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Everyone expressed joy at this turn of events, though Ellery was pretty sure hot drinks by the fireplace and a photographic walk down Memory Lane would have been the preferred choice of everyone but Chelsea. The house got a little chilly this time of the evening. But okay.

He led the way back to the main hall, Watson scampering ahead. Watson was hugely disappointed when he realized they were not going outside, and plopped down in front of the large wooden door with a woebegone expression on his face.

“Later, pal,” Ellery promised. “We’ll go later.”

“Maybe we should go now,” Flip objected. “While we’re all together.”

“Right,” Tosh said. “There’s safety in numbers.”

“Ireallydon’t think there’s any—”

But he was loudly overruled.

Lenny said, “Ellery, you weren’t there. You didn’t see. Those cops at Point Judith weren’t fooling around. They were dead serious about trying to find that guy.”

“Which is why I don’t want those guys going out there.”

“You think youaloneout there is a better idea?”

“Watson will protect me.” He was kidding, of course, but his friends weren’t having it.

“Len’s right,” Flip said. “This guy is anaxe murderer.”

“Well, true, but even if Dolph somehow made it onto the island, he wouldn’t have his axe with—” Even as the words left Ellery’s mouth, he remembered he’d left the hatchet he’d used to chop kindling in the stump by the woodpile. He swallowed the rest of it with a little gulp.

“There’s safety in numbers,” Tosh said firmly. “Anyway, you can’t expect poor little Watson to hold it forever.”

As if following every word of this conversation, poor little Watson wagged his tail hopefully and glanced meaningfully at the door, just in case Ellerystillwasn’t getting the message.

Jack couldn’t have been thinking about Watson when he’d ordered Ellery to batten down the hatches, and Flip had a point. A group of people was less likely to be accosted than one lone person with a small dog.

Ellery sighed. “I guess. Okay, you guys will want your jackets. It’s cold. I’ll grab a flashlight and Watson’s leash—Wait!”

It was no use. Reverting to type, his former housemates threw open the door bolt and spilled out into the night with cheery assurances that the triangle of porchlight would be all the illumination necessary and anyway how cold could it be for hardened New Yorkers?

Watson led the way, bounding off into the darkness, blithely ignoring the chorus of calls for him to stay close, stop, and come back.

“Are you flipping kidding me?” Ellery demanded of the generations of Pages who had come before, and no, for once he most certainly didnotsayflipping.He sprinted back to the kitchen, grabbed a high-powered LED flashlight, Watson’s leash, and raced after his errant houseguests—who he could hear wandering down the drive loudly whistling and calling for his less-than-faithful canine companion.

“Watson! Watson! Come on, boy! Come on, good doggie! Here, boy!” cried the ever more distant voices of Ellery’s houseguests.

And, more faintly, in the distance, “Arf! Arf! Arf!”

Ellery pounded down the road in hot pursuit, the beam of his flashlight bouncing along ahead of him. Fortunately, the half-moon slid out from behind the cloud cover, and the road and surrounding meadow were all bathed in bright silvery light.It didn’t take him long to spot the long unsteady shadows of his guests just ahead.

“You guys! Tosh! Flip!Hey!Stop. Lenny! Chelsea...”

It was doubtful they could hear him over their own cries to Watson who, predictably, was exercising selective hearing.

Ellery jogged to a halt and put his fingers to his lips, whistling sharply. The sound pierced the night, cutting through the babble up ahead and the faraway barks.

“Here we are!” Tosh yelled.

Flip yelled, “Over here!”

“This way!” Lenny shouted. “Follow the sound of our voices!”

Did they thinkEllerywas lost?