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diff --git a/43256-0.txt b/43256-0.txt index 5d954af..02158e6 100644 --- a/43256-0.txt +++ b/43256-0.txt @@ -1,35 +1,4 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Witches Cove, by Roy J. Snell - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Witches Cove - A Mystery Story for Girls - -Author: Roy J. Snell - -Release Date: July 20, 2013 [EBook #43256] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCHES COVE *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan -and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43256 *** _Mystery Stories for Girls_ @@ -5371,361 +5340,4 @@ her head to fall forward and was soon fast asleep. 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Snell</title> @@ -147,44 +147,7 @@ p.t15,div.t15,.t15 { margin-left:19em;text-indent:-3em; margin-top:0; margin-b </style> </head> <body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Witches Cove, by Roy J. Snell - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Witches Cove - A Mystery Story for Girls - -Author: Roy J. Snell - -Release Date: July 20, 2013 [EBook #43256] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCHES COVE *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan -and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43256 ***</div> <div id="cover" class="img"> <img id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Witches Cove" width="500" height="713" /> @@ -6053,381 +6016,6 @@ forward and was soon fast asleep.</p> <ul><li>Copyright notice provided as in the original printed text—this e-text is public domain in the country of publication.</li> <li>Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and dialect unchanged.</li></ul> - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Witches Cove, by Roy J. Snell - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCHES COVE *** - -***** This file should be named 43256-h.htm or 43256-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/3/2/5/43256/ - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan -and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, -set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to -copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to -protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: Witches Cove - A Mystery Story for Girls - -Author: Roy J. Snell - -Release Date: July 20, 2013 [EBook #43256] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITCHES COVE *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan -and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at -http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - _Mystery Stories for Girls_ - - - - - Witches Cove - - - _By_ - ROY J. SNELL - - - The Reilly & Lee Co. - Chicago New York - - - _Printed in the United States of America_ - - _Copyright, 1928 - by_ - The Reilly & Lee Co. - _All Rights Reserved_ - - - - - CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - I Mysteries of the Night 11 - II Sculling in the Night 23 - III In the Dungeon 34 - IV The Face in the Fire 42 - V Three Gray Witches 58 - VI Off for Further Adventure 80 - VII Some Lobsters 84 - VIII From Out the Fog 109 - IX Off Black Head 121 - X The Tilting Floor 137 - XI The Wavering Red Light 149 - XII The Little Man of Witches Cove 170 - XIII Under Fire 178 - XIV The Passing of Black Gull 193 - XV The Searching Pencil of Light 200 - XVI The Old Fort 212 - XVII Secrets Told 221 - XVIII Kidnapped 230 - XIX A Fire on the Beach 241 - XX The Chase 245 - XXI On Air and Sea 254 - XXII The Story Told 261 - - - - - WITCHES COVE - - - - - CHAPTER I - MYSTERIES OF THE NIGHT - - -It was night on Casco Bay off the coast of Maine. There was no moon. -Stars were hidden by a fine haze. The distant harbor lights of Portland, -eight of them, gleaming faintly in pairs like yellow cat's eyes, served -only to intensify the blackness of the water and the night. - -Ruth Bracket's arms moved backward and forward in rhythmic motion. She -was rowing, yet no sound came from her oarlocks. Oars and oarlocks were -padded. She liked it best that way. Why? Mystery--that magic word -"mystery." How she loved it! - -In the stern of the little punt sat slim, black-haired, dark-eyed Betty -Bronson, a city girl from the heart of America who was enjoying her first -summer on the coast of Maine. - -Betty, too, loved mystery. And into her life and that of her stout -seashore girl companion had come a little mystery that day. At this very -moment, as Ruth rested on her muffled oar, there came creeping across the -silent waters and through the black of night a second bit of mystery. - -The first mystery had come to them on shore in the hold of a beached -three-masted schooner. - -Ruth knew the schooner well enough. She had been on board her a dozen -times and thought she knew all about her--but she didn't. - -The owner, a dark-skinned foreigner who had purchased the schooner six -months before, used her for bringing wood to the islands. There is, so -they say, an island in Casco Bay for every day in the year. Each island -has its summer colony. These summer folks like an open fire to sit by at -night and this requires wood. The schooner had been bringing it in from -somewhere--from Canada some said. No one seemed to know for sure. - -Being an old schooner the wood-carrying craft must be beached from time -to time to have her seams calked. They beached her at high tide. Low tide -found her stranded. The return of high tide carried her off again. - -In this there is no mystery. The mystery began when Ruth and Betty, along -with other girls and boys of the island, swarmed up a rope ladder to the -tilted deck of the beached schooner. - -Being of a bolder nature than the others, having always a consuming -desire to see the hold of so ancient a ship, Ruth had led Betty into the -very heart of the schooner and had opened a door to pursue her -investigation further when a harsh voice called down to her: - -"Here now. Come out'a da sheep!" - -It was a foreign skipper. - -Startled, the girls had quickly closed the door and bolted up the -gangway. Not, however, until they had seen a surprising thing. They had -seen three bolts of bright, red cloth in that cabin back of the hold. -Were there others? They could not tell. The place had been quite dark. - -"Looked like silk," Betty had said a few moments later as they walked -down the beach. - -"Can't tell," Ruth replied. "Probably only red calico, a present for the -wood chopper's wife." - -"Three bolts?" - -"Three wood choppers' wives with seven children apiece," Ruth laughed. - -She had found this hard to believe. There certainly was something strange -about those bolts of cloth, and the foreign skipper's desire to get them -away from the cabin. - -And now, as they listened in the night on the bay with muffled oars at -rest, they caught the creak of oarlocks. The schooner had got off the -beach with the tide. She was anchored back in the bay. That the dory had -come from her they did not doubt. - -"Where are they going?" Betty asked in a faint whisper as the sound of -rowing grew louder, then began to fade away in the distance. - -"House Island, perhaps." - -"There's nothing over there." - -"Only an abandoned house and the old fort. No one living there. Strange, -isn't it?" - -"Really mysterious," Betty agreed. - -"We'll row around the _Black Gull_, then we'll go home," said Ruth. - -Visiting the _Black Gull_, an ancient six-master that had lain at anchor -in the harbor months on end, was one of Ruth's chief delights. - -Steam and gasoline, together with the high price of canvas, high wages -and demand for speed, had brought this slow going craft to anchor for -good. - -So there she stood, black and brooding, her masts reaching like bare arms -toward heaven, her keel moving with the tide yet ever chafing at the -massive anchor chain that was never drawn. - -Night was the time to visit her. Then, looming out of the dark, she -seemed to speak of other days, of the glory of Maine's shipping, of fresh -cut lumber, of fish and of the boundless sea. - -It was then that Ruth could fancy herself standing upon the deck, with -wind singing in the rigging and setting the sails snapping as they boomed -away over a white-capped sea. - -They had rowed to the dark bulk that they knew to be the _Black Gull_ and -had moved silently along the larboard side, about the stern and half way -down the starboard side, when of a sudden a low exclamation escaped -Ruth's lips. Something had brushed against her in the dark. - -The next instant a gurgling cry came from the bow of the boat. This was -followed by a splash. - -"She--she's overboard!" thought Ruth, reversing her strokes and back -paddling with all her might. - -"Ruth!" came a call from the water. "I'm over here! Some-something pulled -me in." - -So astonished was the stout fisher girl that for a moment she did not -move. Something had taken her companion overboard. What could it have -been? - -By the time she had come to her senses, Betty had gripped the gunwales of -the boat and was calling for help. The next moment, drenched with salt -water, but otherwise unharmed, she sat shivering in her place. - -"Some-something caught me under the chi-chin," she chattered, "and -ov-over I wen-went." - -"I felt it," said Ruth. "Let's see what it was." - -Slowly, deftly, she brought the punt about and alongside. Then, with both -hands she groped in the dark. - -"I have it!" she exclaimed. "It's a rope ladder. How queer! There's no -one staying out here. There never was a ladder before. It goes up to the -deck." - -"Let's go up," said Betty. "What a lark!" - -"You are drenched. You'll catch your death of cold." - -"B-best thing to d-do," said Betty, beginning to chatter again, "to take -off my clo-clothes and wring them out." - -"Right!" said Ruth, fumbling for the painter. "Guess it's safe enough. -Just tie the boat to the ladder." - -A moment of feeling about and struggling with ropes, then up they went, -like blue-jackets, hand over hand. Another moment on deck and Betty was -doing a wild whirling dance in the dark while her companion's strong -hands wrung out her clothes. - -"Boo-oo, it's cold!" shivered the city girl as she struggled to get back -into her sodden and wrinkled garments. - -"Come on," said Ruth. "Now we're here, we might as well explore. There's -a cabin forward--the Captain's. We'll be out of the wind if we get in -there." - -They were more than out of wind in that cabin. They found a great round -stove set up there. With the aid of two matches Ruth examined its flue, -and with a third she lighted the fire that was laid in it. The next -moment Betty and her clothes were drying before a roaring fire. - -"Think of being in such a place at ten o'clock at night!" Betty said with -a delighted shudder. - -"Might not be so good," said Ruth. "That ladder wasn't left there -accidentally. Someone's been here." - -"Tell you what!" she added suddenly. "While you are drying out I'll play -I'm the ship's watch, and pace the deck." - -"You don't think----" - -"Don't think anything," said Ruth as she disappeared through the door. -"It isn't safe to take too many chances, that's all." - -Ruth had not been on deck three minutes before, lost to all sense of -impending danger, she walked the deck, captain of this great sailing -craft. - -Few girls are more generously endowed with imagination than are the -fisher-folk's daughters of the coast of Maine. None are more loyal to -their state and their seaboard. - -As this girl now paced the deck in the dark, she saw herself in slicker -and high boots with a megaphone at her lips shouting commands to nimble -seamen who swarmed aloft. Sails fluttered and snapped, chains rattled, -rigging creaked as they swept adown the boundless sea. - -But now the scene was changed. No longer was she aboard a great shipping -boat, but an ancient man-o'-war. An enemy's sloop threatened her harbor. -With bold daring she set the prow of her ancient craft to seaward ready -to do battle with the approaching foe. - -Once more, her craft, half fancied, half real, is a cutter, chasing -smugglers and pirates. - -Pirates! How her blood raced at the thought. There had been pirates in -those half-forgotten days, real, dark-faced pirates with cutlasses in -their teeth and pistols at their belts. Not an island on the bay but has -its story of buried treasure. And as for smugglers' coves, there was one -not a mile from the girl's home. - -"Smugglers!" she whispered the word. Rumors had run rife in the bay these -last months. Dark craft, plying the waters, were supposed to be -smugglers' boats. A bomb had sunk a revenue cutter. "Smugglers!" the -people had whispered among themselves. - -She thought now of the three bolts of red cloth in the beached schooner's -hold, and of the dory that had passed them in the night. - -"Smugglers!" she thought. Then, "Probably nothing to it. Only a wood -hauler." - -Then her heart skipped a beat. She had thought of the rope ladder. What a -hiding place for smuggled goods, this deserted six-master, lying alone in -the dark waters of the bay! - -"What if it were used as a smuggler's store room," she thought as her -pulse gave a sudden leap. There was a fire laid in the cabin. The ladder -was down. "What if some of them are on board at this very moment." - -She thought of the slim city girl sitting alone there in the dark. -Turning, she started toward the cabin when a sudden sound from the water -arrested her. - -The next instant, a few hundred yards from the ship, a light flared up. -The sight that struck her eye at that moment froze the blood in her -veins. - -For a full half moment she stood stock still. Then with a sudden effort -she shook herself into action to go tip-toeing down the deck and thrust -her head in at the cabin door and whisper: - -"Betty! Betty! Quick! Get into your clothes! There's something terrible -going to happen. Quick! We must get off the ship!" - - - - - CHAPTER II - SCULLING IN THE NIGHT - - -The thing Ruth saw on the water was startling, mysterious. Nothing quite -like it had ever come into her life before. She could not believe her -eyes. Yet she dared not doubt them. A moment before she had dreamed of -pirates with pistols in their belts. Now out there on the sea they were, -or at least seemed to be, in real life. There could be no denying the -existence of a boat on those black waters of night; a long narrow boat -propelled by six pairs of sweeping oars swinging in perfect rhythm. This -much the flare of light had shown her. - -More, too; there was no use trying to deny it. She had seen the men only -too clearly. Dressed in long, black coats, with red scarfs about their -necks and broad-brimmed hats on their heads, with their white teeth -gleaming, they looked fierce enough. - -Strangest of all, there were pistols of the ancient sort and long knives -in their belts. - -What made her shudder was the sign of skull and cross-bones on the black -flag they carried. - -"Pirates! What nonsense!" she thought. "Not been one off the Maine coast -in a hundred years." Pausing to listen, she caught again the creak of -oarlocks. - -"Betty! Betty!" she whispered frantically. "Hurry! We'll be trapped!" - -Poor Betty! She certainly was having her troubles. Frightened half out of -her wits; expecting at any moment to be arrested for trespassing, or who -knows what, she struggled madly with her half dry and much wrinkled -garments. - -"It's all my fault," she half sobbed. "I insisted on coming up here. Now -we shall be caught. I--I hope they don't hang us at the yardarm." - -This last, she knew, was nonsense; but in the excitement she was growing -a trifle hysterical. - -At last, with shoes and stockings in her hands, she emerged from the -door. - -Gripping her arm tight and whispering, "Don't speak! Not a sound!" Ruth -led her rapidly to the end of the rope ladder. - -"Follow me. Drop in the boat. Sit perfectly still." - -Tremblingly, Betty obeyed. Presently they were in the punt. The sound of -rowing came much more clearly now. They could even hear the labored -breathing of the oarsmen. - -Thankful for the darkness, Ruth thrust an oar into a socket at the back -of the boat and began wabbling it about in the water. She was sculling, -the most silent way to move a boat through the water. - -"We-we'll go round the bow," she thought, as a sudden sound set her heart -racing. - -"If only they don't light another flare!" - -With a prayer on her lips which was half supplication for forgiveness and -half petition for safety, she threw all her superb strength into the task -before her. - -Many times she had rowed around the _Black Gull_. Never before had it -seemed half so far. - -Now they had covered half the distance, now three-quarters. And now there -came a panic-inspiring gleam of light on the sea. It lasted a second, -then blinked out. - -"Only a match." Her heart gave a bound of joy. "But if they strike -another, if they are attempting to light a flare!" She redoubled her -energy at the oar. Great beads of perspiration stood out on her brow as -they rounded the stern of the ship. - -Even then catastrophe threatened, for the ship's anchor chain, touched by -the punt, sent out a rattling sound. - -"What was that?" came a bass voice from the sea. - -An instant later the sea was all aglow with a second flare. But luck was -with them. They had rounded the ship's hull and were out of sight. - -"If they row around her, we are caught," whispered Betty. - -Ten seconds passed, twenty, thirty, forty, a minute. Then came the sounds -of a boat bumping the ship and of men ascending the rope ladder. - -"Not coming!" Ruth breathed a sigh of relief. - -"We'll just move back under the stern by the rudder," she whispered a -moment later. "Even if they look over the side they won't be able to see -us there." - -"Who-who are they?" Betty's question carried a thrill. - -"I don't know." - -"What do they look like?" - -Ruth told her. - -"Oh, oh!" Betty barely suppressed a gasp. - -"But they can't be!" she said the next moment. - -"They are," said Ruth. "And they are going to man the _Black Gull_ and -sail her away. The wind is rising. There's plenty of sail. A sail boat -makes no noise. What's to hinder?" - -"What could they want with her?" - -"Don't know; for exhibition, sea pageant, moving pictures, or something. -Captain Munson, the owner, has been offered ten thousand dollars for her. -Moving picture company wants her. She's the last six-master in the -world." - -"Betty," she whispered, impressively, after there had been time for -thought, "we've got to do something. We can't let the _Black Gull_ go -like this. The _Black Gull_ doesn't belong just to Captain Munson. She -belongs to all us Maine folks. That's why he won't sell her. She stands -for something, for a grand and glorious past, the past of our coast and -of the most wonderful state in the Union. - -"I'll tell you what we'll do," she whispered. "They're all on board now. -We'll scull around and get their boat. We'll tow it ashore so they can't -escape, then spread the alarm. Even if they get out to sea, the fast -cutter will catch them and bring them back." - -"I h-hope," chattered Betty, half beside herself with fear, "that they -don't catch us. I wouldn't like to walk the plank." - -"They won't," said Ruth. There was an air of conviction in her tone. Alas -for conviction. - -Once more their punt, creeping forward in the dark, rounded the ship's -hull and came at last to a point but a boat's length from a long, dark -bulk just ahead. - -"Their boat," thought Ruth. "We'll be away in a moment." But they were -not. - -That they were taking grave chances, Ruth knew right well. Her heart was -in her throat as she sent her punt gliding through the dark. Only -thoughts of her beloved Maine and the ancient six-master that stood for -so much that was grand and glorious in the past could have induced her to -run the risk. Run the risk she did. Trouble came sooner than she dreamed. - -She breathed a sigh of relief when the dim light told her that there was -no one in the long boat that had brought the black-robed crew to the -ship. - -Her relief was short lived. She had succeeded in untying the painter of -that other boat and swinging it half about, when there came a harsh -jangling of chains. A rusty chain dangling from the side of the ship had -caught in the stern of the long boat and, slipping free, had gone -thudding against the hull. Ten seconds of suspense ended with a gruff: - -"Who's there?" and the sudden flash of a brilliant electric torch which -brought the two girls out in bold relief. - -At once there followed exclamations of astonishment as dark figures -crowded the deck above them. - -"Trying to steal our boat," said one. - -"Ought to walk the plank," came from another. - -"Up with 'em!" said another, placing a foot on the top rung of the -ladder. - -Ruth sat there, red-faced, defiant. Betty was beginning to cry softly, -when a fourth person spoke up suddenly: - -"Lay off it, boys! Can't you see they're just girls? I don't know what -they are about, but I'm bound to say it can't be anything wrong. One of -'em is Tom Bracket's girl. I know her well." - -Ruth's heart gave a great leap of joy. She had recognized her champion's -voice. He was Patrick O'Connor, the skipper of a sea-going tug, one of -her father's good friends. - -At once her head was in a whirl. What could it all mean? Captain O'Connor -dressed as a pirate and aiding in a night raid of the harbor? The thing -seemed impossible. - -Her thoughts were broken short off by the voice of the man on the ladder. - -"I'm still in favor of havin' 'em tell their story. An' mebby girls don't -care for pie and hot coffee an' the like." - -"We'll leave it to them," said Captain O'Connor. "If they want to come up -we'll be glad to have them. If they don't, then they have their punt. Let -them go. What do you say, girls?" - -"Come on," said Ruth. There was a large lump in her throat. "We've got to -go up. 