Plot summary

This story is set in and around Bayport as well as briefly in Mystic Seaport. The boys are hired by a traveling carnival to spot pick-pockets. This ties in well with their other job where the boys try to help their detective father by tracking down the location of an informant trying to sell information about a valuable object that has gone missing. The main lead is that the person has called from a public telephone on the fair grounds. All of their eventual suspects are noted for having tattoos of a whale on them.Chet Morton also uses his new hobby, scrimshaw, to piece up members of the gang.

• Publication date: 1968
• Ghostwriter: Jerrold Mundis
• Summary: A traveling carnival and a valuable artifact lead the boys to a mysterious gang whose members each bear a special tattoo.