
Down at the bottom of Loch Ness, things were very calm. The Monster
scratched her ear with the third
leg on the right and decided that it was time to do something. She didn't usually go up to the
surface during the day because the light hurt her eyes, but she was getting
bored out of her
mind sitting down at the bottom of the loch with nothing to do
except talk to the fish. She scratched her ear again,
yawned,
stretched, and started swimming slowly up towards the light.
Five minutes later, the Monster reached the surface,
stuck her head and fifteen metres of
neck out of the water, and looked around. She closed her eyes and opened them again. lt was a little difficult to understand what was happening. Scotland was generally a
fairly quiet place, but today a lot of things
seemed to be going on.
On the bank of the loch, two women were
fighting. A man was trying to stop them; another man was trying to learn to swim. The road was full of cars with pretty blue lights on top, coming from all
directions. A helicopter
landed on the bank of the loch and some soldiers got out and
lay down. There was a bus driving along very slowly with the driver looking out of the window. The bus driver
caught sight of the Monster and drove into the loch. The two women stopped fighting and stood with their mouths open. All the police cars
crashed into each other. A sports car stopped and a woman got out and started taking photographs.
lt was all too much. The Monster closed her eyes and went back down to the
bottom of the loch.

“Hello, Judy,” said Dr Wagner. “What are you doing here? I thought you were in Rio."
"It's a long story," said Judy."I’ll tell you later."
"Did you see the Monster?" said Dr Wagner. "Wasn't she just
wonderful? I got hundreds of photos."
"I'm sorry to
interrupt," said Jasper, "but I think this is a very good time to go on holiday. Isabel, go and get Sam out of the water and follow us
up to the castle. Judy, come with me. I hope the ghost remembered to
fill the plane up with
petrol."
"Ghost?" said Dr Wagner. "You have a ghost in your castle?
A ghost?"
"Come along with us and you can meet him," said Judy. "But hurry up."'
Twenty seconds later, they drove in through the front
gate of the castle in Dr Wagner's Porsche, and a minute or so after that Isabel ran up carrying Sam over her shoulder. The ghost closed the gate and
led the way to the back of the castle. There, standing on the grass,
shining in the sun, was a
powerful-looking six-seater aeroplane.
"Get in," said Jasper. "'We haven't got a moment to lose."
"
Can I come too?" asked Dr Wagner. "I must talk to that beautiful ghost."
"'Of course," said Jasper, "but get in fast, or you'll be talking to our wonderful police. Fasten
seat-belts, everybody.
Take-off in fifteen seconds."
"Where are we going?" asked Judy.
"Rio," said Jasper. 'That's where you wanted to go, isn't it?"
"Sounds good to me," said Sam.
"Jasper," said Judy, "I have been a blind, blind
fool. I love you."

As the plane was flying
peacefully south-west across the Atlantic, Judy put her head on Jasper's shoulder and closed her eyes. “I'm so glad I'm in love with you instead of Sam,” she said. “It's much nicer. I'm sure we're going to be very happy together. Do you think the others will be all right?”
“I think so,” said Jasper, and kissed her.
Judy listened to the
fragments of conversation that came from the seats behind.
“Isabel, you are my favourite detective. Will you teach me to swim?”
“Have some more champagne, ghost.”
“Yes, please. Call me MacDonald.”
“You've got beautiful eyes, Sam.”
”Can ghosts get married?”
“Sounds all right,” said Judy. “Tell me, are you really terribly rich? How did you get your money? What do you do, actually? How did you get to know Sam? Why did you really hijack that plane?” “I’ll tell you later,” said Jasper. “It's a long story.”