'Twon't do to let them misunderstand." - -Truth was, there were things she did not understand and that she wanted -dreadfully to know about. - -So, once more, hand over hand, they went up the rope ladder and tumbled -in upon the deck. - -Ten minutes later the two girls found themselves seated one on either -side of Captain O'Connor before the massive mahogany table in the cabin -of the _Black Gull_. - -The table was piled high with good things to eat. A great copper kettle -filled with doughnuts, a basket of sandwiches, two hams roasted whole, a -steaming tank of coffee, and pies without end, graced the board. A merry -band of pirates, surely. Most surprising of all was the fact that the -pirate at the head of the table, blackest and fiercest of them all, was -none other than Captain Munson, owner of the _Black Gull_. - -"Now," said Captain Munson, and there was a friendly smile on his -formidable face, "I am sure you will enjoy the meal more fully if you -tell us first why you were about to take our boat." - -"Rest assured," he said, as he saw the crimson flush on Ruth's cheek, -"you stand absolved. You shall not walk the plank." - - - - - CHAPTER III - IN THE DUNGEON - - -"Please," said Ruth, "I--I--" She choked as she looked into the many -pairs of eyes around the table in the _Black Gull's_ cabin, and -stammered, "We thought you were,--no, we didn't think. We knew you were -not real pirates, but we thought you--were--were going to stea-steal the -_Black Gull_. And we--we thought we could stop you." - -No laugh followed these stammered remarks. Each man sat at attention as -Captain Munson asked in a kindly tone: - -"And why did you wish to save the _Black Gull_?" - -"Because she stands for something wonderful!" The girl's tones were -ringing now. "Because she tells the story of Maine, our grand and -glorious state we all love so well." - -"Boys,"--the pirate chieftain's dark eyes glistened--"I propose three -cheers for Ruth and her dauntless companion." - -Never did the walls of that cabin ring with lustier shouts than when -those men ended with, "Ra, Ra, Ra! Ruth, Ruth, Ruth! Betty! Betty! -Betty!" - -"And now for the feast!" exclaimed the Chief. "Fourteen men on a dead -man's chest. Buckets of blood! There never was a pirate crew but liked -their victuals. Ho! You scullions, hove to with the viands!" - -All this talk made Betty shudder, but Ruth only sat and stared. - -They were hungry enough after the long row across the bay and without -asking further questions they accepted the cold chicken, coffee, -doughnuts and huge wedges of pie and did full justice to all. - -A half hour later, as the pirate crew joined ringing notes of a pirate -chanty ending with a rousing, "Heave ho, Ladies, Heave ho!" the girls -pushed their punt away from the towering hull of the _Black Gull_ and -went rowing away into the night. - -Ruth's arms had swung in rhythmic motion for a full ten minutes before -she spoke. Then dropping her oars, she said in a deep, low tone, - -"Of all the things I ever heard of, that beats 'em." - -"I thought," said Betty, solemnly, "that I had seen strange things, but -that beats them all." - -"And somehow," Ruth said, still more soberly, "I have a feeling that this -is the beginning of something very big and mysterious, and perhaps -awfully dangerous." - -"That is just the way I feel about it," said Betty, with a shudder. - -After that they lapsed into silence, and Ruth renewed her silent rowing. - -The hour was late. Betty's head began to nod. Ruth, alone with her -thoughts, was swinging her oars in strong, sweeping strokes when a -curious thing struck her eye. They were passing the ancient abandoned -fort on House Island, a massive pile of solid granite, when through a -narrow space where cannon had frowned in the long ago, a light appeared. -One instant it shone there clear and bright, the next it was gone. - -"How strange!" she thought. "No one is ever there." At once she -registered a resolve to visit the fort to have a look into this new -mystery. - -Once more she thought of the ancient wood-carrying schooner, of the bolts -of silk cloth in her hold, and of the dory that had passed them in the -night. - -"It's astonishing," she told herself, "the way events connect themselves -up, woven together in a pattern like a rug. But you have to trace them -out one by one before the pattern comes out clear and strong." - -The moon was out. The stars were shining when their punt touched the -sandy beach of the island that had always been Ruth's home. - -A half hour later that same moon, looking down upon a brown and -weather-beaten fisherman's cottage, beamed through narrow panes of glass -upon two girls sleeping side by side. One was large and strong and ruddy. -Her arms, thrown clear of the covers, showed the muscular lines of an -athlete. Endless miles of rowing, clam digging in the early morning, -hauling away at the float line of lobster traps, had done this. There was -about the girl's whole make-up a suggestion of perfect physical -well-being which is found oftener than anywhere else in a seacoast -village. - -The other girl, as you will know, was slim, active and with nerves tight -as fiddle strings. Her life had been lived in the city. A few months -before she had gone with her father to live at a school by the side of -Lake Michigan. Now, for the summer, she was staying with a wealthy young -married woman in her summer cottage on the island. She was with Ruth for -but this one night. - -As one looked at Betty lying there in repose, he read in her face and -figure signs of strength. The slender arms and limbs were not without -their suggestion of power. Her strength was the quick, nervous strength -of a squirrel; useful enough for all that. One might be sure that she -would leap into action while others searched their troubled minds for a -way out. - -Strangely matched as they might be, these girls were destined to spend -much of their summer together and to come to know in a few brief weeks -how much of mystery, adventure and romance the rugged coast of Maine has -to offer those who come there to seek. - -"Betty," said Ruth as she sprang out of bed next morning, "do you know -what day this is?" - -"Wouldn't need two guesses if I didn't know," said Betty. "Listen to the -boom of cannons. It's the Glorious Fourth of July." - -"To-day," said Ruth, "we must do something exciting." - -"What shall it be?" Betty's tone was eager. - -"Listen!" said Ruth, seized with a sudden inspiration, "I've got a -dollar." - -"So have I." - -"We'll spend them all for Roman candles." - -"Roman can--" - -Ruth held up a hand. "We'll get Pearl Bracket to go along. We'll row over -to House Island in the evening and eat a picnic lunch on the grass before -the fort that overlooks the bay. The sunset is wonderful from there. - -"Then when it's getting dark, we'll go into the old fort and have a sham -battle with Roman candles." - -"Sham battle?" - -"Sure! The boys did that last year, Don and Dewey, Chet and Dill and some -others. They said it was no end of fun. They're all going up the bay for -fireworks this year, so we'll have the fort all to ourselves. We'll get -Pearl Bracket to go along. - -"It's something of an adventure, just going into that old fort at night. -Secret passages and dungeons with rusty old handcuffs chained to the -wall, and all that. Quite a place." - -"I should think so. Is it very old?" - -"The fort? Almost a hundred years, I guess. Used to be cannons there. -They're gone now. No one's been there for years and years. Just big and -empty and sort of lonesome." - -"But how do you play sham battle in there?" - -"All scatter out with tallow candles in tin cans, just a little light. -Each one has an armful of Roman candles. When you hear something move you -know it is an enemy who has broken into the fort, and you shoot a candle -at him, shoot low at his feet. Be dangerous if you didn't. - -"But think what fun!" she enthused. "You're creeping along between stone -walls, all damp and old. Just a little light. Dark all around. All of a -sudden down the long passage a little stir, and like a flash your fuse -sputters. Bang-pop-pop-pop-bang! Red, blue, green, yellow, orange, five -balls of fire leap away at the enemy and he is shot, defeated, routed -into wild retreat." - -"I should think he might be," said Betty. "But it should be great sport. -I'm for it. Any jolly thing on the Fourth of July." - - - - - CHAPTER IV - THE FACE IN THE FIRE - - -Ruth let out a little half-suppressed scream. A pasteboard tube slipped -from her grasp and fell to the floor. A purple ball of fire bursting -forth from the tube shot across the floor, climbed a stone wall, then -suddenly blinked out. The yellow gleam of a tallow candle shot downward. -A tin can struck the floor with a dull thud. The candle blinked out. Then -all about the girl's trembling figure was darkness, darkness so complete -that it seemed you might cut it with a knife. - -It was terrifying, that darkness, in an underground place at night. Yet -it was not the darkness that affected her most. Nor was it the ball of -fire that had danced about her feet. - -There had been another ball of fire, and through that red ball of fire -she had seen a face. - -"The face!" she whispered. "The eyes! I must have blinded him. How -perfectly terrible! Whatever am I to do?" - -What, indeed? She could not turn and run. Which way should she run? The -candle was out. She had counted on the candle to show her the way. The -way she had taken was winding, many turns, many corners, and always stone -walls. - -"And now," she thought with a sinking feeling at the pit of her stomach. -"Oh! Why did I come? - -"We started out to stage a sham battle. And I have blinded a man." - -A man! Her thoughts were sobering now. Questions arose. What was the man -doing here in the heart of the old abandoned fort on House Island? That -_was_ a question. - -"His face was low down, close to the stone floor, as if he were -crawling." - -Her heart skipped a beat. "Perhaps he was crawling. Perhaps I did not -injure him after all. He may be at my very feet now. Crawling!" The -thought drove her overwrought nerves into tremors. - -"Matches!" she thought suddenly. There was a penny box of them in her -pocket. Until now, in her excitement, she had forgotten them. - -The box out, she broke three matches trying to light one. When the fourth -flared up, it so startled her that she dropped it. - -In time, however, the candle was lit. Then, with bulging eyes she stared -before her. - -"Nothing," she told herself in surprise. - -She took three steps forward. Still nothing. She advanced ten yards. -Nothing. - -"Must have been here," she told herself. "But there is nothing and no -one." She began to shudder again. Had the Roman candle she had fired into -the dark revealed a lurking ghost? Surely this ancient fort was spooky -enough. But no! Ghosts were nonsense. - -"I saw him," she told herself stoutly. - -"A man was here," she assured herself. "I saw him. I could not have been -mistaken. He is here for no good purpose--couldn't be. I couldn't have -blinded him, else he could not have found his way to--to wherever he has -gone. He's using this fort without permission--perhaps for illegal -purposes." - -No longer able to control herself, she went racing on tip-toe down the -narrow winding corridor. - -There came a sudden burst of moonlight, and she found herself standing in -a stone archway, looking out upon a sort of open court grown wild with -tall grass, brambles and rose bushes. - -Old Fort Skammel, built before the Civil War, has been abandoned for -years to the rats and bats that have found a home there. Yet there is -something suggestive of grandeur and protecting power hovering over it -still. - -Ruth had felt this as she sat with Betty and Pearl at the foot of its -massive masonry and ate her Fourth of July evening lunch. - -Following out her plan of the morning, they had rowed over here, she and -Betty Bronson and Pearl Bracket, for a little picnic. Having been brought -up on the island across the bay, the abandoned fort did not inspire in -Ruth the awesome fear that it did in some others. - -"Rats in there," Ruth had said, munching at a bun. - -"Big as cats," said Pearl. - -"'Fraid of fire, though," said Ruth. "Won't hurt you if you have a -light." - -"Betty," said Ruth, changing the subject as she watched the red glow of -the sunset, "I never see a sunset but I feel like I'd like to get on a -ship and go and go until I come to where that red begins." - -"Yes," said Betty, "I sometimes feel that way myself." - -"But you've traveled a lot." - -"Not so much." - -"But you've lived on the banks of the Chicago River and traveled on the -Great Lakes. And now you're here. That's a great deal. I--why I've only -been on the sea." - -"The sea is wonderful," said Betty. "It's a little world all its own. -When you come to it you feel that you have found something that no one -you know has ever seen before." - -"I suppose so," said Ruth, "but of course I've always known the sea." - -"And been everywhere on it." - -"No, only a little way. Why," Ruth said, sitting up, "right over yonder, -not a hundred miles from here, is one of the most interesting islands in -the world. Monhegan they call it. I've never seen it. But I shall some -day, I am sure. - -"It's sixteen miles from shore, a great rock protruding out of the sea. -If there wasn't a smaller rock standing right in front of it and making -sort of a harbor, no one could ever land there, for most of its headline -is bold, a hundred, two hundred feet high. These rocks have strange -names. Burnt Head, White Head, Black Head and Skull Rock, that's the -names they've given them. They say you can catch beefsteak cod right off -the rocks. It's got a history, too. Captain John Smith was there once and -Governor Bradford. I want to go there and watch the breakers come -tumbling in. It's wild, fascinating, you've no idea." - -"Must be lonesome," said Betty. - -"Lonesome? Well, perhaps," Ruth said musingly. "Yes, I guess so. The sea -always makes me feel small and lonesome. Out there almost everything is -ocean." - -That was all they said of Monhegan. Little they dreamed of the part that -bewitching island would play in their lives during the weeks that were to -follow. - -Pearl had been timid about taking part in the sham battle. At last the -others talked her over. So, armed each with a bundle of Roman candles and -a tallow candle stuck in a tin can, they had made their way silently down -the long corridor that led to the gun room, from which massive cannons -had once looked down upon the bay. - -"Spooky in here at night," Pearl had said with a shudder. The sound of -her voice awakened dead echoes and live bats. - -Betty felt like turning back, but Ruth plodded on. Down a long, steep -stairway, across a circular court, then into a narrow passage they went, -until Ruth with a sudden pause whispered: - -"There! There! I hear 'em." - -"Here," she said, holding out her burning candle. "Get a light from this -and shoot straight ahead." - -With trembling fingers Ruth lighted a Roman candle, watched the fuse -sputter for a second, then jumped as pop-pop-pop, three balls of fire -went shooting down between stone walls to send an astonishing number of -rats scurrying for shelter. - -It would be difficult indeed to find a more exciting game than the one -that followed. And such a setting! An ancient and abandoned fort. Down -these narrow passageways and resounding corridors had sounded the -tramp-tramp-tramp of marching soldiers. Through long night watches in -time of peace, in stress of war, weary night guards had patrolled their -solemn beats. From these narrow windows eyes had scanned the bay, while -like giant watch dogs, grim cannons loomed at the gunner's side. - -In this small room, where chains, lifted and dropped, give out a -lugubrious sound, some prisoner has sat in solitary confinement to -meditate upon his act of desertion or of treachery against the land that -offered him food and shelter. - -The three girls thought little of these things as they parted to go each -her own way down separate corridors to meet sooner or later with screams -of terror and laughter as one stealing a march upon another set balls of -fire dancing about her feet. - -A move in the dark or the slightest sound called forth a volley of red, -blue, green and yellow fire. More often than not it was a rat or a bat -that drew the fire, but there is quite as much sport in sending a huge -rat scurrying for cover as in surprising a friendly enemy. - -So the battle had gone merrily on until Ruth, finding herself alone in a -remote corner of the fort and, hearing a sound, had fired a volley with -the result we have already seen. - -"And now, here I am all alone," she told herself. "Wonder where the -others are?" - -"They are in there alone with that strange man," she told herself. -"How--how terrible!" - -That she could do nothing about it she knew well enough, and was troubled -about their safety. - -"If anything serious should happen to them I never could forgive myself!" -she thought with a little tightening at the throat. "They are such good -pals. And it was I who proposed that we go on that wild chase, I who -really insisted." - -She was beginning to feel very uncomfortable indeed about the whole -affair. - -She and Pearl had been pals for a long time. In the same Sunday School -class and the same grade at school, they were always together. At the -beach, swimming, boating and fishing in summer, tramping and skating in -winter, they shared their joys and sorrows. - -"And now," she asked herself, "where is she? And where is Betty?" - -Relighting her candle, she turned about to go inside and search for them. - -"No use," she told herself. "Place is a perfect labyrinth, passages -running up and down, this way and that. Never would find them. Have to -wait. Have--" - -She broke short off. Had she caught some sound? Were they coming? Or, was -it some other person, the man of the face in the fire? She shrank back -against the wall, then called softly: - -"Girls! Betty! Pearl! Are you there?" There came no answer. "Have to -wait," she told herself. - -She fell to wondering about that mysterious face, and what in time she -should do about it. - -She and Pearl were fortunate in having as a day teacher a splendid -patriotic woman. That very day they had come upon her sitting on the -grassy bank of their island that overlooks Portland harbor. They had -dropped to places beside her, and together for a time they had listened -to the _bang-bang_ of fireworks and the _boom-boom_ of cannons, had -watched flags on ships and forts and towers flapping in the breeze. Then -Pearl, who was at times very thoughtful, had said: - -"It makes me feel all thrilly inside and somehow I think we should be -able to do something for our country, something as brave and useful as -Betsy Ross, Martha Washington and Barbara Fletcher did." - -"You can," the teacher had said quietly. "You can honor these by helping -to make this the finest land in the world in which to live. - -"One thing more you can do, wherever there is an old fort, a soldiers' -home, or a monument dedicated to our hallowed dead, you can help prevent -their being defaced or defiled or used for any purpose that would bring a -reproach upon the memory of those who lived and died that we might be -free." - -"I wonder," Ruth said to herself, "what sort of den I came upon just now -in this grand old fort?" - -Then, very quietly, very solemnly, she made the resolve that, come what -might, the whole affair should be gone into, the mystery solved. - -"If only they would come!" she whispered impatiently. - -"Ruth! Ruth! Is that you?" sounded out in a shrill whisper from the -right. - -"Yes! Yes! Here I am." - -"Shsh! Don't talk," she warned as Pearl began to babble excitedly. "We -must get out of here at once." - -"Why? Wha--" - -"Don't talk. Come on!" - -A moment later a punt with three dark forms in it crept away from the -shadowy shore. - -They rowed across the bay in awed silence. Having reached the shore of -their own island, they breathed with greater freedom; but even here, as -they climbed the steep board stairway that led from the beach to the -street above, they found themselves casting apprehensive backward -glances. - -Once in the main street of their straggling village, with house lights -blinking at them from here and there, they paused for a moment to whisper -together, then to talk in low tones of the probable outcome of their -recent mysterious adventure. - -"I fully expected to see the _Black Gull_ gone when I looked out of the -window this morning," said Ruth. "But she wasn't." - -"Still chafing at her chains. Poor old _Black Gull_!" Pearl always felt -this way about the discarded ship of other days. - -"What did you think?" said Ruth. "You wouldn't expect the owner of the -boat to steal it himself. And he was a member of that terrifying band." - -"But the old wood-hauling boat and the silks in her hold, (they were all -sure the bolts of cloth were silk by this time) and the dory from her -that passed us in the night," said Betty. "They're different." - -"And the face I saw in the fire," said Ruth with a shudder. "Such a -strange face it was, dark and hairy and eyes that gleamed sort of red and -black. Oh! I tell you it was terrible! I am glad we're all here!" - -"You--you wouldn't go back," said Pearl. "Not for worlds." - -"Yes," Ruth said slowly, "I think I would, but in the daytime. Daytime -would be different. And someone should go. If that grand old fort is -being used by rascals they should be found out." - -"And there's been _so_ many whispers about smugglers this summer," said -Pearl. "Smuggling in goods and men, they say. All sorts of men that -shouldn't be allowed to come to America at all." - -"That's it!" said Pearl excitedly. "That's what he was! One of them, one -of the men America don't want." - -"Who?" - -"That man, the face in the fire!" - -"You can't be sure," said Betty. - -"No," said Ruth, "not until we go back there. Then perhaps we won't." - -They parted a moment later, Ruth to go to her cottage on the slope, Pearl -to her home on the water front, and Betty to the big summer cottage that -tops the hill. - -As Ruth lay in her bed by the window, looking out over the bay that -night, she felt that the cozy and comfortable little world she knew, the -bay, the cluster of little islands, the all enclosing sea, had suddenly -become greatly agitated. - -"It's as if a great storm had come sweeping down upon us," she told -herself. - -"Mystery, thrills, adventure," she said a moment later. "I have always -longed for these, but now they have begun to come I--I somehow feel that -I should like to put out my two hands and push them away." - -With that she fell asleep. - - - - - CHAPTER V - THREE GRAY WITCHES - - -The next afternoon Pearl Bracket went fishing. She felt the need of an -opportunity for quiet thought. The events of the past few days had -stirred her to the very depths. A