 Why can't the Captain find Purnie?
Safe from the scrutiny of brothers and parents, there was nothing now to stop him from going to the ocean. It was exactly as he knew it would be: the milky-orange stream had become motionless and its minute whirlpools had stopped whirling; a nearby bee hung suspended over a paka plant, its transparent wings frozen in position for a downward stroke; and the heavy purple fluid overhead held fast in its manufacture of whorls and nimbi. With everything around him in a state of perfect tableau, Purnie hurried toward the ocean. He ran along feeling sorry for four-year-olds, and even for those who were only four and a half, for they were babies and wouldn't dare try slipping away to the ocean alone. When Purnie had stopped time, the bees—like all the other creatures he met—had been arrested in their native activities, and he knew that as soon as he resumed time, everything would pick up where it had left off. He chose to ignore the negative maxim that "small children who stop time without an adult being present, may not live to regret it." With it under his arm he bounded along a dozen more steps, then stopped abruptly in his tracks. The ocean lay at the ready, its stilled waves awaiting his command to resume their tidal sweep. Further down the beach was a pair of two-legged animals poised in mid-step, facing the spot where Purnie now stood. When he got no reaction, he remembered that he himself was "dead" to the living world: he was still in a zone of time-stopping, on the inside looking out. It was time itself that Purnie had stopped, not the world around him. He scampered around the rockpile and down the sandy cliff to meet the tripons who, to him, had just come to life. The tripon thought Purnie's feat was superb. Purnie ran from pillar to post, trying to see and do everything at once. Purnie's invitation got nothing more than startled glance from the animals who quickly returned to their chatter. The animals stopped so suddenly that Purnie nearly tangled himself in their heels. Sure, it's your money that put us here; it's your expedition all the way. As Purnie followed along, a leg shot out at him and missed. Purnie shrieked with joy at this new frolic and promptly stood on his head. The sooner we get Mr. Forbes's pennant raised and his claim staked out, the sooner we can take time to look around.
 Purnie lost consciousness outside of time.
 Purnie lost consciousness outside of time.  Purnie drowned in the ocean.  Purnie is covered by the petrified logs and too weak to call out for help.  Purnie lost consciousness and is now invisible.