The gang left the planetarium, and quickly got to work. This one took a little while, due to the size of the message. They found the longer the series of numbers was, the longer it took to decode.

"I think I've got it, kids," Josie said. "Apples, peaches, bananas, and pears."

"Boy, that clue makes me hungry!" Melody shouted, and then giggled. "Maybe once we find it, we can eat it!"

"How can you think of eating at a time like this?" Alexandra scolded.

"I know just where we're headed this time," Valerie said, pointing in the distance. "Look over there."

"Oh goody!" Melody shouted. "A fruit stand! And look! It's got apples, and peaches, and bananas, and pears! And grapes, and oranges, and cherries, and strawberries, and blueberries, and . . . ."

"At least it'll be a little easier trying to find this clue," Alan said. "Melody, you distract the proprietor while the rest of us check out the fruit bins."

Melody nodded, and the group got to work. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to be as easy as Alan thought, considering there was a lot of fruit to sift through. Melody was able to keep the proprietor busy.

"I'd like to buy a dozen coconuts and a dozen limes," she said.

"Whatta you want a dozen coconuts and limes for?" the proprietor (who had a very thick Italian accent) asked.

"I want to put the limes in the coconuts," Melody said. "My brother tried this once. He put a lime in a coconut, drank them both, and they cured his tummy ache!"

"That's-a some cure."

"Or did he put the lime in Coca-Cola? No, I think it was Coca-Cola. I think he said to me you put the lime in the Coke, you nut. I can't remember."

"Yeah, this-a kid, she's-a nut, all right."

"Well, if you don't have any limes or coconuts, how about pomagranates? I just love pomagranates!"

"No."

"Well, what about kumquats?"

Melody continued to ask if the proprietor had any other bizarre fruit. The others were still looking for the clue.

"This is like looking for a needle in a haystack!" Alexandra complained.

"We've got to keep going until we find it," Josie said. "You know it's the only way we can find Alex!"

"Wait a minute," Valerie said. "I think I've found it! Right here, buried in the oranges."

"How do we get it out without making a mess, and attracting attention?" Alan asked.

"Very slowly," Valerie said. She took hold of the index card and began to pull it slowly out.

"Oooh, this is wasting time!" Alexandra shouted. She shoved Valerie aside. "Let me do it!"

"No, Alexandra!" Valerie shouted. But it was too late. Alexandra yanked the card out from the bottom of the orange pile, and all the oranges spilled onto the ground, making a terrible racket. The proprietor was not amused.

"Hey!" he shouted. "Whatsamatta with you kids?! Whatta you think you doin'?!"

"I think that's our cue to split!" Alan shouted, and he and the others ran off.

"Come on, Melody!" Valerie called out.

"But I haven't asked him if he had any artichokes," Melody said.

"Never mind, Melody!" Josie shouted. "Let's get out of here!"

"Yeh, you kids go on-a, getta outta here!" the proprietor shouted. "And do-a me a favor! Don't-a comma back-a!"

Josie and the gang ran to a nearby coffee shop to decipher the clue. This one read:

76453 96873 66 226343 226372

"And here we go again," Alan said with a sigh.

"I wish that Mastermind would give us a better clue than this," Alexandra grumbled.

"I wish he'd given us exactly how much time we have," Valerie said, as she wrote down the numbers and their corresponding letters. "I hate to guess how much time is left for us to find out where he's hiding."

"Right," Alan nodded. "I guess all we can do is hope that we don't run out of time."

"If we haven't already," Alexandra said. "I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the Mastermind has decided he's given us enough time to figure this out, and by the time we finally do find Alex, he'll already be . . . ."

"Don't even say it!" Josie interuppted, clamping her hand over Alexandra's mouth. "Really, Alexandra, how can you say such a thing? Especially about your own brother?!"

"Well, it could happen," Alexandra said, pulling Josie's hand off her mouth. "And it does happen! Not just in the movies!"

"Oh golly, that's just too scary to think about!" Melody moaned. "I hope we find Alex soon. I'm worried."

"So are we, Melody," Valerie said. "But we're going to find him, and we're going to find him fast. I've just figured out the clue. It says smile, you're on Candid Camera."

"Like the television show Candid Camera?" Josie asked.

"That must mean the TV station," Alan said.

The group ran out of the coffee shop and hightailed it to the TV station. Nothing was going on in there. All the other shows that filmed there were closed for the day, and the crew for the evening news hadn't arrived yet.

"We'd better split up and search the sets," Alan said. "We'll cover more ground that way. The first one to find something, scream."

The quintet split up. Melody checked the set of a TV kiddie show. She looked underneath the bleachers where the audience sat, and in a box filled with stuffed animals, but she couldn't find anything. Valerie was looking for clues on the set of a program that taught kids about science, but there was nothing there, either. Alexandra and Sebastian were scouring an old western set, but all they found was a bunch of dust. Josie was on the set of a science fiction program about men from Mars and women from Venus. She checked the big spaceship in the center of the set, but found nothing. Alan was in the newsroom, looking around. He finally saw something taped to the lens of one of the big cameras, and he grabbed it.

"Eureeka!" he shouted, and ran outside to meet the others.

"I hope you found something, Alan, because we sure didn't!" Valerie shouted.

"I did," Alan said. "Here's our next clue."

23 7873 86 9327 3569377 46 4244 28 843 465336 4283

"Wow, that's a long one," Melody said.

"This is going to take awhile to decode," Valerie sighed.