quiet, dreamy girl, she was given to -sitting across the prow of her brother's fishing boat or the stern of her -ancient dory as it drifted on a placid bay. But this day only Witches -Cove would do. - -To this imaginative girl Witches Cove had ever been a haunting place of -many mysteries. A deep dark pool on three sides by the darkest of firs -and hemlocks, on the north of the island where no sunbeams ever fell, it -had always cast a spell of enchantment about her. - -There, when the tide was coming in, water rushed over half submerged -rocks to go booming against the granite wall, then to return murmuring -and whispering of many things. - -Pearl sat in the stern of her dory on this particular afternoon and -recalled all the strange tales that had been woven about the cove. - -At one time, so the story ran, it had been a smugglers' cove. Here in the -days of long ago, dark gray, low lying crafts came to anchor at dead of -night to bring ashore cargoes of rich silks, tea, coffee and spices. - -Still farther back it had been a pirates' retreat. Even the renowned -Captain Kidd had been associated with the place. - -"On a very still day," Uncle Jermy Trott had told her once in deepest -secrecy, "you can still see a spar lyin' amongst the rocks. That spar -came from a Spanish Gallion. I've seen it. I know. An' I've always held -that a treasure chest were lashed to it an' that it were left there as a -markin' thing, like skulls and cross-bones were on land." - -Pearl had never seen the spar. But more than once her fish-hook had -snagged on something down there that was soft like wood and she had lost -the hook and part of her line. - -To-day, however, she thought little of the spar at the bottom of the -cove. She thought instead of the strange doings aboard the _Black Gull_ -and of Ruth's face in the fire. - -"I'm going back to the old fort," she told herself stoutly. "There's more -to that than we think." - -"And still," she thought, as she dragged a larger cunner from the water, -"that's Ruth's discovery. It's only fair to let her go to the bottom of -it. Nothing important ever happens to me. I--" - -She paused to look at the cunner she had caught. Its coloring was -curious, all red, blue, green and purple. - -"Like he'd been dipped in burning sulphur," she told herself. "Nothing in -Witches Cove is the same as anywhere else. They say it's the three gray -witches. Tom McTag saw 'em once, three gray witches coming up out of the -water behind the fog. Boo! It's spooky here even in daytime. Seems like -eyes were peering at you. Seems--" - -Her glance strayed to the bank. Then she did receive a shock. Eyes were -staring at her, two pairs of glaring red eyes. - -For a full moment she sat there petrified. Then, as her senses returned -to her, she made out the figures of two huge black cats half hidden in -the green shrubs that capped the rocky wall of Witches Cove. - -"They're not real," she told herself. "They're witches' cats." - -To prove this, she caught up the blue, green, purple cunner and sent it -flying toward the cats. - -That settled it. Growling, snarling, sending fur flying, they were upon -the fish and at one another, tooth and nail in an instant. - -"Here, you greedy things!" she exclaimed. "Stop that! Here's another and -yet another!" Two cunners followed the first. - -It was just as the cats settled down to their feast that her ear caught a -movement farther up the bank and a quick look showed her a very small -man, wearing great horn rimmed glasses. Squatting there on the steep -bank, he was staring at her, then at the cats. For a moment he remained -there. The next he turned and disappeared. - -"Someone living in the old Hornaby Place," she told herself with a quick -intake of breath. "Must be. Cats wouldn't be here. Nobody's been there -for more than six years, and it's the only place on the island. I -wonder--" - -She wondered many things before she was through. And in the meantime she -caught some fish; not the sort she had hoped to catch, however. Pearl, as -has been said, was a dreamer. One often dreams of bigger and better -things. It was so with her fishing. - -Then, of a sudden, she caught her breath and set her teeth hard as she -tugged at the stout codfish line. - -"It's a big one," she told herself as the look of determination on her -round freckled face deepened. "A big cod, or maybe a chicken halibut. If -only I can land him!" - -Two fathoms of line shot through her fingers, cutting them till they -bled. - -"Can't hold him--but I've got to!" she told herself as, wrapping the line -about her hands, she braced herself against the gunwale, tipping her dory -to a rakish angle. - -"I'll land him," she avowed through tight set teeth. "Don won't laugh at -me to-night." - -Like many another girl born and bred on the rugged coast of Maine, Pearl -was fond of hand-line fishing. Time and again she had begged her big -brother, Don, to take her deep-sea fishing in his sloop. - -"Why, little girl," he would laugh, "look at you! You're no bigger than a -fair-sized beefsteak cod yourself. If you got one on a line he'd pull you -overboard. Then we'd have an awful time telling which was you and which -the fish, one or t'other. You just stay and wash your dishes, sister. -We'll catch the fish." - -Pearl did wash her dishes. She did a great many other things besides. But -when the work was done and the tide was right, she would dig a pail of -clams for bait and go rowing away to the Witches Cove. - -Usually she returned with a string of cunners and shiny polloks. - -That there were some wary old rock cod hiding away in the secret watery -recesses at the bottom of Witches Cove she had always known. That a -halibut weighing fifty pounds had once been caught there she knew also. - -So to-night, with hopes high and nerves all a-tingle, she tugged at the -line. - -"Tire him out," she told herself grimly. She threw her shoulders back and -gave a tremendous tug. Without warning the line went dead slack. - -"Lost him," she all but sobbed. - -"But no." As she reeled rapidly in, there came another tug. Not so strong -now. She had no difficulty pulling the catch toward her. - -"Tangled round some kelp before," she told herself disappointedly. "Only -a small one after all." - -That she was partly wrong, she knew in a moment. A broad spot of white -appeared in the dark waters beneath her, and a moment later she was -landing a halibut weighing perhaps twenty-five pounds. - -"Oh, you beauty!" she exclaimed. "Now they can't say I'm not a -fisherman!" - -The two kinds of fish most relished by the coast of Maine people are -sword fish and young halibut. Pearl's mother would be delighted. Don and -some of the other boys were off on a long fishing cruise. There had been -no really fine fish in the house for more than a week. - -For some little time, while she regained her poise, Pearl sat admiring -her catch. - -"I got you," she said at last. - -Then of a sudden her face clouded. "After all," she told herself, "it's -nothing, catching a fish. The grand old times are gone. Nothing ever -really happens. If only I'd lived in the days of great, great, great -grandfather Josia Bracket. Those were the brave days!" - -As she closed her eyes she seemed to see Casco Bay as it had been in the -pioneer times when the first Bracket landed there. - -"No houses, no stores, no steamships," she told herself. "No city of -Portland, no summer tourists, no ferry boats. Only a cabin here, another -there, woods and water and skulking Indians, and the whole wide world to -live and fight in. What wonderful days!" - -As she opened her eyes she started. As if willing to conform to her -wishes, nature had blotted out the present as far as that might be done. -A heavy fog drifting silently in from the sea had hidden the wharves and -storage houses in Portland Harbor, and the homes that line the shore of -Peak's Island. Even the cliffs that formed Witches Cove were growing -shadowy and unreal. - -A fog, however, be it ever so dense, cannot shut out all signs of -progress. A moment had passed when the ding-dong of a bell reached her -ears. - -"There!" she exclaimed, shaking her fist at the bell buoy which, however -invisible through the fog, kept up its steady ding-dong. "There now! -You've gone and spoiled it all. I'd like to tie my sweater about your -noisy tongue! - -"But of course that won't do. The boat from Booth Bay Harbor will be -passing in an hour or two. If this fog keeps up, the pilot will need your -noisy voice to guide him through." - -"Oh, well," she sighed, "what's the use of fussing? Fish a little longer, -then go home." - -She settled back in the bow of her light dory, with the prow tilting at a -rakish angle, baited her hook and cast the line overboard. - -Fishing wasn't likely to be over exciting now. She had made her record -catch. Never before had she landed one so large and fine. What she wanted -most of all was to sit and dream a while, to dream of the brave deeds of -long ago. - -And such a time to dream! Even the cliffs twenty yards away were lost to -her sight now. A ring of white fog, her boat and her own little self, -that was all there was to her present world. - -"Indians over there on Peak's Island," she told herself, still dreaming. -"Indians and some French. Settlers on Portland Head all crowded into the -stockade. Going to be a battle. Some soldiers in a big ship anchored far -out. They don't know. A message is needed. I'll go in my little dory. - -"Will you please be still!" she exclaimed as the bell buoy clanged louder -than ever as a great swell came sweeping in from the sea. - -The bell did not keep still. _Ding-dong, Ding-dong, Ding-dong_, it spoke -of cliffs and shallows and of a channel between that was safe, wide and -deep. - -The girl gave her attention to fishing. Cunners took her bait. She caught -a small one, but threw him back. A great old cod, red with iodine from -the kelp, gave her a thrill. He snapped at her bait, snagged on the hook, -then shook himself free. - -"Go it!" she exclaimed. "What's cod beside chicken halibut? Wouldn't--" - -She broke short off. The ding-dong of that buoy bell never had sounded so -near before. - -_Ding-dong, Ding-dong._ It seemed to be at her very side. She gave a pull -at her anchor line. - -"Fast enough," she told herself. "Not drifting toward the buoy. Besides, -wouldn't drift that way. Tide's setting out." - -The big red cod or another of his sort claimed her attention. She teased -him by bobbing bait up and down. She loaded the hook with juicy clams and -tried again. This time it seemed that success must crown her efforts. The -fish was hooked. She began reeling in. - -"A beauty!" she whispered as a great red head appeared close to the -surface. And then, with a last mighty effort, the fish tore himself free. - -"Oh!" she cried, "You--" - -_Ding-dong, Ding-dong._ - -She started, looked about, then stood straight up to stare open mouthed -at what she saw. - -And at that moment, faint and from far away there came the hoarse hoot of -the fog horn on the steamer from Booth Bay Harbor. - -"A hundred passengers on that boat," she thought as her heart stood -still, "perhaps two hundred, three hundred people, men, women and -children, many little children coming home from a joyous vacation." - -She looked again at the thing she had seen and could scarcely believe her -eyes. - -Dim, indistinct but unmistakable, had appeared the outline of a steel -frame, and at its center a large bell. - -"Like a ghost," she told herself. - -"But it's no ghost!" Instantly she sprang into action. Cutting her fish -line, she allowed it to drift. Dragging up her dripping anchor, she -dropped it into the boat. Then, gripping the oars, she put all her -strength into a dozen strokes that brought her with a bump against the -side of the steel frame from which the bell hung suspended. - -The next thing she did was strange, indeed. Having removed her heavy wool -sweater, she wrapped it tightly about the clapper of the bell, then tied -it securely there with a stout cod line. - -"There now," she said, breathing heavily as she sank to a sitting -position on one of the hollow steel floats that prevented the bell and -its frame from sinking. "Now, perhaps you will keep still and let me -dream. - -"Oh!" she exclaimed, suddenly attempting to stand up. "The dory's gone!" - -It was true. In her haste to muffle the bell, she had failed to tie her -painter securely. Now it had drifted away into the fog. - -"Time to dream now," she told herself ruefully. "May never do anything -else." - -To one who knows little of the ways of boats and buoys and other things -belonging to the sea, the girl's acts might seem madness. - -They were not. By some mischance, the chain fastened to a huge rock at -the bottom of the channel, which held the bell buoy to its place, had -given way. The bell buoy still clanging its message, now a false message -indeed, was drifting out to sea. If the S. S. Standish, the Booth Bay -Harbor steamer, were guided by this false message catastrophe would -befall her. With all on board she would go crashing into a cliff or be -piled upon some rocky shoal. - -Pearl could see it all, just as it would happen. A terrible crash, then -unutterable confusion. Men shouting, children crying, women praying, -seamen struggling and the black sea closing down upon a sinking ship. - -"But now, thank God," she said fervently, "it shall not be. Not hearing -the bell, having no sure guide, they will stand away till the fog lifts." - -Then of a sudden her heart went cold and beads of perspiration started -out on her forehead. What was to come of her? With her dory gone, she was -going straight out to sea on the frame of a drifting buoy. What chance -could there be? - -A moment of calm thought, a whispered prayer, and she shut the thought -from her mind. She was doing her plain duty. She was in God's care. That -was enough. - -The hoot of the steamer's fog horn sounded louder. Nearer and nearer they -came. They had passed the Witch Rock bell in safety. There was need of -Pearl's bell buoy now. - -Of a sudden she caught the clang of the bell, the pilot's signal for half -speed. - -"He's missed the bell. They are safe. They'll lay outside until the fog -lifts. Thank-thank God!" - -Still she drifted out to sea. But her own peril was lost in great joy -because of the safety of others. - -Another jangling of bells. Quarter speed. - -A thought struck her all of a heap. Hastily unwrapping the bell clapper -of the buoy, she struck the bell a sharp tap. Again, again and yet again -this strange signal sounded. It was the pilot's signal for half speed. - -Three times she repeated it. Then came the ship's bell with the same -signal. - -"They heard," she whispered tensely. - -Then, with a throbbing heart, she sent out in Morse signals the call for -help, S. O. S. - -There sounded the rattle of chains. They were lowering a boat. - -Moments of silence followed, then from out the fog there came, - -"Ahoy there!" - -Sweeter words were never heard by any girl. - -"Ahoy there!" she called back. - -A moment more, and four astonished seamen stared at a girl riding a -drifting buoy. - - * * * * * * * * - -"What you doing on the buoy?" said the kind-hearted and grateful captain -as Pearl climbed aboard the steamer and was surrounded by curious -passengers. - -"Why I--I was fishing. I caught a chicken halibut and----" - -Of a sudden her eyes went wide; her dory and chicken halibut were gone. - -"Yes, yes, go on," said the eager members of the group. She succeeded in -finishing her story, but all through the telling there flashed into her -mind the picture of her dory and the only chicken halibut she had ever -caught, drifting out to sea. - -All up and down the deck, as they waited for the fog to lift, grateful -passengers and crew repeated the girl's story. And always at the end they -added, "Lost her fish. Lost her dory. Too bad!" - -"Well, young lady," a gruff Irish voice said as Pearl spun round to -listen, "you seem born to adventure." - -The girl found herself looking into the eyes of Captain Patrick O'Connor, -he of the pirate crew of the _Black Gull_. - -"Yes, I do," she replied in uncertain tones. - -"Lay by this, young lady," the Captain went on, "that buoy chain was -cut." - -"Cut?" - -"Certain was. Them buoys are inspected regular. Look! They've brought the -buoy alongside. They're hoistin' her on board. Mark my word, the chain's -not worn much, not enough to cause her to break." - -It was not. As they examined the end of the chain, they found no marks of -hammer, file or hack-saw, but the last link was nearly as perfect as when -first forged. - -"Of course, they wouldn't leave the cut link to tell on 'em," O'Connor -leaned over to whisper in the girl's ear. "They're told on sure enough, -all the same." - -"But-but--" the girl stammered, trying in vain to understand, "if I -hadn't found it, if I hadn't silenced its lying tongue, you'd have gone -on the rocks." - -"So we would, young lady. And there's them hidin' away along these here -waters as would have been glad to see it. There's twenty-four men aboard -this ship, that's hated worse than death by some. - -"Come over here in the corner," he bent low to whisper in her ear, "an' -I'll tell you a few things. You're old enough to know 'em, old enough and -wise enough to help some, I'll be bound." - -The story he told her was one of smugglers uncaught, of goods brought in -without duty, and of men refused right of entry into the United States -who, nevertheless, were here. - -"They land from somewhere, somehow, in Portland Harbor, or in Casco Bay," -he added. "It's our duty, the duty of every good American, to find out -how and where they come from. - -"I suppose your cousin Ruth told you about seeing us pirates the other -night?" he said, leaning close. - -"Yes." The girl's heart leaped. Was a secret to be told? Yes, here it -came. - -"We wasn't real pirates; you guessed that. It was only a blind, a -masquerade party, but a party with as firm a purpose as ever American -patriot ever held. We're bound together, us twenty-four, in a solemn vow -to rid Casco Bay of this menace to our land. And you can help, for a girl -sees things sometimes that men never get near." - -"Yes," said Pearl. - -She wanted to tell of the bolts of cloth on the wood schooner, of the -dory in the night and the face in the fire. "But those," she told -herself, "are more Ruth's secrets than mine. I'll wait and ask her -first." - -Meanwhile the fog was clearing. The rocks of Cushing's Island and the -shore line of Peak's Island were showing through. Very soon they were -moving slowly forward. Before Pearl knew it, they were at the dock in -Portland Harbor. - -"Young lady," said the Captain of the _Standish_, "we'd like a few facts -to enter in our log. Will you please come to my cabin?" - -Very much confused at being the guest of so great a man, Pearl found it -hard to answer questions intelligently. - -When at last the ordeal was over, the Captain led her to the steamer's -side. - -"Look down there," he said, smiling. - -"A new dory, all green and red!" said Pearl. - -"And a halibut," said the Captain. "You lost a halibut, didn't you say?" - -"Why yes, I----" - -"The dory and fish are yours," he said gruffly. "Present from passengers -and crew. Little token of--of--Oh, hang it, girl! Climb down and show us -you can row her." - -Pearl went down a rope ladder like a monkey. A moment later, waving a -joyous, tearful farewell to her new friends, she turned the shining -dory's prow toward home and rowed away. - - - - - CHAPTER VI - OFF FOR FURTHER ADVENTURE - - -Pearl returned home that evening to find a door to new and strange -adventure standing wide open before her. - -Donald, her brother, was seated before a small fire in the low -old-fashioned fireplace at the back of their living room. - -"Don!" she cried joyously. "You home?" - -"Yep." Big, broad shouldered, sea tanned, Don turned to smile at her. - -"Don, I caught a halibut, a twenty-five pounder!" - -"No?" - -"I did." - -"Let's see it." - -"I--I can't. It went out to sea in my dory. But Don! I've got a new dory -and a bigger halibut." - -"No?" Don rose. - -"Come on. I'll show you." - -"That," said Don after inspecting the dory fore and aft, and listening to -her story, "is a right fine dory, staunch and seaworthy. I'd like to take -it to Monhegan." - -"Monhegan?" Pearl's heart gave a great leap. Monhegan! The dream island -of every coast child's heart. Don was going there. - -"Yes," said Don. "Swordfishing is played out, and the canners have all -the horse mackeral they can use this season. I've decided to pack my -lobster traps on the sloop and go up about there somewhere, mebby only -Booth Bay Harbor. All depends. They say lobster catches are fine on the -shoals up there." - -"But Don," Pearl's eyes shone with a new hope, "if you take my dory, -you'll take me. You won't spend all your time tending lobster pots. -There's fine fishing up there. I caught a halibut. You'll take me, won't -you?" - -"Well," said Don, thoughtfully, "I might. You'd get lonesome, though. -Nobody but me and you and the sea; that is, nobody that we know." - -"Take Ruth, too," Pearl said quickly. "You should have heard her talk -about Monhegan over there by the old fort. She'll be wild to go. And she -is considerable of a fisherman, good as most men." - -Don considered the proposition. Ruth was his cousin. They had been much -together on the sea. Unlike his dreamy little sister, she had always been -able and practical. - -"Why, yes," he said at last, "I don't see why she shouldn't go, if she -wants to." - -Ruth was overjoyed at the prospect. She had no trouble in obtaining -permission to go, for, though Don had barely turned twenty, he was known -as one of the ablest seamen on all Casco Bay, and no one feared to sail -with him. - -So, one day when the sky was clear and the water a sheet of blue, they -rounded the island and went scudding away toward the island of many -dreams. - -As old Fort Skammel faded from their sight, Ruth thought of the unsolved -mystery hidden there and resolved to delve more deeply into it as soon as -she returned from this trip. - -Someone has said that all of life is closely interwoven, that warp and -woof, it is all one. Certainly this at times appears to be true. There -was that lurking in the immediate future which was to connect experiences -at Monhegan with the old fort's hidden secret. But this for a time was -hidden by the veil of the future which ever hangs like a fog