “We killed them, boss,” he said with great satisfaction. “Just like you wanted.”
    Sakharine grabbed Tom and forced him up against the railing, bending him over backward. Tom’s eyes popped. “No,” Sakharine said. “Not like I wanted. I needed Haddock alive!”
    He was about to throw Tom overboard, just to make himself feel better, when Allan said, “Wait a minute, boss. There are two boats missing!”
    “What?” Sakharine said. He looked down the railing and saw that Allan, for once, was right. There was a second boat gone.
    “So that one must have been a decoy!” Tom said.
    Sakharine flung Tom away from him. Tom’s shoes scraped the deck as he tried to keep his balance. He fell into a sitting position, and Sakharine noticed something near Tom’s right foot. A piece of paper.
    He bent to pick it up. On it was written the word
Bagghar
, and below that a string of dots and dashes.
    Ah
, he thought, looking out over the dark water.
Tintin, you are perhaps a bit more clever than I’d thought
.
    “They’re on to us and our destination,” Sakharine said, holding up the piece of paper so that all his imbecile henchmen could see it. “Find them! Make absolutely certain they never reach Bagghar!”
    Leaving them to make preparations, he stalked to the stern of the
Karaboudjan
, where a seaplane, standing by on a catapult launcher, waited. Tintin and Haddock might think they had escaped him, but they were about to find out that a head start on a rowboat wasn’t worth much when your adversary could fly.

THE SUN ROSE over a seemingly endless ocean. Haddock was leaning against one gunwale, Snowy was looking out over the other, and Tintin was rowing hard by himself. “We have to get to Bagghar ahead of Sakharine,” he said.
    “I know! I know!” Haddock said. Then, after a brief pause, he added, “Why?”
    Tintin tried not to be annoyed. “Because Ben Salaad has got the third model ship.”
    “How do you know?” Haddock asked. He sat up straighter and seemed to focus, at least for the moment. “Who’s Ben Salaad?”
    Tintin shipped the oars and dug the brochure from the radio room out of his pocket. He showed Haddock the picture from its interior page. “The sheik of Bagghar. He collects old ships for display in his palace. This is the prize of his collection.”
    Haddock looked at the picture showing a glossy full-page photograph of the
Unicorn
in an ornate case, behind thick glass. “Blistering blue barnacles! That
is
the
Unicorn
!” Haddock cried.
    “Captain, do you see this distortion