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Violet stared critically at the boat. "I'll attach the drag chute to the figurehead," she said. "I should be able to tie a Devil's Tongue knot around the helmet of the diver." She paused for a moment. "That's where the Medusoid Mycelium is hidden," she said. "Count Olaf kept it there, where no one would think of looking."
Klaus stared critically at his notes. "I'll angle the sail to catch the wind," he said. "Otherwise, a heavy object like this would fall straight down into the water." He paused for a moment, too. "That's what happened to the sugar bowl," he said. "Dewey Denouement let everyone think it had fallen into the laundry room, so no one would find it in the pond."
"Spatulas as oars," Sunny said, pointing to the implements that Hugo had used to flip over the sunbathers.
"Good idea," Violet agreed and gazed out to the gray, troubled waters of the sea. "Maybe our friends will find us. Hector should be flying this way, with Kit Snicket and the Quagmires."
"And Fiona," Klaus added.
"No," Sunny said.
"What do you mean?" Violet asked, stepping carefully from the edge of the pool onto the side of the boat, where she began to climb a rope ladder up to the figurehead.
"They said they would arrive by Thursday,"Klaus said, helping Sunny climb aboard and then stepping onto the boat himself. The deck was about the size of a large mattress, big enough to hold the Baudelaires and perhaps one or two more passengers. "It's Wednesday afternoon."
"The fire," Sunny said, and pointed at the smoke as it rose toward the sky.
The two older Baudelaires gasped. They had almost forgotten that Kit had told them she would be watching the skies, looking for a signal that would cancel Thursday's gathering.
"That's why you thought of lighting the fire," Violet said, hurriedly tying the sheets around the figurehead. "It's a signal."
"V.F.D. will see it," Klaus said, "and know that all their hopes have gone up in smoke."
Sunny nodded. "The last safe place," she said, "is safe no more."
It was an impressive sentence for the youngest Baudelaire, but a sad one.
"Maybe our friends will find us anyway,"
Violet said. "They might be the last noble people we know."
"If they're truly noble," Klaus said, "they might not want to be our friends."
Violet nodded, and her eyes filled with tears. "You're right," she admitted. "We killed a man."
"Accident," Sunny said firmly.
"And burned down a hotel," Klaus said.
"Signal," Sunny said.
"We had good reasons," Violet said, "but we still did bad things."
"We want to be noble," Klaus said, "but we've had to be treacherous."
"Noble enough," Sunny said, but the building trembled again, as if shaking its head in disagreement. Violet hung on to the figurehead and Klaus and Sunny hung on to each other as the boat bumped against the sides of the swimming pool.
"Help us!" Violet cried to the adults, who were still staring at the rising smoke. "Grab those spatulas, and push the boat to the edge of the roof!"
"Don't boss me around!" Olaf growled, but he followed the judge to a corner of the roof where the spatulas lay, their mirrors reflecting the afternoon sun and the sky as it darkened with smoke. Each adult grabbed one spatula, and poked at the boat the way you might poke at a spider you were trying to get out of your bathtub. Bump! Bump! The sailboat bumped against the edge of the pool, and then jostled its way out of the pool, where it slowly slid, with a loud scraping sound, to the far edge of the roof. The Baudelaires hung on tightly as the front half of the boat kept sliding across the mirrors of the salon, until it was hanging over nothing but the smoky air. The boat tipped this way and that, in a delicate balance between the roof of the hotel and the sea below.
"Climb aboard!" Violet cried, giving her knots one last tug.
"Of course I'll climb aboard!" Olaf announced, narrowing his eyes at the helmet of the figurehead. "I'm the captain of this boat!" He threw his spatula onto the deck, narrowly missing Klaus and Sunny, and then bounded onto the ship, making it teeter wildly on the edge of the building.
"You too, Justice Strauss!' Klaus called, but the judge just put down her spatula and looked sadly at the children.
"No," she said, and the children could see she was crying. "I won't go. It's not right."
"What else can we do?" Sunny said, but Justice Strauss just shook her head.
"I won't run from the scene of a crime," she said. "You children should come with me, and we'll explain everything to the authorities."
" They might not believe us," Violet said, readying the drag chute, "or there might be enemies lurking in their ranks, like the villains in the High Court."
"Perhaps," the judge said, "but that's no excuse for running away."
Count Olaf gave his former neighbor a scornful look, and then turned to the Baudelaires. "Let her burn to a crisp if she wants," he said, "but it's time for us to go."
Justice Strauss took a deep breath, and then stepped forward and put her hand on the hideous wooden carving, as if she meant to drag the whole boat back onto the hotel. "There are people who say that criminal behavior is the destiny of children from a broken home," she said, through her tears. "Don't make this your destiny, Baudelaires."
Klaus stood at the mast, adjusting the controls of the sail. "This boat," he said, "is the only home we have."