just before -us. - - - - - CHAPTER VII - SOME LOBSTERS - - -It was strange. As Donald Bracket shaded his eyes to peer into the -driving fog he seemed to see a face. The muscles of that face were -twisted into a smile. Not a pleasant smile, it came near being a leer. - -Of course, there was no face; only an after image that had somehow crept -up from the shadowy recesses of his brain. A very vivid image, it -remained there against the fog for many seconds before it slowly faded. - -"Peter Tomingo," he said to himself. "It's fairly spooky, as if he had -sent us out to get into this mess, knowing we'd fall into it. - -"But then," he thought a moment later as he steered his sloop square into -the heart of a great wave, "he didn't know. No one could foretell such a -storm four days in advance. Besides, he couldn't count on my coming out -this very day." - -"Whew!" He caught his breath. Cutting its way through the crest of the -wave, his twenty-foot fishing boat went plunging down the other side. For -a matter of seconds the air about him was all white spray. This passed, -but the driving fog remained. - -"Good thing the canvas is there." He tightened a rope that held a -protecting canvas across the prow of his boat. "Be dangerous to get one's -motor wet in such a blow. Might be fatal." - -Once more, wrinkling his brow, he stared into the fog. "Wish I could -sight Monhegan. Wish----" - -An exclamation escaped his lips. He drew his hands hastily across his -eyes. The face, the crafty smile, were there again. The lips appeared to -move. They seemed to be saying: - -"The shoal is just there. Plenty da lobsters. Plenty big. Wanta go. Boat -too small, mine. Too far froma da shore. Plenty da lobster. Get reech -queek." - -"Well, anyway, he told the truth," Don said to himself. "There are -lobsters aplenty." He glanced down at a crate where a mass of legs, eyes -and great green pinchers squirmed and twisted while the boat, worried by -the ever increasing storm, rolled and pitched like a bit of drift in a -mountain cataract. - -He threw a look at the two water drenched girls, Pearl and Ruth, who sat -huddled in the prow, and his brow wrinkled. - -"Have to get out of this," he told himself, taking a fresh grip on his -steering stick. "Only question is, where?" - -That indeed was the question. Fifteen miles to the westward was the -mainland and rocky shores little known to him. He was far from his usual -fishing ground. Somewhere out there in the fog, perhaps very near, -scarcely a mile long, a mere granite boulder jutting out of the sea, was -the island called Monhegan. Smaller rocks jutting up from the sea formed -a safe harbor for this island. Once there he could weather the storm in -safety. Again he shaded his eyes to peer into the fog. - -For a full moment, with straining eyes, he stood there motionless. Then -of a sudden a sigh of satisfaction escaped his lips. Towering a hundred -or more feet above the sea, a bold headline loomed before him. - -"Black Head," he whispered. "That's better." - -Touching his lever, he set his boat at a slight angle to the rushing -waves, then took a deep breath. The battle was begun, not finished. The -channel that led to Monhegan's cozy harbor was narrow. It was guarded by -nature's sentinels--black and frowning rocks on one side, reefs booming -and white on the other. Many a stauncher boat than his had turned back -before these perils. The rocky shore of Monhegan has taken its toll of -lives all down the years. - -"It is to be a battle," he exulted, "and I shall win!" - -In the meantime, while his immediate attention was devoted to the present -struggle, the questions regarding Tomingo and the lobster industry were -revolving themselves in the back of his mind. - -They, the three of them, Don, Ruth and Pearl, had reached the mainland -nearest to the island of Monhegan, Booth Bay Harbor, in safety. There -they had taken up their abode in an abandoned fisherman's shack. Shortly -after that Don had met Tomingo. - -To Tomingo he had confided his plans for lobster trapping. Tomingo had -told him of the reef far out from the mainland, but near Monhegan, where -the lobster fishing was unusually good. Without thinking much about it, -he had followed the tip. The weather had been fine. Having piled his -motor boat high with lobster pots, he had gone pop-popping away toward -Monhegan. - -He had experienced no difficulty in finding the long sunken reef Tomingo -had pointed out on the chart. He had baited his pots with codfish heads, -then dropped them one by one along the reef. After adjusting the bright -red floats, each marked with his initials, he had cast an appraising eye -along the tossing string of them, then turned his boat's prow toward his -shack. - -"Fifteen miles is a long way to come for lobsters," he had thought to -himself. "But the reefs close in are fished out. If the catch is good -I'll do well enough." - -A two days' storm had kept him from his traps. The morning of this, the -third day, had promised fair weather; so with his sister and cousin on -board, he had ventured out. Nature had kept but half her promise. Fair -weather had continued while he was visiting the shoal. The work of -lifting the traps had been particularly difficult. Ruth had given him a -ready hand at this. Six traps were fairly loaded with lobsters. A seventh -had been torn in pieces by a fifteen pound codfish that had blundered -into it. Another trap had been demolished by a dogfish. All the other -traps had yielded a fair harvest. - -"It sure was a good catch," the boy told himself as he thought of it now. -"Never had a better." - -"But that Tomingo," he thought again. "Why did he tell me about it, me, a -stranger and an American?" - -That, indeed, was a question worthy of consideration. The conflict -between native born and foreign born fishermen all along the Maine coast -has for many long years been a hard-fought and bitter one. At times -floats have been cut and traps set adrift and sharp battles fought with -fists and clubbed oars. It seemed inconceivable, now that he thought of -it, that any foreigner should have told him of this rich fishing ground. - -"It is true," he told himself, "that Tomingo's boat is smaller and less -seaworthy than mine. I wouldn't want to come this far in it myself. But -some of his friends and fellow countrymen have far better boats than -mine. Why should they not fish that shoal?" - -He could not answer this question. "There's a trick in it somewhere, I'll -be bound, and I'll find it soon enough without doubt. Meanwhile there is -business at hand." - -And, indeed, there was. The frowning rocks of Black Head, Burnt Head and -Skull Rock loomed squarely before him. He had been told enough to know -that this was the back of the island, that he must round the point to the -left, circle half about the island and enter from the other side. - -"Going to be a hard pull," he said, setting his teeth hard, "but if the -old engine stays with me I'll make it." - -The memory of that next hour will remain with the boy as long as the -stars shine down upon him and the sun brightens his mornings. - -The wind, the fog, the storm, the falling night. Above the roar of the -sea a long-drawn voice, hoarse and insistent, never ending, the voice of -Manana, the great fog horn that, driven by great engines, watched over -night and day, warned of rocky shoals and disaster. - -With that voice sounding in his ears, with damp spray cutting sharply -across his face, with his light craft like a frightened rabbit leaping -from wave to wave, he steered clear of Black Head, White Head and Skull -Rock, to round the point and come swinging round toward the narrow -entrance where he would find safe haven or a grave. - -He was heading for what he believed to be the channel when a light -creeping slowly across the sky caught and held his attention. It was -growing dark now, difficult to see ten yards before him. He needed to get -in at once. For all this, the mysterious light intrigued him. Beginning -at the right, it moved slowly over a narrow arc against the black sky. -Pausing for the merest fraction of a second, it appeared to retrace its -way over an invisible celestial way. - -"What can it be?" For a moment he was bewildered. Then, like a flash it -came to him. He was looking at the crest of the great rock that lay -before Monhegan. On Monhegan a powerful light was set. As it played -backward and forward it tinged the crest of Manana, as the rock was -called, with a faint halo of glory. - -"What a boon to the sailor!" he thought. "What real heroes are those who -live on this bleak island winter and summer! What--" - -His thoughts broke straight off. Before him he had caught an appalling -sound, the rush of surf beating upon a rocky shoal. - -Reflected from Manana, a single gleam of light gave him further warning. -The shoals were just before him. The waves there were breaking mountain -high. Turning his boat squarely about, he set his engine to doing its -best and trusted himself to the trough of a wave. Instantly there came a -drenching crash of cold black water. - -He clung desperately to his course. Any moment the engine, deluged by a -greater sea, might go dead. Then would come the end. - -"But there's no other way." He set his teeth hard. - -Once more he caught the moving gleam across the sky. That gleam saved -him. He held to a course perpendicular to its line of motion as long as -he dared. Then, swinging through a quarter circle he shot straight ahead. -Five minutes later, drenched to the skin, panting from excitement and -well nigh exhausted, but now quite safe, he ran his boat alongside a punt -where a yellow light gleamed. - -"Hello!" said a voice. A lantern held high revealed a boyish face. -"Pretty lucky you got in. Nasty night. Some blow!" said the boy. - -"Wouldn't have made it," said Don, "only I caught the gleam on the crest -of Manana. It guided me in." - -"Tie up," invited the boy. "I'll take you ashore in my punt." - -"What you got there?" he asked in a surprised tone as the light of his -lantern fell upon the crate. - -"Lobsters," said Don. - -"Lobsters?" The boy let out a whistle of surprise. "Where'd you get 'em?" - -"On a shoal, little way out." Don hadn't meant to tell that. He hadn't -liked the sound of that whistle. He spoke before he thought. - -"You'd better watch out," said the other boy. Then without allowing time -for further remarks, "All set? Hop in then. I got to go ashore. The gang -will be looking for me." - -As the young stranger rowed the two girls and Don ashore, Don wondered -over his strange warning. - -"You better look out!" What could he have meant? He wanted to ask. -Natural reserve held him back. - -Only once during the short journey was the silence broken. They were -passing a boat covered with canvas and sunk to the gunwale. - -"What's that for?" Don asked. - -"Lobster pond. Keep lobsters there." - -"Why do they keep them?" - -"There are a hundred or more of us summer folks out here," the other boy -explained. "We like a lobster salad now and then. They keep them for us. -Mighty decent of them to bother. A fine lot, these fishermen. Real -sports." - -Don thought it strange that lobsters should be kept when there was a -steady market for them and they were to be caught out here with -comparative ease. However, he asked no further questions. - -"Thanks for the lift." He stood looking up at the few lights that gleamed -through the fog. "Suppose I'll have to stay here all night." - -"Suppose so. I'd take you to our cottage, but it's small. We're full up. -Couldn't crowd one more in an end. There's a summer hotel up yonder." - -"Summer hotel. Four dollars up. Society folks." Don looked down at his -sodden garments. "No, thanks. Where do the fisherfolk live? I'm one of -them." - -"Why----" The boy appeared surprised. "Captain Field lives just down -there beyond the wharf. But you wouldn't go there?" - -"Wouldn't? Why not?" Something in the other boy's tone angered Donald. - -"You ought to know." The boy's tone was sharp. He turned to go. - -"But I don't." - -"Then you're dumb. That's all I have to say for you. You're breaking into -the closed season on lobsters. You couldn't do anything worse." - -"The closed season!" Don's eyes opened wide. "You're crazy. There's no -closed season on lobsters, not in the State of Maine." - -"On Monhegan there is, and believe me it's tight closed. Try it out and -see." - -"But that would have to be a law. No one owns the shoals." - -"Guess if you lived on this rocky island winter and summer, heat, cold, -supplies, no supplies, if you took it all as it came, you'd feel that you -owned the shoals. That's the way the folks here feel. They want time to -fish for cod and take summer parties about, so they haul up their traps -and call June to November a closed season. - -"Listen!" The other boy's tone was kindly now. "You seem a decent sort. I -don't know what got you out here. But you go back. Take your traps with -you. When people live in a place like this they've got a right to make a -few laws. Know those Italian fishermen over at the Bay?" he asked -suddenly. - -"Yes, one of them. Tomingo." - -"Tomingo. That's his name. He's their leader. They tried trapping on the -Monhegan shoals. Know what happened? Someone cut their floats. Never -found their traps, nor the lobsters in 'em. Goodnight. Wish you luck." -The boy disappeared into the fog. - -So that was it! And that was why Tomingo was so willing to direct him to -rich lobster fields! Don sat limply down upon a rock. The two girls stood -staring at him in silence. - -"He wanted to keep us off any ground he might wish to trap on, and wanted -to repay a debt to these Monheganites," he said to his companions. - -For five minutes he sat there enshrouded in fog, buried in thought. - -"Closed season!" he exploded at last. "What nonsense! Who ever heard of -such a thing? Of course, we won't pay any attention to it. And if they -cut my floats I'll have them in jail for it. There are laws enough -against that." - -With this resolve firmly fixed in his mind, but with an uneasy feeling -lurking there as well, he thought once more of supper and a bed for the -night. - -"We'll go to this Captain Field's place," he said to the girls. "I'll -tell him I am a fisherman from Peak's Island. That's true. I'll get an -early start in the morning. He need never know about my catch of -lobsters." - -With this settled in his mind he led the way round the bank, across the -wharf and up the grass grown path that led to the dimly gleaming light -that shone from Captain Field's window. - -A half hour later, with thoughts of the forbidden lobsters crowded far -back in the hidden recesses of their minds, the trio found themselves -doing full justice to great steaming bowls of clam chowder topped by a -wedge of native blueberry pie. - -All this time and for a long while after, Don talked of sails and -fishing, nets, harpoons, and long sea journeys with his smiling, -lean-faced and fit appearing host. Captain Field, though still a young -man, had earned his papers well, for he had sailed the Atlantic in every -type of craft and had once shipped as a harpooner on a swordfishing boat -outfitted in Portland harbor. - -As they talked Don's eyes roved from corner to corner of the cabin. -Everything within was scrupulously clean, but painfully plain, much of it -hand hewn with rough and ready tools. - -As if reading his thoughts, the young Captain smiled as he said: - -"There's not a lot of money to be had on Monhegan. The ground's too rough -for farming or cattle. We fish in summer and trap lobsters in winter. But -we must have an eye on the purse strings every day of the year." - -As he said this a curly-haired girl of eight and a brown-faced boy of six -came to kneel by their mother's knee to say their goodnight prayers. - -As he bowed his head with them, something very like a stab ran through -Don's heart and a voice seemed to whisper: - -"You are a thief. You are robbing these little ones and their honest -parents of their bread. They endure all the hardships of the year. You -come to reap a golden harvest from their lobster fields while their backs -are turned." - -He retired soon after. The bed they gave him was a good one. He was -tired, yet he did not sleep. For a full hour he thrashed about. Then a -sudden resolve put him to rest. - -As is the way with persons endowed with particularly splendid physique, -Ruth, in the broad rope bed beside her cousin, fell asleep at once. She -had wrestled long that day with trap lines. The struggle to reach shore -had been fatiguing. Her sleep was sweet and dreamless. - -Not so with Pearl. Her mind ever filled with fancy, was now overflowing. -She was now on Monhegan, the island of her dreams. She recalled as if -they were told yesterday the tales she had heard told of this island by -her seafaring uncle before she was old enough to go to school. - -"Oh, Uncle," she had cried. "Take me there! Take me to Monhegan!" - -"Some day, child," he had promised. - -Alas, poor man, he had not lived to fulfill his promise. Like many -another brave fisherman, he had lost his life on the dreary banks of -Newfoundland. - -"Dear Uncle," she whispered as her throat tightened, "now I am here. -Here! And I know you must be glad." - -The storm was still on. She could hear the distant beat of waves on Black -Head, Burnt Head and Skull Rock. The great fog horn still sent out its -message from Manana. - -"Hoo-who-ee-Whoo-oo!" Sometimes rising, sometimes falling, it seemed a -measureless human voice shouting in the night. The sound of it was -haunting. - -Rising and wrapping a blanket about her, the girl went to the low window -sill, to drop upon the floor and sit there staring into the night. - -There was little enough to see. The night was black. But across the crest -of that great rock, the spot of light played incessantly. - -"Fifteen miles out to sea," she thought. "Seems strange. One does not -feel that this house rested on land. It is more as if this were a ship's -cabin, the lighthouse our search light, the fog horn our signal, and we -sail on and on into the night. We----" - -She was awakened from this dream by an unfamiliar sound, thundering that -was not waves beating a shore, that might have been the roar of the -distant battle front. - -A moment passed, and then she knew. - -"A seaplane," she thought suddenly. "And on such a night! Why, that can -mean only one thing, a trans-Atlantic flyer!" - -How her heart leaped at the thought! She recalled with a tremor the day -she got news of "Lindy's marvelous achievement." - -Such flyers had become fairly common now. Yet she had never seen one in -his flight. - -"If he comes near enough," she said to herself, straining her eyes in a -vain attempt to pierce the inky blackness of the night. - -Then a new thought striking her all of a heap set her shuddering. "What -if he does not realize he is near Monhegan? If he is flying low, he will -crash." - -Involuntarily a little prayer went up for the lone navigator of the night -air. - -Nor was the prayer unheeded. As she looked a dark spot appeared over -Manana. Then the plane came into full view. As if set to the task, the -light from the island beacon followed the aviator in his flight. Ten -seconds he was in full view. Then he was gone, passed on into the night. - -"Why!" the girl exclaimed, catching her breath, "How--how strange!" - -The thing she had seen _was_ strange. A broad-winged seaplane with a wide -fusilage that might have been a cabin for carrying three or four -passengers, had passed. The strange part of it all was that it was -painted the dull gray-green of a cloudy sea, and carried not one single -insignia of any nation. - -"The Flying Dutchman of the air," she thought as a thrill ran up her -spine. - -For a long time she sat there staring at the darkness of night that had -swallowed up the mysterious ship of the air. - -At last, with a shudder, for the night air of Monhegan is chill even in -summer, she rose to creep beneath the blankets beside her sleeping -companion. - -She was about to drift away to the land of dreams, when she thought of -Captain O'Connor and what he had told her of smugglers along the Maine -coast. - -"Can it be?" she thought. "But no! One would not risk his life crossing -the ocean in a seaplane just to smuggle in a few hundred dollars' worth -of lace or silk or whatever it might be. 'Twouldn't be worth the cost. - -"But men," she thought quite suddenly. "He said something about smuggling -men into the country. It might be----" - -Her eyes were drooping. The day had been long. The salt sea air lay heavy -upon her. She fell asleep. - -It was a little dark when Don arose. The girls were still asleep. -Somewhat to his surprise, as he reached the beach he found the boy of the -previous night there before him. - -"Sleep here?" he asked good-naturedly. - -"Nope." There was something in Don's look that made this boy like him. -"Going so soon? Want me to take you out?" - -"Thanks. Yes." - -"Where is Captain Field's lobster pond?" Don asked as the punt bumped the -side of his boat. - -"That green one." The boy opened his eyes wide. "Why?" - -"Nothing. Give me a lift, will you?" Don was tugging at the crate of -lobsters in the bottom of his motor boat. - -"There!" he sighed as the crate dropped into the punt. "Just row me over -to the Field lobster pond, will you?" - -Once there, to the boy's astonishment, Don loosed the lacings of the -canvas on Field's lobster pond, then one at a time he took the lobsters -from his crate and dropped them into the pond. - -"He buy them from you?" The younger boy was incredulous. - -"No." - -"You quitting?" - -Don nodded. - -"I like you for that." The other boy put out a hand. For a second Don -gripped it. Then, together they rowed back to the motor boat. - -The sea was calm now. Twirling the wheel to his motor, Don went -pop-popping away to his lobster traps. Having lifted these, he piled them -high on the deck, then turned his prow once more toward Monhegan. His -lobster fishing days on Monhegan shoals were at an end. But he was not -going to leave Monhegan, not just yet. The wild charm of the place had -got him. Strange and startling things were yet to greet him there. