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summer they even have a football match on the sands. Dover and Deal play each other and get the game over before the tide comes in. Then they row away in boats. And there's the famous South Goodwin Lightship. It's got one of the loudest fog horns in the world and a great revolving light to warn ships away. See the masts of the sunken wrecks sticking up all along the edge of the sands? Probably more ships have been sunk on those sands—from Roman times on—than on any other dangerous rock or reef, or sands, or shoals in the world. All through the ages, it's been a regular graveyard for ships
    "Any chance of finding treasure?" asked Jeremy excitedly.
    "I'm afraid there's not a hope," said Commander Pott sadly. "Whenever there's a shipwreck on the Goodwins, particularly on dark or foggy nights, when of course most of the wrecks happen, wreck burglars—they have been known as 'wreckers' since olden times—swarm out from the coast in their sailing boats (they don't use motorboats, so as to be as silent as possible and not warn the men on the lightship who might otherwise radio for a Royal Navy cutter or M.T.B. to come out from Dover and arrest the wreckers and put a guard on board the wreck). These wreckers come slipping softly out and steal everything they can find—they just simply strip the wrecked ship of all its cargo and everything movable and then silently steal away before dawn. So then, when the of official salvage craft and tugs, pull out from Dover in the morning to save what they can and perhaps even try and pull the Ship off the sands, they find an
    empty house, so to speak. The wreckers—the sea burglers—have stripped her clean as a plucked chicken, and of course, when the the police go hunting along the coast for wreckers, no one knows anything about it and there isn't a sign of the loot because its all been rushed off inland to hideouts by the wrecker's trucks that have been called up secretly. That's how it goes. Just the same as in the bad old days when the wreckers used to shift buoys and warning lights at night to guide ships on to shoals and rocks. That was centuries ago—but the rascals are still at it. Dangerous work of course, putting out from the coast in a sloop or a cutter In a thick fog or storm, but these wreck burglars are tough, bad men and they ready to take a chance in exchange for a fat cargo of fine meat and butter from Denmark, or radios and television sets from Germany, or even, sometimes, bars of gold being shipped over to an English bank."
    While Commander Pott had been telling these exciting things, CHITTY-CHITTY-BANG-BANG had been planing gently down toward the big expanse of beautiful golden sand lapped by the soft blue ripples of the English Channel and fringed by the masts and the half-sunken hulls of the wrecks that show up at low tide. The crew of the bright, redpainted lightship came up on deck and waved excitedly to them as they soared low overhead and then, as the green light on the dashboard went on winking and Commander Pott gently took his foot off the accelerator, the wheels automatically lowered themselves into position again and they came in to land on the hard, flat, golden surface. The aerocar ran a little way on the sand and then, as Commander Pott put on the brakes, CHITTY-CHITTY-BANG-BANG came to a gentle stop at the edge of the sea. At once, the red light on the dashboard showed again and now it said "PUSH UP" (no "IDIOT" this time).
    Commander Pott pushed up the little silver lever and there came the same low hum as the front and back wings slowly folded back to become mudguards again and the big propeller and generator out front slipped back until the two halves of the radiator closed over them. CHITTY-CHITTY-BANG-BANG gave a last two big sneezes and two soft bangs, then Commander Pott switched off the engine, and there was a perfectly good gleaming green car sitting quietly on the huge sandbank in the middle of the sea.
    The whole family let out a big "POUFF"