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - FROM OUT THE FOG - - -Despite the fog that lay low over the water, the sea was choppy. The -fisherman who rode in the improvised crow's nest in the forward rigging -of the fishing sloop rose ten feet in air to fall, then to rise and fall -again. There was a tossing, whirling motion that would have made most -girls deathly sick. Not so this one; for the fisherman who stood there -ever gripping the harpoon, with alert eyes watching, ever watching the -narrow circle of fogbound ocean, was Ruth. - -Swordfish had been reported off Monhegan; in fact Captain Field had -brought in a modest-sized one only the day before. - -Although Don and the two girls had decided that lobster trapping on the -Monhegan shoals was unfair to those daring souls who made their home on -these wave-beaten shores, they were spending a few days on the island. - -"May never be here again," Don had said. "From all I can see, it's not -quite like anything on earth. - -"I'm going to Booth Bay on the mail tug. The sea has calmed down quite a -bit. If you girls want to have a try at something, deep sea cod, horse -mackerel, or even swordfish, why there's the sloop. Safe enough as long's -you keep in sound of the fog horn or sight of the island. Go ahead." - -Because swordfishing is quite the most thrilling type of fishing on all -the coast, and because these huge battlers of the deep bring a marvelous -price when caught, Ruth had elected to go swordfishing. And here they -were. - -There was some fog, but as long as the hoarse _Whoo-whooo-oo_ of the fog -horn on Manana sounded in their ears, they were safe. That sound would -guide them back. - -Dressed as she was in faded knickers and a ragged lumberjack, with a -boy's cap pulled down tight over her unruly locks, one might easily have -taken this stalwart girl of the Maine coast for a boy, or, at the -distance, even for a man. - -"Guess we won't see any to-day," she shouted back to Pearl at the wheel. - -"Thickening up," Pearl replied. - -"May burn off later." - -"May." - -"We might drop anchor and try for cod," said Ruth. "There are lines and -bait in the forward cabin. We----" - -She broke short off to stare away to the right. The next second she -gripped her harpoon more securely as she uttered a command almost in a -whisper. - -The capable hands of her sixteen-year-old cousin gave the wheel a turn. -The boat bore away to the right. The look on Pearl's face became -animated. She knew what the command meant. A great fish of one sort or -another had broken water. - -"Probably a horse mackerel," she told herself. "Might be a swordfish, -though. If it is--if she gets him! Oh, boy!" - -The two girls had not been harpooning often, so this little adventure was -a real treat. Even a horse mackerel would be worth something. - -"But a swordfish," Pearl told herself with a real thrill, "one of them -may be worth a hundred dollars. And oh, boy! think of the thrill of the -chase!" - -The big girl in the crow's nest was not dreaming. With blue eyes intent, -with the color in her cheek heightened with excitement, she was studying -an object that, now lifting on the crest of a wave, showed black against -the skyline and now, with scarcely a perceptible motion, disappeared -beneath the sea. - -"Never saw a fish behave like that," she told herself. "Acts like a -log--almost--not quite. A log does not go under unless a wave hits it. -This thing does. Shaped like a swordfish. But whoever heard of a -swordfish acting that way?" - -Once more she turned her head to broadcast an order in a tone that was -all but a whisper. - -"It is a swordfish," she whispered back, ten seconds later. "I saw his -sword. He's a monster!" - -A swordfish! Her mind was in a whirl. Suppose they got him! A hundred -dollars. What did it not mean to those fisherfolk! A new suit for her -father, a dress for herself, a new stove for the kitchen and perhaps a -new punt. They needed a new one badly. - -"A swordfish! It is! It is!" Her heart pounded furiously against her ribs -as the boat came closer, ever closer to that languid black monster that -now rising, now sinking, seemed half asleep. - -A moment passed. Pearl caught the black gleam before her, and her eyes -shone as her tense muscles gripped the wheel. Pearl was standing up now. -Breathlessly she waited. - -As for the girl in the crow's nest, for the first time in her life she -was experiencing "buck fever." Little wonder. Never before had she cast -for a swordfish, yet here before her a monster cut the waves. His -five-foot sword dripped with foam as he rolled lazily over and sank. - -"Gone!" The tense muscles that had frozen her hands to the harpoon -relaxed. - -A minute passed. And then---- - -"There! There he is!" came in a tense whisper from the stern. - -Towering above the sea, her bronze face alight, the girl in the crow's -nest lifted an arm. With skill and precision she poised her harpoon, then -let fly. - -"Got him!" came from the stern. - -Something splashed into the water. An empty keg sealed up tight and -fastened securely to the harpoon rope, had been thrown overboard. It -would mark the progress of the struggling fish. - -But, strangely enough, the great fish did not struggle overmuch. After a -few wallowing flounders in an unavailing attempt to break away from the -harpoon line, he went down in a swirl of foam. A moment later he rose to -the top and swam heavily away. - -Pearl knew what to do. She followed the fish. - -"Acts awful queer," was the big girl's comment. A cold dread was gripping -her heart. What if this fish was sick? - -"People don't eat sick fish," she told herself. "He'd be a dead loss." - -No food from the sea is more highly prized than is the steak of a -swordfish. None brings a higher price in the market. But if the fish was -not sound, then all their work went for nothing. - -What was this? Some strange object was moving across the surface of the -water. Now on the crest of a wave, it plunged into the trough, then, like -some living thing, climbed the next wave. - -"But it can't be alive," she told herself. "It's only a mass of cloth and -twisted stick. Something tailing behind." - -For a moment she stared at this extraordinary phenomenon, an inanimate -object moving like a living thing across the water. Then of a sudden she -realized that this curious object was following the swordfish. - -Like a flash it came over her, and her heart sank. This was a marker, -just as her floating barrel was. Someone had caught the fish before her. - -"It's some of those city folks who make their summer home on Monhegan," -she told herself. "Been fishing with a kite. That's the remains of their -kite gliding along down there. They got a fish and have been playing him, -tiring him out. That's why he's so sort of dead. Oh! Gee!" She rested her -head on her arm and wanted to cry. - -Angling for swordfish with a kite is a sport indulged in by expert -fishermen all along the Atlantic coast. A live herring or other fish of -its size is attached to a hook on a line hanging from a kite. The kite is -then sailed from a boat over the water in such a manner that the live -bait, now beneath the water, now above it, moves along over the surface -like a small flying fish. The quarry, seeing this tempting prize, strikes -it, then the fight begins. The task of the sportsman is to tire the great -fish out. Of course, if the slender line is broken the prize is lost. The -battle sometimes lasts for hours. - -It was no sad face that Ruth presented to the yellow oilskin-clad city -boy and girl whose motor boat, the _Speed King_, soon hove into view. She -wasn't sorry she had spoiled their game. She was glad. She felt that they -had no right to make play out of what was work to her and had been to her -ancestors for generations. - -"What did you do that for?" The city boy in the prow of the boat lifted a -clouded and angry face to Ruth. To do him full justice, he had taken her -for a boy. - -"Do what?" Ruth asked belligerently. - -"Harpoon our fish." - -"How'd I know it was your fish?" - -"Had a line on him." - -"Couldn't see your line." - -"He was about done for. We'd have had him in another half hour. We've -been after him for five hours." The boy held up hands that were cut and -bleeding from handling the line. "It's our first one, too." - -"Well," said Ruth, and her tone was cold, "since you claim the fish, take -him. He won't give you much trouble now. All I want is my line and keg. -That ought to satisfy you." - -Ruth knew that it wouldn't satisfy. She knew all about this sportsman's -ideas of catches. She had murdered their prize. That's the way they would -look at it. If they didn't take the fish with such and such tackle, so -heavy a line and pole, just such a reel, they had nothing to boast of. -She had spoiled their game. But she didn't care. They had spoiled hers, -too, and it was more than just a silly game, it was bread and butter, a -new stove, some new clothes, a---- - -The boy began to speak again. His words burned with anger. "That don't -satisfy us, you know it don't, you meat hunter you----" - -The young girl with very bright eyes that rode beside him, tugging at his -arm, stopped the angry flood. She whispered in his ear. Ruth heard, and -her face flushed. - -What she had said was, "Don't. It's a girl." - -This made her more angry than ever, but she controlled her emotions and -said no more. - -A moment later the _Speed King_ turned about and left the circle of -fog-ridden sea to Ruth and Pearl and to the great fish that had ceased to -struggle. - -"Well," said Ruth, rising wearily from her place fifteen minutes later, -"since they don't seem to want the fish, guess we'd better take him home. -He's worth a lot of money, and we need it." - -There was no spirit in her voice. There was no spring in her usually -buoyant self as she did the work of dispatching the fish, taking the keg -and lashing the prize for a tow to port. She had won what she wanted, but -now she had it she was sure she was not going to enjoy it, not even the -new dress. - -Late that evening she delivered the prize to Captain Field, who promised -to carry it to market for her. She wasn't going to get a great deal of -joy out of the money, but one could not quite throw it away. - -"It's tough luck," Don said as she told him the story that evening. "I -suppose those city people must have their sport, but it's a little hard -to understand why one person's sport should interfere with another's -business." - - - - - CHAPTER IX - OFF BLACK HEAD - - -In the meantime, notwithstanding the fact that Ruth and Pearl were on far -away Monhegan, the old Fort Skammel mystery was not entirely neglected, -nor was the sleepy old fortress allowed to bask unmolested in the sun. - -With her two newly made pals away, Betty Bronson, who had lived for a -long time on the banks of the romantic Chicago River, and who had but -recently been taken up by a wealthy benefactress, found life hanging -heavy on her hands. The ladies in the big summer cottage on the hill, -which was her present home, drank quantities of tea, played numberless -games of bridge, and gossiped as ladies will. All of which interested -Betty not at all. - -Fishing off the dock was not exciting. She tried for cunners off the -rocks at the back of the island and was promptly and efficiently drenched -from head to toe by an insolent wave. - -After three days of this sort of thing she was prepared for any wild and -desperate adventure. Hiring a punt from Joe Trott, she rowed across the -bay to the old fort. - -The day was bright and the bay calm. The grass by the old fort was as -motionless and silent as were the massive stones which made up the walls -of the fort. - -"Peaceful," she thought. "What could be more so? Like the schoolhouse by -the road, the old fort is a ragged beggar sunning." - -No sooner had she gripped a flashlight and crept through a narrow square -where once a massive cannon had protruded, than all this was changed. As -if to make reality doubly real, the sun for a moment passed under a -cloud, and the great silent circular chamber, which had once known the -cannons' roar, became dark at midday. - -"Boo!" she shuddered and was tempted to turn back. Just in time she -thought of tea and bridge. She went on. - -"Ruth said it was down these stairs at the right," she told herself, -stepping resolutely down the ancient stone stairway. "Down a long -passage, around a curve, through a small square dungeon-like place, then -along a narrow passageway. Ooo-oo! That seems a long way." - -She was thinking of the face Ruth had seen in the fire. Just why she -expected that face to remain there, like an oil painting on the floor, -she probably could not have told. Perhaps she did not expect it. That she -did expect to meet with some adventure, make some discovery, or -experience a thrill was quite certain. - -"I wish Ruth were here," she told herself. "It's really her mystery; but -I'll save it for her." - -At that she disappeared down the narrow passageway that led to the dim -unknown. - -Had she known just what was happening to Ruth at that moment she would -have been surprised and startled. Ruth was experiencing adventure all her -own. - -On that day, still wondering and brooding over her curious experience -with the swordfish and trying without much success to get the consent of -her mind to enjoy the swordfish money gotten in such a strange manner, -Ruth had gone for a walk to the back of the island. - -Once there, fish and money were driven from her mind, for the view from -the crest of Black Head, a bold headland towering two hundred feet above -the sea, was glorious beyond compare. The day was clear. There was no -storm, yet great breakers, racing in from the sea, sent out long, low -rushes of sound as they broke against the impregnable black barrier. - -As her keenly appreciative eyes took in the long line of fast racing -gray-green surf, they suddenly fell upon a sight that made her blood run -cold. - -"What a terrible chance! How--how foolish!" she exclaimed as, springing -from her rocky seat, she went racing back over the island. - -Having arrived at the head of a rugged trail that led downward, she came -to a sudden pause. - -This, in view of the fact that she honestly believed that the boy and -girl on the rocks by the rushing surf were in grave danger, might seem -strange. Strange or not, she walked deliberately now. Dropping here, -clinging there to drop again, she had made her way half the distance to -them when she paused again to at last take a seat there in the sun. - -The path from there on was steep but straight. She could reach the ones -below in less than a moment's time. But she would not, at least not yet. - -"What's the use?" she told herself a little bitterly. "Wouldn't be so bad -if one didn't really like them. But I do." - -It was a rather strange situation. The boy and girl who were endangering -their lives by playing in the high rolling surf were the very ones who -had followed the swordfish the day before. - -With her eyes on the shining surf and the two dancing figures before her, -she gave herself over to reflection. - -The boy and girl below were tempting death. There was no question about -it. They were playing in the surf at an exceedingly dangerous moment. -True, there was no wind, no storm upon the sea. But there had been a -storm somewhere. That was evident. It might have happened on the faraway -coast of Florida. No matter, the seas that had risen then had journeyed -northward. Now they were reaching higher and higher on the sloping rock -where the boy and girl played. - -"They think the ocean is a plaything!" Ruth said almost bitterly. Having -lived her life in a fisherman's cabin by the sea, she knew the ocean was -no plaything. Twice in her short life she had looked into eyes that saw -nothing, on arms that would never move again, lifeless forms given up by -the sea. - -As she watched, in spite of her dislike for sports that tempted -providence, she found herself fascinated by the wild, nymph-like daring -of the twelve-year-old girl who in a single cotton garment drenched with -salt spray, hatless and bare of feet, sprang far out after the receding -waves to turn and rush back as the surf came thundering in. - -Now as she watched, the spray hid her. She sprang to her feet. - -"There! There! She's gone!" - -But, no, the spray cleared and the girl, drenched, chilled but -triumphant, threw up her arms and laughed. - -"Who can help but like them, these rich men's children!" she exclaimed. -"They are frank and fearless. They never quarrel. They are generous to a -fault. And yet--" she paused for a moment to reflect, "they don't seem to -have any notion of the value of life. They have never been taught to be -afraid." - -Not taught to be afraid. That was it. Too much fear was destructive; too -little fear quite as bad. - -Receding, the sea appeared to give up its attempt to snatch the daring -ones to its breast. Ruth's eyes and thoughts drifted away from the boy -and girl on the rocks. She joyed in the beauty and power of nature -revealed in that long line of thundering surf. Nowhere in all her life -had she seen such surf as came beating in at the back of Monhegan. - -Great men have felt the charm of it in all ages. Captain John Smith once -tarried to raise a garden there. Governor Bradford of Plymouth Plantation -was once there. And, at this very moment, Ruth caught a glimpse of a -shock of white hair which belonged to one of the greatest inventors of -modern times. - -"Suppose he is sitting there watching the surf and trying to estimate the -amount of power that is being wasted," she thought with a smile. - -But there was the surf again. Booming in louder than before it sent spray -forty feet high on Black Head's impregnable stronghold. There, too, were -the daring ones, the boy and the wildly dancing girl. - -"There! There!" she whispered tensely once more. "She is gone. The waves -have her." - -Once more she was mistaken. With a scream of triumph the child emerged -from the spray. - -"Wish I had never seen them," she mumbled angrily. - -The death of a human being, particularly a child with all the bright -glories of life before her, is something to give pause to every other -human being in the world. - -It did seem an unkind act of Providence that had thrust these two young -people who knew so little of fear and of the sea into the presence of one -who had experienced so much of the ocean's wild terrors. - -She had seen this boy and girl twice before. There had been the painful -swordfishing episode. Then once, as she had guided her motor boat into -the tiny harbor at Monhegan, a cry had struck her ear. She had taken it -for a cry of distress. Surf had been rushing in masses of gray foam over -the shoals before Monhegan. There had been something of a fog. Having -caught the outlines of a green punt there in the foam, she had exclaimed: - -"They have lost their oars. Their boat will be smashed on the rocks!" - -With infinite pains, in danger every moment of losing her motor boat, she -had worked her way close, then had shouted to them. - -To her great disgust, she had seen the boy turn and laugh. Once again -they were using the ocean as a plaything. Having thrown an anchor -attached to a long painter among the rocks, they were riding the surf in -their shallow punt. - -A strange providence had saved them. - -"But now they are at it again," she told herself. "I'll leave this -island. I won't be their keeper. I--" - -She broke off, to stand for ten seconds, staring. A piercing scream had -struck her ear. No cry of joy, this. As she looked she saw the boy alone -on the slanting rock. On the crest of a wave she caught a fleck of white -that was not foam. - -"The girl! She's out there! She's swimming. She--" - -Like a flash she shot down the rocky path. At the same instant an old -man, his gray hairs flying, sprang down the other bank of the rocky run. - -The old man reached the spot before her. - -"No! No! Not you!" she panted. She knew that no white-haired patriarch -could brave that angry swirl of foam and live. - -The aged inventor knew this quite well. He knew something more. He had -measured the boy's strength and prowess and found it wanting. - -"Not you either," he panted as the suddenly panic-stricken and -heart-broken city boy prepared to leap to the rescue. - -"Not you!" The old man seized him and pinned him to the rock. "If someone -is to undo the harm done by your recklessness it must be another." The -aged inventor paused, out of breath. - -That other was Ruth. No one knew that better than she. The time had come -when she must battle with death for the life of another. - -"Go! Go for a boat!" she shouted to the boy and the man. Her voice -carried above the roar of the surf. With that she leaped square into the -arms of a gigantic wave to be carried away by it toward the spot where -the white speck, which had a moment before been a joyous twelve-year-old -girl, struggled more feebly and ever more feebly against the forces that -strove to drag her down. - -The battle that followed will always remain a part of Monhegan's colorful -history. - -Two thoughts stuck in Ruth's mind as, throwing the foam from her face, -she struck for the place where the white spot had last been. She must get -a firm grip on the girl; then she must go out, out, OUT. Nothing else -could save them. By a great good fortune this was a moment of comparative -calm. But such calms are deceiving. Ruth was not to be deceived. The -ocean was a cat playing with a mouse. At any moment it might be raging -again. To attempt a landing on the rocks, to allow one's self to be cast -high against Black Head's pitiless wall was to meet death at a single -blow. - -"I must go out, out, OUT. There is life," she told herself over and over. - -But first the girl. A low wave lifted her. Riding its crest, she caught a -glimpse of that slight figure. But now she was gone, perhaps forever. - -But no; there she was closer now, still battling feebly against the blind -forces dragging her down. - -With almost superhuman strength the fisher girl leaped against the waves. -Now she had covered half the distance, now two-thirds, and now she -reached the child. As if to torment her, a wave snatched her away. She -disappeared. - -"Gone!" she murmured. - -But no, there she was, closer now. Her hand shot out. She grasped a shred -of white. It gave way. A second stroke, and she had her. - -Gripping her firmly with one hand, she swam with the other. Swimming now -with all her might, she made her way out until the sea grew wild again. - -Nothing could be done now but keep heads above the foam and spray. One, -two, three waves, each one higher than the last, carried them toward the -terrible wall of stone. Now they were five yards back, now eight, now -ten. With an agonizing cry, the girl saw the rocks loom above them. - -But now, just in the nick of time, as if a hand had been laid upon the -water and a mighty voice had whispered, "Peace! Be still!" the waves -receded. - -Ruth, looking into the younger girl's eyes, read understanding there. - -"Can you cling to my blouse? I can swim better." - -The girl's answer was a grip at the collar that could not be broken. - -The next moment a fearful onrush found them farther out, safer. But -Ruth's strength was waning. There was no haven here. A boat was their -only hope. - -Hardly had she thought this than a dark prow cut a wave a hundred yards -beyond them. Above the prow was a sea-tanned face. - -"Captain Field!" She shouted aloud with joy. Captain Field is the -youngest, bravest of all the Atlantic seaboard. - -"Now we will be saved," she said, huskily. The girl's grip on her jacket -tightened. - -The rescue of two girls by a small fishing schooner tossed by such a sea -was no easy task. More than once it seemed the boat would be swamped and -all lost. Three times the waves snatched them away as they were upon the -point of being drawn aboard. But in the end, steady nerves, strong -muscles and brave hearts won. Dripping, exhausted, but triumphant, Ruth -and the one she had saved were lifted over the gunwale. At once the -staunch little motor boat began its journey to a safe harbor, and all the -comforts of home. - - - - - CHAPTER X - THE TILTING FLOOR - - -That evening Ruth sat before a tiny open grate in her room at Field's -cabin. She was alone; wanted to be. The summer folks were giving a -concert up at the big hotel. Pearl and Don had gone. She had wanted to -sit and think. - -She had been angry for hours. "I'll leave Monhegan in the morning," she -told herself, rising to stamp back and forth across the narrow room. "If -Don isn't ready to go, I'll take the tug to Booth Harbor and go down by -steamer. I won't stay here, not another day!" - -She slumped down in her chair again to stare moodily at the fire. What -had angered her? This she herself could not very clearly have told. -Perhaps it was because they had tried to make a heroine of her. She -hadn't meant to be a heroine, wouldn't be made one. The whole population -of the island, a hundred and fifty or more, had flocked down to the dock -when Captain Field brought her and the rescued girl in. - -There had been shouts of "What a wonder! A miracle girl!" - -An artist had wanted her to pose for a portrait. "So romantically -rugged," he had said as he gripped her arm with fingers that were soft. - -"Romantically rugged." She didn't want her portrait painted; had only -wanted dry clothes. - -"They had no right to do it," she told herself savagely. "If that boy and -girl hadn't been tempting God and Providence by playing in the surf, I -wouldn't have been obliged to risk my life to save the girl. And on top -of that they have the nerve to want me to pose as a heroine!" - -She slumped lower in her chair. Yes, she'd go home to-morrow. She had -begun by loving Monhegan. The bold, stark beauty of it had fascinated -her. Nowhere else did the surf run so high. Nowhere else were the -headlands so bold. No surf was so green, blue and purple as that which -rose and fell off Black Head, Burnt Head and Skull Rock. - -But now the cold brutality of nature as demonstrated here left her -terrified and cold. - -Perhaps, after all, she was only in a physical slump after a heroic -effort. For all that, she had formed a resolve to leave Monhegan in the -morning. Like a spike in a mahogany log, the resolve had struck home. It -would not be withdrawn. - -As for Pearl, she was at that moment listening to such music as it was -seldom her privilege to hear--Tittle's Serenade done on harp, flute, -violin and cello. Her eyes were half closed, but for all that she was -seeing things. She was, as in a vision, looking into the night where a -single ray of light fell upon a mysterious dark-winged seaplane speeding -away through the fog above the sea. - - * * * * * * * * - -It was at noon of that day that Betty found herself moving slowly, -cautiously down the narrow passageway at the heart of old Fort Skammel, -that was supposed to lead to the spot where Ruth had seen the face in the -light of her Roman candle on the Fourth of July. - -The place was spooky enough in daytime. In truth, day and night were -alike in those subterranean passageways which had once led from dungeon -to dungeon and from a battery room to one at a farther corner of the -massive pile of masonry. No ray of light ever entered there. The walls -were damp and clammy as a tomb. - -Still, urged on by mystery and who knows what need of change and -excitement, the slender, dark-eyed girl pushed forward down this -corridor, round a curve, across a small room which echoed in a hollow way -at her every footstep, then round a curve again until with a wildly -beating heart she paused on the very spot where Ruth had fired the -eventful Roman candle. - -Nor was she to wait long for a thrill. Of a sudden, of all places in that -dark, damp and chill passage, a hot breath of air struck her cheek. - -Her face blanched as she sprang backward. It was as if a fiery dragon, -inhabiting this forsaken place, had breathed his hot breath upon her. - -Be it said to her credit that, after that one step backward, she held her -ground. Lifting a trembling hand, she shot the light of her electric -torch before her. - -That which met her gaze brought an exclamation to her lips. Not ten feet -before her a square in the floor, some three feet across, tilted upward. -Moved by an invisible, silent force, it tilted more and more. A crack had -appeared between the floor and the tilting slab. From this crack came the -blast of heat that fanned her cheek. - -"The fort is on fire," she told herself in a moment of wild terror. - -Then, in spite of her fright, she laughed. How could a structure built -entirely of stone burn? The thing was absurd; yet there was the heat from -that subterranean cavity. - -"There!" She caught her breath again. The heat waves had been cut short -off. She looked. The slab of stone was dropping silently down. - -"It--why it's as if someone lifted it to have a look at me!" she told -herself as a fresh tremor shot up her spine. - -She did not doubt for a moment that this conclusion was correct. In spite -of this, and in defiance of her trembling limbs that threatened to -collapse, she moved forward until she stood upon the very slab that had -been lifted. - -"Don't seem different from the others," she told herself. "Nothing to -mark it." - -"Well," she told herself as her eager feet carried her farther and -farther from that haunting spot, "I've done a little exploring. I've made -a discovery and had a thrill. That's quite enough for one day." - -"Ought to tell someone," she mused as she sat before the wood fire in the -great fireplace of the big summer cottage on the hill that evening. "But -then, I wonder if I should? It's really Ruth's mystery. She should have a -share in its uncovering. I'll go back to-morrow and see what more I can -discover," she told herself at last. - -Had she but known it, reinforcements were shortly to be on the way. In -Don's room on Monhegan, Ruth, Pearl and Don had just held a consultation. -In the end they agreed that they should start for home in the morning. - -A short while after this, Ruth, as she was about to fall asleep, reached -a comforting conclusion: - -"Since I saved that girl's life," she told herself, "it should square -that swordfish affair. I can now spend the swordfish money with a good -conscience. I shall have a new punt as soon as I reach Portland Harbor." - -Don's boat was a sailing sloop with a "kicker" (a small gasoline motor) -to give him a lift when the wind was against him. The day they started -for home was unusually calm. Sails bagged and flapped in the gentle -breeze. The little motor pop-popped away, doing its best, but they made -little progress until toward night, when a brisk breeze came up from the -east. Then, setting all sail, and shutting off the motor, they bent to -the wind and went gliding along before it. - -There is nothing quite like a seaworthy sail boat, a fair wind and a -gently rippling sea. At night, with the sea all black about you and the -stars glimmering above, you appear to drift through a faultless sky -toward worlds unknown. - -Ruth and Pearl, after their exciting experiences on Monhegan, enjoyed -this to the full. Not for long, however, for there was something in the -salt sea air and the gently rocking boat which suggested long hours of -sleep. So, after wrapping themselves in blankets, with a spare sail for a -mattress, they stretched out upon the deck and were soon lost to the -world of reality and at home in the land of dreams. - -It was on this same calm day that Betty returned to old Fort Skammel and -the scene of the tilting stone floor. - -Just what she expected to see or do, she could not perhaps have told. -Driven on by the spirit of adventure, and beckoned forward by the lure of -mystery, she just went, that was all. - -As it turned out, she saw that which gave her food for thought during -many a long hour. - -Having made her way, with hesitating steps and backward glances, to the -spot where Ruth had seen the face-in-the-fire, she threw her light ahead; -then, with a quick little "Oh-oo" took an involuntary step backward. - -The square section of stone floor was now tilted to a rakish angle. It -appeared stationary. Beneath it was revealed an open space some three -feet across. - -As the girl switched off her light and stood there trembling, she -realized that a faint unearthly yellow light shone from the half dark -space beneath the stone. - -For a full moment, with no sound save the wild beating of her heart to -disturb the silence of the place, she stood there motionless. - -Then, seeing that nothing happened, she plucked up courage, and, without -turning on her torch, dropped on hands and knees, to creep toward the -oblong of yellow light. - -Three times her heart leaped into her mouth. A small stone rolling from -beneath her hand wakened low echoes in the place. A stone that gave way -beneath her suggested that she might at any moment be plunged into an -unknown abyss below. Some sound in the distance, probably made by a rat, -all but made her flee. In time she found herself gazing down into the -space beneath the tilted floor. - -The sight that met her gaze was worthy of her effort. A small square room -lay beneath her and in that room, revealed by the witch-like yellow -light, piled on every side and in great squares at the center, were bolts -and bolts of richly colored silks and boxes beyond number, all filled, if -one were to be guided by the three that had been broken open, with silk -dresses, red, blue, orange, green, silver and gold, fit for any princess -of old. - -"Oh! Ah!" she said under her breath. - -Then, just as she was beginning to wonder and to plan, there sounded far -down some dark corridor heavy footsteps. - -In wild consternation, without again switching on her torch, she sprang -away down the narrow passageway. Nor did she draw an easy breath until -she was in her punt and half way across the bay. - -Then as she dropped the oars for a second she drank in three long breaths -of air to at last release a long drawn "Whew!" - -She had not been in the big summer cottage on the hill five minutes, her -brain pulsating from a desire to tell someone of her marvelous discovery, -when the rich lady of the house told her of a yachting party to start -early next morning. - -"We will be gone three or four days," she was told. "Pack your bag well, -and don't forget your bathing suit." - -"Three days! Oh--er--" She came very near letting the cat out of the bag -right there, but caught herself just in time. - -"Why! Don't you want to go?" Her benefactress stared at her in -astonishment. "It will be a most marvelous trip, all the way to Booth Bay -and perhaps Monhegan, and on Sir Thomas Wright's eighty-foot yacht. You -never saw such a boat, Betty. Never!" - -"Yes, yes, I'd love to go." Betty's tone was quite cheerful and sincere -now. She had caught that magic name Monhegan. - -"Ruth and Pearl are up there," she told herself. "It's a small island. I -am sure to see them. I'll tell Ruth. It's her secret. Then, when we come -back--" She closed her eyes and saw again those piles and piles of -shimmering silken dresses. - -"I'd like to try them on, every one," she told herself with a little -gurgle of delight that set the others in the room staring at her. - -But Ruth and Pearl, as you already know, were on their way home. - - - - - CHAPTER XI - THE WAVERING RED LIGHT - - -"Look, Don. What a strange red light." Pearl, who had been curled like a -kitten on the prow of the boat, rose on her elbows to point away to sea. - -"Where?" Don asked. - -"Over by Witches Cove." - -"Plenty of lights on the sea," he grumbled. He was tightening the last -bolts in the pride of his life, his sloop with a kicker, which he had -whimsically named _Foolemagin_. They had been home from Monhegan a full -day now. His motor had gone wrong, and he was repairing it. In a few -moments she would be cutting the waters down the bay. He did not wish to -be disturbed. - -"But this one acts so strangely," Pearl persisted. "It sort of wavers up -and down, like--like a ship in distress." - -"Distress! What nonsense!" the boy exclaimed impatiently as he tossed -down a hammer and seized a wrench. "There is no sea tonight. A little -swell, that's all. How could a ship go aground on a night like this?" - -"There now!" he sighed at last. "She ought to do for a trial trip." - -Releasing his boat from the float to which she was anchored, he threw the -motor into gear. Purring as sweetly as a cat on the hearth, the motor set -the boat gliding through the water. - -"What could be finer?" He dropped back on the circular seat in the stern. - -Indeed, what could? The sea, the night and a boat. Such a boat, too! -True, the hull of the _Foolemagin_ had seen much service. But it was -strongly built, and Don Bracket knew his business. He had calked her -well. And her motor was nearly new. Little wonder that the boy's heart -swelled with joy and pride as the boat, responding to the lightest touch, -headed for the open sea. - -The boy had worked hard and long for this prize. In a twelve-foot punt he -had rowed hundreds of miles. Setting lobster pots, trapping crabs, -digging clams for the summer folks, he had added a dime here, a quarter -there, a dollar now and then until there was enough. - -"Now," he thought, "since Monhegan disappointed me, I'll get busy here at -home. I'll make a lot more lobster pots. I'll set them out by Green -Island, Witches Cove and the Hue and Cry. I'll get big ones, five -pounders, beauties." - -In his dreaming he quite forgot the girl who still lay half curled up -back of the prow. To one who did not know her, Pearl might have seemed a -kitten sort of girl, soft, dreamy and purring. Not so Don. He knew she -could swim as strong and far as he, that she could row a punt or drag a -lobster pot from the shoals with the best of them. - -She could relax it is true. Everyone should be able to do that. She was -relaxed now, staring dreamy eyed into the gathering darkness. But of a -sudden she sat bolt upright. - -"Look, Don!" she cried. "Look at the wavering red light. Over by Witches -Cove." They were much nearer now. "It is someone in distress. Must be." - -Without reply, Don turned the prow of his boat toward the shoals back of -Witches Cove, set his motors doing their best, then leaned back to watch -with half closed eyes that wavering light. - -"Lights," said the girl, as if half talking to herself. - -"There are plenty of lights about the bay these days--too many," said the -boy. "Mysterious doings, I'd say. That fellow in the cabin by Witches -Cove knows something about it all, I'll be bound. He may have something -to do with this light, decoy or something. But I'll see." - -He kept his boat headed squarely for the light. - -The girl did not answer his remarks. They had set her thinking all the -same. There had been strange doings about the bay. And not the least -mysterious person who might be connected with them was the man who had -taken up his abode in the abandoned cabin among the black clump of firs -that cast their dark shadows over Witches Cove. - -Many and strange were the thoughts that passed through her mind as they -came closer and closer to that dark sea cove about which weird and -fantastic tales had been woven. - -There were persons who could not be induced to fish there; no, not even -at midday, and now it was night. - -For this girl whose home had always been on Peak's Island, this cove had -always held a charmed fascination. As a small child, listening to the -tales of gray witches that rose from its depths in the dark of the moon, -she had time and again begged to be taken there. - -As soon as she was old enough to row a punt this far, she had fairly -haunted the spot on Saturdays and holidays. The banks of this pool were -steep and rocky. There were spots where its depths even at low tide -exceeded twenty feet. There were times when the waters were as dark and -green as old jade. At such times the movement of the incoming tide seemed -caused by some monster disturbed in his slumbers at the pool's bottom, -and the rush of water among the rocks seemed a whispering voice. The very -fish she caught there were different. As if touched by the brush of a -great artist, they took on fantastic colors--red, deep blue, purple and -green. The girl loved the spot. She thrilled now as she neared it. - -It had been on one of her Saturday afternoon fishing trips, not two weeks -back, as you may remember, that she had first discovered that someone had -taken up his abode on this small rocky and hitherto uninhabited island. - -She fell to thinking now of the two great cats and the little man with -the wide-rimmed glasses. - -"There! Right back there!" she said suddenly as the light, swinging clear -of the sea, continued to waver backward and forward in a jerky and -uncertain manner. - -"I know," the boy answered. "Be there in a minute. It may be some false -alarm. Be ready for a sudden start if I need to make it. If it's -smugglers or booze runners we may have to run for it. They don't love -company too well." - -The thing they saw as they rounded the reef and stood close in, -astonished them much. Lying on her side, with a gash in her side, was a -one time smartly rigged sailboat. Holding to the mast, and waving a -lantern around which was wound a red cloth, was a boy a year or two -younger than Don. Clinging to him for support as the heavy swell lifted -and lowered the wreck was a mere slip of a girl. - -"Not a day past twelve," was Pearl's mental comment. - -In an instant she recognized them. Yet she could not believe her eyes. - -"It can't be," she said in a low tone, more to herself than to Don. "But -it is! It's the girl Ruth saved from the surf at Monhegan, and her -brother." - -The strangest part of all was that the girl at this moment showed no sign -of terror. Her black eyes danced, as much as to say, "Well, here is a -real lark!" - -"Where'd you come from?" Don asked. - -"Monhegan." - -"Monhegan!" Don gasped. A girl and a boy in a sailboat coming fifty miles -over an open sea. The thing seemed incredible. - -"We didn't mean to come so far," said the boy. "Went out for a little -lark. Didn't know much about this boat. Uncle gave her to me a week ago. -She got going and I couldn't head her in, so we just came on down. Some -joke, eh?" - -Don didn't see any joke in it. A fine boat wrecked and all that, but he -had to admit that affairs do not look the same to all people. - -"What you going to do?" he asked. - -"Can't you take us ashore?" - -"Yes. But this boat of yours?" - -"Let her bust up. Don't care much for sailing. Dad's getting me a motor -launch." - -"You mean--" Don stared incredulous. True, the sailboat was an old model. -For all that, she had been a fast one in her day, and could easily be -made seaworthy. - -"Cost thousands," he thought. - -"Don! Don!" Pearl was tugging at his arm, whispering excitedly in his -ear. "Ask them to let us have it. We can fix it up. I want it for my very -own." - -So excited was she that her whisper came near to being a low scream. The -strange boy heard, and smiled. - -"If you can save her, she's yours," he promised. "Only get us out of -this. We're wet and getting cold." - -To Don the thing that the other boy proposed--that the boat, any boat for -that matter, should be left to pound its heart out like a robin beating -its breast against a cage, seemed a crime little short of murder. To a -boy whose ancestors for generations have belonged on the sea, a ship is a -living thing. - -"We'll take you over," he said shortly. "Get in. Quick." - -Without further word, the boy and girl climbed aboard. - -By great good fortune Ruth was at the dock when they came in. To her was -entrusted the task of conducting the boy and girl to warm quarters where -they might find a change of clothing. - -In Ruth's cottage the boy and girl sat beside the fisher girl in silence, -dreamily watching the fire. - -"Do you mean to say," said Ruth, breaking the silence, "that your -sister's very narrow escape from drowning made no impression upon you, -that you are as willing as ever to gamble with your life?" - -"She didn't drown, did she?" the boy looked at her and laughed. "She had -luck. Her time hadn't come, that's all. No use making a fuss about that." - -"Life," Ruth said quietly, "is a precious possession. No one has a right -to think of it lightly." - -"Life," said the boy with a toss of the head, "is a joke. We're here -because we're here and because we are to have a good time. What's the use -of making a fuss?" - -Ruth looked at him but said no more. - -In her own room an hour later she sat looking off at the bay. Her -thoughts were sadly mixed. She felt that the plan of life that had always -been hers was slipping. - -"Much work, friends, a home and a little pleasure now and then, holidays, -and--and-- - -"'Life,'" she quoted thoughtfully, "'is a joke. Life is a joke. What's -the use of making a fuss?'" - -She took down a box from a what-not in the corner. There was money in the -box, the last of the swordfish money. She had bought a punt because it -was truly needed. She had meant to spend the remainder for useful things -about the house and for fishing tackle which was also very practical. - -But now, "Life is a joke." She allowed the coins to slip through her -fingers like grains of sand. - -"A figured taffeta dress," she thought. "I've always wanted one, and a -new hat, and new pumps. I'll have them, too. Life is a joke." - -Had she truly convinced herself that it was not worth while to look upon -the business of living as a serious matter? Who can say? Perhaps she did -not know herself. - -As for Don and Pearl, they hurried back and were soon busily engaged in -the business of preparing to salvage the wreck. - -To Pearl, who kept repeating to herself, "If we can only do it. If only -we can!" the moments consumed by Don in rolling barrels and carrying -chains to the sloop seemed endless. But at last with the meager deck of -the _Foolemagin_ piled high, they headed once more for Witches Cove. - -The cove, as they neared it this time, seemed more fearsome and ghostly -than ever before. The moon was under a cloud. The clump of firs hung like -a menacing thing over the cliff. The light from the mysterious stranger's -cabin was gone. Pearl shuddered as she caught the long drawn wail of a -prowling cat. - -She shook herself free from these fancies. There was work to be done. -Would they succeed? She prayed that they might. The tide was still -rising. That would help. The empty barrels, once they were sunk beneath -the surface and chained to the broken hull, would help to buoy the -sailboat up. - -With practiced hand Don began the task that lay before him. Pearl helped -when she could. - -The first gray streaks of dawn were showing across the water when, with a -little sigh of satisfaction, Don beached the disabled boat on their own -sandy shore. - -"With a line from shore," said Don, "she'll be safe here until noonday -tide. Then I'll get her drawn up high and dry." - -Pearl did not reply. Curled up in the prow of his motor boat, she had -fallen fast asleep. - -"Brave girl," he whispered. "If we can make that boat tight and seaworthy -she shall be all your own." - - * * * * * * * * - -At eleven o'clock of a moonless, starlit night Pearl lay on the deck of -the boat, her own first sailing boat. The work of repair was done. The -_Flyaway_, as they had rechristened her, had gone on her maiden trip -'round the island and down the bay. She had proven herself a thing of -unspeakable joy. Speed, quick to pick up, with a keel of lead that held -her steady in a heavy blow, responsive to the lightest touch on rudder or -sail, she was all that mind might ask or heart desire. - -Already Pearl loved her as she might a flesh and blood companion. To lie -on her deck here beneath the stars was like resting in the arms of her -mother. - -Three hours before, Ruth had rowed Pearl out in her new punt. Then, -because there was work to do ashore, she had rowed back again. - -One "Whoo-o! Whoo-o!" through cupped lips and she would come for her. - -The night was still. Scarcely a vessel was stirring on the bay. Only -once, a half hour or so before, she had caught the creak of oars. She had -not so much as risen on elbow to see what boat it might be. Had she done -so, she would have experienced a shock. - -"Getting late," she told herself. "Have to go in." - -Rising on her knees, she cupped her hands to utter the old familiar call, -"Whoo-oo-ee." - -A call came echoing back. She listened for the sound of Ruth's shoving -off. Instead she caught low exclamations of surprise. - -"Oh, Pearl," came in troubled tones, "the punt's gone! Did you see -anybody?" - -"No." The girl was on her feet, fumbling the sail. "But I heard them. -They were headed for Portland Harbor. They must have stolen it. Quick! -Get some boat and come out. There's a stiff breeze. We'll catch them -yet." - -"Right!" Ruth went racing down the beach. - -For a girl Pearl displayed an astonishing amount of skill with sail and -rigging. Before Ruth in a borrowed dory bumped alongside she had the sail -up and was winding away at the anchor rope. A minute more and they were -gliding silently through the night. - -"Nothing like a sailboat for following a thief," Ruth whispered. -"Silent." - -"Not a sound. Slip right onto them." - -"Hope we can!" The older girl's work-hardened fingers gripped a long oar. -If they overhauled the thief there'd be no tardy justice. He'd get it -good and plenty right on the side of the head. It was the way of the bay. -They were heartless wretches, these Portland wharf rats. On the sea boat -stealing is bad as horse stealing on land. Yet if one of these men missed -the last ferry he took the first rowboat he came upon, rowed across the -bay, then cut her adrift. The owner was not likely to see his boat again. - -As the water glided beneath them and the semi-darkness advanced to -swallow them up, Ruth kept an eye out for a light or a movement upon the -water. Twice she thought they were upon them. Each time, with an intake -of breath, she gave Pearl whispered instructions and the boat swerved in -its course. Each time they were disappointed. A floating barrel, a clump -of eel grass had deceived them. - -And now they were nearing a vast bulk that loomed dark and menacing -before them. Old Fort Georges, built of stone before the Civil War, now -abandoned save as a storeroom and warehouse, lay directly in their path. - -This fort, that was said by some to be a storing place for enough army -explosives to blow the whole group of islands out to sea, had always cast -a spell of gloom and half terror over the girl at the helm. She was glad -enough when Ruth told her to swing over to the right and give it a wide -berth. - -The fort is built on a reef. To pass it one must allow for the reef. -Pearl, who knew these waters as well as any man, was swinging far out -when her cousin whispered: - -"Wait! Swing her in a bit. I heard a sound over there. Like something -heavy being dropped into a boat." - -As Pearl obeyed her heart was in her mouth. Eerie business, this skulking -about an abandoned fort at midnight. - -What followed will always remain a mass of confused memories in Pearl's -mind. As the boat glided along, something appeared before them. With a -suddenness that was startling, Ruth cut down the sail, then seized the -rudder. Even so they missed the other boat, Ruth's punt, by a very narrow -margin. - -They shot by, but not before Ruth, jumping clear of the sailboat, landed -in the punt. - -As she gripped at her breast to still her heart's mad beating, Pearl -caught sounds of blows, then cries for mercy, followed by muttered words -of warning. There came a splash, then another. Then save for the labored -pant of someone swimming, all was still. - -At once wild questions took possession of Pearl. What if her cousin had -been thrown overboard? Here she was with sail down, a girl, defenseless. - -Gripping the rope, she hauled madly at the sail. It went up with a sudden -start, then stuck. She threw her whole weight upon it. It gave way -suddenly, to drop her sprawling upon the deck. She lost her hold. The -sail came down with a bang. - -She was in the midst of her third frantic attempt to get under way, to go -for help, when a voice quite near her said: - -"It's all right. Let the sail go. I'll hoist it. Catch this painter." - -"Ruth!" Pearl's tone voiced her joy. - -A rope struck across the deck. She caught it. The next moment her cousin -was climbing on board. - -"It _was_ my punt," said Ruth quietly. - -"But the men? What did they do?" - -"Went overboard, and swam for the fort. Let 'em shiver there till -morning. Do 'em good. Teach 'em a lesson." - -"Something queer, though," she said as she made the painter fast. "They -seemed terribly afraid I'd beat up their cargo. Must be fresh eggs. Let's -have a flashlight. We'll take a look." - -A circle of light fell across the punt. A long drawn breath of excitement -escaped the girl's lips. - -"No wonder they were in a hurry to get away!" There was genuine alarm in -her tone. - -"Why? What is it?" Pearl gripped her arm. - -"Dynamite," Ruth answered soberly. "Enough to blow us all to Glory -sixteen times. And if I had struck a stick of it squarely with my oar--" -Again she let out a long low sigh. - -"Well, we've got it," she concluded. "Next thing is something else." - -There really was only one thing to be done; that was to take the dynamite -to the office of the Coast Guard in Portland and to tell the officer all -there was to tell about it. This they did on the next morning. When this -was done they considered the matter closed. It was not, however, not by a -long mile. - - - - - CHAPTER XII - THE LITTLE MAN OF WITCHES COVE - - -That day, after Ruth had delivered her fear-inspiring cargo, which had -doubtless been stolen from Fort Georges, to the proper authorities, she -went uptown to shop. There she selected with care a figured taffeta -dress, a bright new hat and new shoes. - -"I won't show them to anyone until Sunday," she told herself. When an -uneasy feeling took possession of her she stilled it by whispering, "Life -is a joke." Had she been asked quite suddenly what that had to do with a -figured taffeta dress, she might not, perhaps, have been able to tell. - -That same day, Pearl took her new dory and rowed away to her favorite -fishing ground, Witches Cove. - -She had not been fishing long when she caught sight of the mysterious -little man who, with his two great black cats, had come to live in the -abandoned cottage above the cove. - -At first he was seated on a tall rock, studying the sea with a great -brass telescope. Presently, however, she saw that he had left the rock -and was making his way down the fern grown rocks near her. As he came, -she studied him out of one corner of her eye. She lost two perfectly good -cunners doing this, but it was worth the price. This man was peculiar, a -"new type," one of Pearl's learned friends would have called him. He was -short almost to deformity. He was bow-legged and very broad shouldered. -He wore dark glasses which completely hid his eyes. Pearl thought nothing -of this last. Many persons living by the ocean wear such glasses to -protect their eyes from the dazzling reflection that comes from the -mirror-like surface of the sea. - -"Hello, little girl," he said quietly as he settled himself on a rock -overhanging the sea. "How's the fishing?" - -Pearl resented being called little, though indeed she was small for -sixteen. She was a little frightened too. Witches Cove is a lonely spot, -and as we have said before, quite spooky with all its black and green -reflections and its constant murmuring that seems to come from nowhere. - -But she had come to fish. Between the man and her boat were twenty feet -of deep water. Besides, the man intrigued her. So she stayed. - -"The fishing is fine," she said. - -"Often think I'll try it." - -"Why don't you?" - -"Too busy." - -For a moment there was silence. Pearl had caught sight of a great cunner -down there among the waving kelp. She was tempting him with a delicious -bit of soft clam. - -Up went her line, down again, away to one side. - -"O-o! He got it!" she murmured, drawing in her line. With a deft hand she -replaced her bait with a bit of tougher clam meat. Thirty seconds later a -three-pounder was beating a tattoo in the bottom of her boat. - -"That is a good one," said the stranger. "Can you now afford a moment for -talk?" - -"Why?" - -"It may be worth your while." - -"Well." The girl settled back. - -The man began to speak. In the twenty minutes that followed, this mystery -man of the rocky isle told the girl things she had never dreamed of. He -had opened up for her a new and quite terrible world. He ended by -startling her with his knowledge of recent events. - -"Someone stole your cousin's punt," he said quite suddenly, tilting on -his tiptoes above the black waters. - -Pearl looked at him in surprise. "Last night." - -"It was loaded with explosives when you got it back." - -Again the girl stared. - -"Look out for those men. They're dangerous. We've nearly got them three -times. They escaped us. Can't find out where they stay." - -Pearl thought of the face-in-the-fire, and old Fort Skammel. Her heart -gave a great bounce, but she said nothing. - -"How do you know such things?" she asked after a moment. - -He leaned far forward. "I'll tell you something, but you must not repeat -it." - -"I won't." - -"Well, then, I'm a Secret Service man." Her heart bounced again. She had -read books about such men, and they were thrilling and scarey. - -"Thanks," she said. "I won't tell. And I--I'll help if I can. It's my -country." - -"That's the spirit. Come to me anytime you have a thing to tell." - -A fish took her bait. She pulled him in. When she looked up, the man was -gone. - -Late that evening Betty returned from her yachting party. She had had a -glorious time, had traveled aboard the most marvelous yacht, all shining -brass and mahogany, satin cushions and lace curtains. She had had as her -traveling companions such notable people as she had never hoped to know. -A senator, a great yachtsman, a wonderful actress and a real poet had -been in the party. For all this she found herself over and over longing -to be back at the island where she might confide her marvelous secret to -those who had a right to know. - -They ran over to Monhegan. When she found that Ruth and Pearl were gone, -her desire to be back increased tenfold. - -Hardly had she raced up to the big cottage on the hill to change from -middy and short blue skirt to blouse and knickers than she went tearing -at a perilous rate down the hill toward Ruth's house. - -By great good fortune both Ruth and Pearl were there. - -"Oh, girls!" she exclaimed in an excited whisper. "I have a most -beautiful secret! There's a hole in the floor and it's all full of the -most marvelous silk things!" - -"A hole in the floor!" said Ruth, quite mystified by the girl's wild -rambling. - -"Come down to the beach." Betty dragged at their arms. "No one will hear -us there. I--I'll tell you all about it. Oh, girls! We must do something -about it! We truly must!" - -Away to the beach they went. There on the golden sand with the dark -waters murmuring at their feet, with the lights of Portland Harbor -winking and blinking at them, and the moon looking down upon them like -some benevolent old grandfather, the two girls listened while Betty -unfolded the story of her two visits to old Fort Skammel. - -"A warm room," she said at the end in a voice that was husky with -excitement, "a warm room, all glowing with a weird yellow light, and full -of silk things, dresses and dresses, all pink and gold, and blue and -green. You never saw any like them." - -"We'll go over there," said Ruth, "but not at night." - -"No, not at night." Betty shuddered. - -"When we have all seen it, we'll tell someone, perhaps Captain O'Connor. -Can't go to-morrow morning," Ruth said thoughtfully. "I promised to go -over and lift Don's lobster traps. Might get back in time to go over in -the afternoon." - -So they left the beach with the Portland lights still winking and -blinking at them, to return home and to their beds. - -As Ruth lay once more in her own bed looking out on the harbor, she -caught the slow movement of some great dark bulk, and knew it was the -ancient sailing ship, _Black Gull_. Never before had this ship spoken so -clearly of the glorious past of dear old Maine, of ships and the sea, of -settlement and glorious conquest, and of her brave sons who in every -generation had given their lives for freedom. - -Never before had she so longed to see the old ship, with every patched -and time-browned sail set, go gliding out into the free and open sea. -Perhaps this longing was prophetic of that which was shortly to come. - - - - - CHAPTER XIII - UNDER FIRE - - -It was another day, another golden link in the wondrous chain that is -life. Both Ruth and Betty were some distance away from their island home, -from cottage and big summer house. Fort Skammel, with its haunting -mysteries, and Witches Cove were far away in the dreamy distance and well -nigh forgotten in the charm of rocks, sky, sea and summer fragrance that -was all about them. They had come on a little journey all their own, -these two, and for a purpose. At the present moment Ruth was seated upon -a rocky ledge completely surrounded by wild sweet peas in full bloom and -Betty was somewhere out to sea in a punt. - -Green Island, the rugged bit of broken waste on which Ruth sat, is the -home of the seagulls. No one has ever lived on that island, but, as -evening falls on Casco Bay, many a seagull, weary with his day's search -for food, may be seen winging his way across the dark waters to this, his -haven of rest. - -Of all the spots near Portland Harbor, the rugged shoals off Green Island -are best for lobster fishing. Don had set a number of traps here. Having -been called to Portland, he had asked Ruth to sail the _Foolemagin_ out -to the island to lift the traps and bring in the catch. - -She had asked Betty to go with her. Betty had brought clams and a cod -line. There is no better cod fishing to be had than on the shoals by -Green Island. - -Betty had asked permission to fish over the shoals from Ruth's punt. -Since the day was calm, Ruth had given consent. Such a thing is always -risky, for a sudden fog or a squall may come up at any moment. But -perhaps Ruth still held in the back of her head the city boy's -declaration, "Life is a joke." At any rate, Betty had gone. The weather -had continued calm and clear. - -Looking out to sea, Ruth's eye caught the gleam of Betty's slender white -figure standing up in her punt, fishing. For a time she thought of Betty -and almost envied her. She had seen so much of the world and of life. - -"Well, some people are lucky," she told herself. "No use disliking them -for their luck." - -At that, forgetting Betty, she sank back upon a bed of fragrant wild -sweet peas, to stare dreamily at the drifting white clouds. Then, without -really intending to, she fell fast asleep. - -She was startled from her sleep a half hour later by a resounding boom -that shook the rugged island to its base and set a thousand seagulls -soaring and screaming as only seagulls can. - -"Target practice," she told herself, in no great alarm. "Ten-mile guns. -Oh, listen!" - -Came a loud scream as a shell passed at terrific speed through the air, -and again a deafening boom. - -"Closer to the island than usual," she told herself. "Glad I've lifted -the lobster traps. Guess I'll get out." - -She was standing now, looking down at her staunch little motor boat that -gently bumped the rocky shore of a sheltering cove. - -A sudden thought struck her all of a heap. She came to earth with a jolt. - -"Betty!" she thought. "Betty Bronson! She doesn't know about the guns. -She can't. She'll be killed, blown to bits!" - -Fort McKinley is ten miles from Green Island. At certain times of the -year a target is set on a raft and a schooner detailed to drag it about. -When the target is in position near Green Island, a plane circling low -over the water warns fishing crafts away. Then the great guns of the -fort, firing projectiles weighing a thousand pounds and more, break their -long silence. Ten miles from the fort, close to the drifting target, the -huge projectile falls. It strikes the water with a loud report. It -bounces, rises once more in air and, singing its song of hate and -defiance, flies through the air to at last sink to the bottom a hundred -fathoms below. Into this target practice Betty had blundered. - -"I wish I could warn her," Ruth told herself now. "The man in the -seaplane should do it. But he probably does not see her at all. Little -dark boat against a broad expanse of dark sea. How could he? And besides, -perhaps there is no danger after all. The firing for to-day may stop any -minute. The target ship may move off in some other direction." - -The firing did not cease. The target ship did not move away. - -"Ought to be getting back home." Ruth's gaze swept a hazy sky, then fell -to her staunch little sloop. "Going to storm. Can't tell how bad. Hate to -spend a night out here." But without Betty she could not go. - -Turning, she made her way down the rocky slope to the spot where her boat -was moored. - -Her hand was on the painter when again, closer, more terrifying, there -came a Zss-Spt-Boom. - -Dropping the painter, she turned and walked hurriedly back up the hill. - -With strained attention her eyes sought that small white figure. It was -nowhere to be seen. - -"Gone!" Vast relief was expressed in her tone. "Thought she'd see how -unsafe it was." - -Just to make assurance doubly sure, she took up her field glasses and -swept the black waters. - -One moment of silent attention and she dropped the glasses as if they -were hot. - -The sight that met her gaze as her eager eyes behind strong field glasses -sought out the lone fisherman, set her heart beating madly. A shell, -striking some distance back of the little boat, then bouncing in air -again, appeared to pass over the city girl's head. - -It was then, for the first time that Betty awoke to her peril. This -awakening was like the sudden ending of a dream. The very abruptness of -it was her undoing. She had just succeeded in hooking a great fish. -Perhaps it was a thirty-pound cod, a ray or a sunfish. She will never -know, for, having brought it half way up from the depths, she was shaken -to the very core of her being by this terrific boom and nerve wracking -scream. - -She threw herself backward, tangled with the cod line, set the boat -tilting, tried in vain to recover her balance and without knowing how it -had all happened, suddenly found herself free of the cod line but -submerged in cold salt water and clinging frantically to the bottom of -her overturned punt. - -Ruth, standing on the hill, saw all this. She saw more; that the girl was -still within the danger zone and that the target schooner was moving in a -direction that momentarily increased her peril. - -"I must go to her," she told herself with a little gasp of fear. "There -is no other way." - -With one short word of prayer for strength, the fishergirl of the Maine -coast dashed down the slope, jumped into her sloop, threw over the wheel, -then went pop-popping straight away toward the imperiled girl and her -overturned punt. Straight on into the path of the raging terror that was -intended for enemies in time of war she went, without one thought of -turning back. - -"One thing," she thought more calmly, "is in my favor. My boat is white. -The seaplane scout may see me. He can signal them to stop firing." - -Boom! Zing! Boom! the terror sounded again. - -Her heart skipped a beat. Perspiration stood out on her nose. She felt -deathly cold all over. Yet a firm and steady hand steered the motor boat -straight on its course. - -Of a sudden from over her head there came the thunder of motors. For ten -seconds it was deafening. Then, quite as suddenly as it had started, it -ceased. - -Ruth's heart stood still. "What now?" she thought. The pop-popping of her -own tiny motor seemed but the discharge of a toy pistol. - -She was soon enough to know what was next. Glancing up, she dodged and -barely escaped leaping into the sea. The great seaplane seemed about to -fall upon her. - -The plane, of course, was not as close as it had seemed. It was so close -that, as the motor suddenly ceased its throbbing, she caught the singing -of struts as the plane went zooming on through the air. She did not hear -distinctly the words that were shouted down to her, but she did catch the -import of their meaning. It was a warning that she was in great danger -and must get out of those waters at once. As an answer she could only -shout back that a girl in an overturned punt was in far greater danger -than she. She pointed in the direction of Betty and the punt. This -pointing must have accomplished more than all her screams, for certainly -her last words were lost in the sudden thunder of motors. - -The plane was up and off again. Had he understood? Would he flash a -signal that meant, "Cease firing?" She dared hope so. - -Ten seconds later she realized how brave the sea scout had been. A -glancing shell passed through the air at the very spot where, a few -seconds before, his plane had been. - -"If there is another shot?" she thought. She dared not think further. - -But now, once again her eyes were upon the punt and Betty. Already she -was alongside. - -"Here! Give me your hand!" she said in words that came short and quick. -Betty obeyed. She dropped with a thump in the bottom of the boat. Then, -with all speed, they were away. - -Not until they were safe on Green Island did they realize that the sea -scout had flashed a message and firing had ceased. - -"Well," Ruth sighed as they dropped in the sun among the wild sweet peas, -"we--we're safe." - -"Are we?" Betty's face still showed signs of terror. - -"Yes. They never shoot at the island. But you've got to get out of those -clothes," Ruth added quickly. - -In silence she helped Betty out of her sodden garments. After rubbing and -chafing her limbs until the pink of health came to them, she wrapped her -in her own storm coat and told her to lie there in the sun while she -wrung her clothes out and spread them on the rocks to dry. - -"You--your punt!" Betty said at last with a choke in her voice that came -near to a sob. - -"They're firing again now," said Ruth. "We may be able to get it and tow -it in later. Can't now. But didn't you hear the guns?" she asked. - -"The guns? Why, yes, I guess I did. Must have--as in a dream. They're -always booming away over at the fort. And I was having such wonderful -luck! Lots of cod, one ten-pounder. And a polluk long as I am. Just -hooked one so big I couldn't land him when that terrible thing happened! -But Ruth--do you truly think we can save your punt?" - -"Might. I hope so. Current is strong. That will carry it away. Hope they -stop soon." - -"I hope so," said Betty dreamily. The shock, the bright sunshine, the -drug-like scent of wild sweet peas were getting the better of her. Soon, -with head pillowed on her arm, she was fast asleep. - -As she slept Ruth thought of many things, of the seagulls soaring -overhead, of her lost punt, of the booming, bursting shells, of the old -ship _Black Gull_ and of the strange secret room in the depths of old -Fort Skammel. - -The firing ceased without her knowing it. Betty awoke and struggled into -her wind-blown, sundried garments. Still she sat staring dreamily at the -sea. - -Then a sudden burst of sound broke in upon her day dreams. - -"The plane," she said, springing to her feet. "It's coming close." - -"See!" said Betty. "He's not flying. He's scooting along on the surface -of the water. He's towing something. Oh, good!" She leaped into the air -to do a wild dance. - -"It's your punt! It's not lost! He found it! He's bringing it in!" - -This was all quite gloriously true. Very soon the seaplane came to a halt -before the island. The aviator unbuckled himself; then walked back along -the fusilage to drop into the punt and begin rowing shoreward. - -As he came close Ruth saw that he was a young army officer with a clean, -frank face. - -"You're lucky," he said to Betty. "Lucky to have such a brave friend. You -might have been killed." - -Betty's arm stole round Ruth's waist. Ruth's face took on an unusual rosy -tint. - -"I've brought back your punt," he said in apparent embarrassment. "It's -rather a long swim back to my plane." - -"I--I'll row you out," said Ruth, springing forward. - -"I hoped you might." - -As the young officer sat in the stern and Ruth rowed him out to sea he -noted with apparent pleasure the play of the splendid muscles in her -brown arms. - -"Some seaman," he complimented her. - -Again Ruth flushed. - -As they swung in beside the seaplane the girl's eyes took in every detail -of the plane. - -"Never saw one so close before," she said. - -"Want to take a ride?" - -"Not now." - -"Sometime?" - -"Perhaps." - -"Do you know," she said as he stood up in the punt, "a friend of mine, my -cousin, saw a plane pass Monhegan in the dead of night. Trans-Atlantic -plane, wouldn't you say?" - -"Yes. Only none have crossed for a long time. Say!" he said, sitting down -again. "What sort of a plane was it?" - -"Large, sea-colored plane. No name. No insignia. No mark of any kind." - -"That's queer. Listen!" He put a hand on her arm. "Keep that dark. You -may have made an important discovery. Men are coming to this country that -we don't want here. Things have happened. There's more than one way to -get into America these days." - -"Strange," he mused, "you can't make a great discovery, invent some new -thing, do a daring deed, but those who are selfish, heartless, who wish -to kill, destroy, tear down, take possession of it! But I must go. Hope I -see you again soon." - -"Thanks for bringing back the punt," Ruth said. - -"Don't mention it." - -He sprang upon the fusilage. Ruth rowed away. Motors thundered. The plane -glided away, rose, then speedily became a speck in the sky. - -Ruth bumped the rocky shore with a crash that nearly overturned the punt. -She was thinking of many things. - -They did not go to old Fort Skammel that evening. It was late when they -got back to their island and Betty's nerves were pretty well shaken up by -the happenings of the day. - - - - - CHAPTER XIV - THE PASSING OF BLACK GULL - - -That night as the hours of slumber approached Ruth lay on her bed looking -out toward the bay. The night was hot and sultry. A lazy warm breeze from -the land waved the thin curtains in a ghostlike fashion. There was no -need for covers, so she lay there allowing the breeze to fan her toes. -Half awake, half asleep, she mused and dreamed of many things. - -The night was dark, the sky overcast. Neither moon nor stars shone -through. The scene before her, save for a wavering light here and there, -was black. "Like a beautiful picture suddenly wiped out by the swing of a -broad, black brush," she told herself. - -Still there were the lights. One might imagine them to be anything. In -her fancy she told herself that the red light, very high above the water, -was hung on the mast of the old wood hauling schooner. - -"And her hold is packed full of valuable silks," she told herself. It was -easy to dream on such a night. One might imagine anything and believe it. - -She stared away toward old Fort Skammel. A light flared over there. -"They're carrying the silks from that hot little underground room," she -told herself, and at once became quite excited about it. - -"Should have gone over there this very day," she mused. - -But no, the light vanished. It showed no more. "Couldn't load all that in -the dark. To-morrow," she said. There was an air of finality in her tone. - -She tried to see the ancient schooner, _Black Gull_. Too dark for that. -She could imagine it all the same. She could see her swinging there at -anchor, a dark, brooding giant, whispering of the past, telling of -glorious old State of Maine days, that were gone forever. - -"I love you, love you, love you," the girl whispered as if the dark old -ship were a person, a gallant knight of her dreams. - -At that, leaning back on her pillow, one brown hand beneath her head, she -fell asleep. - -Just how long she slept she may never know. Enough that she suddenly -found herself sitting up wide awake and staring out at the bay that was -all aglow with a strange, lurid, unearthly light. - -"It's the end of the world," she told herself and wondered at her own -calmness. - -"It's Portland Harbor. It's on fire, burning up!" came a little more -excitedly as she found herself more truly awake. - -It was only as she sprang to her feet and stood there in the window with -her dream robes blowing about her that she realized the full and terrible -truth. - -Then she covered her eyes with her hands as she sank to the bed with a -sharp cry. - -"_Black Gull_, you are on fire. You are burning up!" - -And there she had at last the solemn truth. At once her mind was in a -whirl. How had it happened? She recalled the curious visit she and Betty -had made there in the night and of the remarkable pirate band that had -come to join them. Had these men returned? Had a match carelessly -dropped, a stove overheated, brought the great catastrophe? - -What could be done? Nothing. There was no fireboat. No pipe line could -reach her. _Black Gull_ was doomed. - -In a state of suppressed excitement that held her nerves at the bursting -point, she sat there watching a spectacle such as is the lot of few to -see. - -At first the blaze, flaming fiercely, fanned by the off shore breeze, -went raging out to sea. But at last, all at once, as if awed by this -sublime spectacle, the death of a great ship, the wind dropped and the -blaze, like flames of some gigantic candle, rose up--up--up until it -seemed to the watching girl that they must reach the sky and set the -planets, the stars, the very universe aflame. - -As she sat there, lips apart, pupils dilated, motionless, watching, the -spectacle became a thing of many dreams. Now the flames were but the -burning of a stupendous campfire, the dark bulk that stood half -concealed, half revealed, docks, lighthouses, islands, were figures of -reposing and crouching giants. - -Then the flames became a ladder of fire. Down this ladder, a thousand -angels, whose wings could not be touched by fire, swarmed. - -The ship burned with a clear, red flame now. The water about her became a -pool of red and old rose. At the edge of this pool small bulks moved, -motor boats, row boats, launches. - -"What can they do?" she murmured. "Nothing. Let them go to bed. They are -like hunting hounds, in at the death." - -She wondered vaguely if the person responsible for this catastrophe were -circling there, too. Strangely enough, she fancied she could pick the -man, a dark-faced foreigner with a shock of black hair. - -"The face-in-the-fire," she thought. - -For a moment she thought of dressing, of launching her punt and going on -a still hunt for the man. In the end, she sat there watching to the end -the death of much that was dear to her. - -The end came with a suddenness that was startling. The masts had fallen, -one at a time. Slowly, regularly, like seamen dropping from a ladder into -a dory, they fell to send sparks shooting skyward. Then, with a thunder -that was deafening, there came the shock of a terrific explosion. - -For a space of seconds all the fire at the center of the earth seemed to -be shooting skyward. Then darkness and silence, such as the girl had -never known, settled over all. - -Only the sea spoke. With a wild rushing breath it whispered of wind and -storms, of treachery and death. Three times its whisper came loudly from -the sandy beach. Then softly, it repeated its message until it died to -nothing, and a breeze springing up from nowhere caught it up and carried -it out to sea. - -Springing to her feet, her arms flung wide, the girl stood there for a -full moment. Rigid, silent, she was swearing vengeance on the destroyers -of _Black Gull_. - -Dropping to her place, again she scanned the sea. One by one, like death -candles, lights were appearing. Here one, there one, they formed at last -the flaming outline of a ship's deck. All had been burned or blown away -but the stout hull that for so many years had done battle with the waves. -For an hour these burned brightly. Then, one by one they blinked out. The -tide was rising. The sea had come to the rescue. It was extinguishing the -fire. On the morrow the black skeleton of a gallant ship would show there -above the restless waves. - -"Gone!" she all but sobbed as she buried her face in the pillow. "_Black -Gull_ is gone forever." - - - - - CHAPTER XV - THE SEARCHING PENCIL OF LIGHT - - -Early next morning Ruth and Pearl sailed the _Flyaway_ to the scene of -the night's conflagration. No more mournful sight can be found than the -wreck of a great ship, lifting its shattered form above the sea. They did -not linger long. One thing Ruth observed, and that to her advantage in -the future. The explosion had blown a hole in the right side of the ship. -This left an open space above the water some ten feet wide. Other than -this, save at extreme high tide, the ship's hull rose above the water. - -"Makes sort of a harbor," said Pearl. "Believe you could sail the -_Flyaway_ right inside. Make a grand place to weather a squall." - -The three girls, Betty, Ruth and Pearl, fully intended going to old Fort -Skammel that day. But life on the islands in Casco Bay is a busy one. -Fish must be caught, clams dug, crabs and lobsters trapped and boiled. -Summer visitors must be served for it is their money that fills the flour -box, and the coal bin, too. - -There was to be a great party up at the big hotel. Crabmeat salad was on -the menu. The Brackets and Byrans were to supply the meal. So, all day -long Ruth and Pearl picked away at boiled crabs, heaping up a little -mountain of white meat. - -"It's too late to go to the fort now," said Ruth as she straightened up -to ease her aching back. "Let's go for a sail instead." - -So a sail it was. They dropped down around the island and, skimming along -over a faultless sea, came at last just as the shadows were deepening to -Witches Cove. - -"Let's drop anchor and have our supper here," suggested Pearl. - -"Three gray witches may rise from the water and ask to join us," said -Ruth with a low laugh. - -"Let them," said Pearl, sending the anchor with a plunk into the sea. -"There are worse creatures about than gray witches. Here's hoping they -don't come too close to us." - -The tide was setting in. The _Flyaway_ which, like some active child, -seemed always aching to be away, swung and turned, turned and dragged at -anchor until she lay within a few feet of the rocky shore. Lying on the -deck, munching crabmeat sandwiches and whispering of many things, the -girls did not notice this until, with a suddenness that was startling, -some dark object came flying through the air to land lightly on the deck. - -"Boo!" exclaimed Pearl, springing up. - -"Only a black cat," laughed Ruth. "Smelled our crabmeat. There are some -cunners in the box by the mast. Give him one." - -The girls had settled down once more to quiet murmuring, when from the -rocks on the shore came a call. - -"Ahoy, there! Something tells me you have one of my cats." - -"Or he has us," said Pearl. - -"Oh! It is you?" It was the little Secret Service man who spoke. "How are -you? Anything new?" - -"You should know!" said Ruth. "_Black Gull_ is gone!" - -"Yes, that's right. But I don't see----" - -"Then you don't see very well. She was blown up. Wasn't supposed to be -any explosives in her hold, was there? Who put them there?" - -Ruth went on to remind him of her stolen punt and of the explosives she -had found in it. She told him too of the secret meeting of the mock -pirates on the _Black Gull_. - -"Does look like the work of the man smugglers," he admitted. "Question -is, were they using the old ship as a storehouse for stolen explosives, -or did they wish to destroy the meeting place of those who have been -attempting to bring them to justice?" - -"Well, at any rate," he said after a moment's silence, "the _Black Gull_ -is gone, and that's one more loss to charge against them. Something tells -me that their days in this, the Land of the Free and the Home of the -Brave, are numbered." - -"I hope so," said Ruth fervently. - -"Ruth," whispered Pearl, leaning close, "shall we tell him about Fort -Skammel?" - -"No. Not yet," the other girl whispered back. - -His lunch finished, the black cat was returned to his master, then in the -darkness the _Flyaway_ edged out to the channel and away toward home. - -In order to avoid the deeper channel where larger boats might be -encountered, they sailed close to old Fort Skammel. There in the shadows -of those ancient walls they met with further adventure. - -As they came very close to the fort that at this point towers straight -above the sea, the night suddenly went dark. It was as if some ghost of -other days, a prisoner perhaps who had died in the fort's dungeon, had -turned off the light of the Universe. - -Ruth shuddered and suddenly felt herself grow cold all over. - -"Only a very dark cloud before the moon," she told herself. "No danger. -Know the way in the dark." - -So she did, but there was danger all the same. That she knew well enough -in a moment, for of a sudden there came the pop-pop of a gasoline motor -and a boat swinging round the point of the island began following them. - -"No one lives on the island," she said to Pearl in a low tone tense with -emotion. "They must be following us. They burned _Black Gull_ last night. -Now they are after us. Well, if the wind holds they won't get us." - -She put her boat exactly before the wind. Her deck tipped till it dipped -water. Yet the staunch-hearted girl did not alter the course by so much -as an inch. - -"Show 'em, _Flyaway_. Show 'em!" She spoke in tender tones as if the -schooner were a child. - -They were gliding silently up the bay when a pencil of light like a hot -finger reached forward to touch them, then blinked out. - -"Powerful electric torch," the girl told herself. - -A moment, two, three passed. The pop-popping grew louder. - -"Gaining," she said with a sigh that was a sob. "Should have told all. -Had the customs officials, Civil Service, Captain O'Connor and all after -them," she said to Pearl. "But that room in the old fort. I wanted to see -it. Silks, dresses, such things as she'd never seen, that's what Betty -said." - -The pencil of light felt for them again out of the dark, found them, then -swung away. - -"Nearer," said Ruth. "Much nearer. Get us. And then?" - -She leaned far forward, trying to see into the night. Fort Georges was -ahead there somewhere, and---- - -The sudden reach of the white finger of light showed her something--a -dark bulk straight ahead. - -Quick as a flash she shot a line free, gripped a yardarm, reefed the -sail, reached out into the dark, felt something, braced herself against -it, held the schooner away, but allowed her to move forward until with a -sigh she lost the touch of that hard bulk and all but fell into the sea. - -The schooner swerved to the right, then glided forward once more. - -"Hist!" Ruth whispered. "We are inside the sunken hull of _Black Gull_. -For--for the moment, even in death she has saved us. - -"Quick!" she said ten seconds later. "We will leave the _Flyaway_ here -and take to our dory." - -As they crept away into the night with muffled oars making no sound, they -saw the pencil of light searching the bay for them. It searched in vain. - -A half hour later they were on their own beach. At once Don in the -_Foolemagin_ was away with three armed men to scour the bay. They found -the _Flyaway_ where the girls had left her, inside the scarred hull of -_Black Gull_, but the motor boat with its creeping pencil of white light -had vanished off the sea. - -"To-morrow," Ruth said to Pearl as she bade her good night, "shall be the -last day. Either we visit the mystery room of old Fort Skammel or we turn -the whole affair over to the authorities." - -Before retiring Ruth sat for a long time before her window, looking out -into the night, thinking things through. - -The night was too dark to see far. In a way, she was thankful for that. -_Black Gull_ was gone. She felt a tightening at the throat. When she -recalled how the broken and charred skeleton of this once noble boat had -saved her from something very terrible, she wanted to cry. Two unruly -tears did splash down on her cheek. - -"I must be brave," she told herself. "There is much work to do." - -Work. They would go to old Fort Skammel in the morning. She was sure of -that. And then? - -The whole affair, or group of affairs, as she looked back upon them, now -appeared to be coming together. The old wood ship with the bolts of cloth -in her hold, the dory's creaking oars in the night, their visit to _Black -Gull_, the strange pirate band, the face-in-the-fire, the curious little -man at Witches Cove, the mysterious room at the heart of the old fort, -their pursuers this very night, it all appeared to be reaching out to -join into a solid whole. - -"It wouldn't surprise me at all if Betty's experience off Green Island -with the big guns and the seaplane might prove to be a part of the drama, -though how I can't see." - -A sound from off the bay reminded her of the great dark seaplane Pearl -had seen off Monhegan. - -"Monhegan and the girl I saved from the sea," she said to herself. "How -do they work in? Well, perhaps they don't. As life is built up, some -stones must be thrown aside. - -"Life," she said quite suddenly, "life is a joke." - -Somehow the words did not seem to ring true. She was tempted to wonder -how she had come to believe that at all. - -"It was the way that boy said it, I suppose," she told herself. "Some -people have a way about them. They are hard to resist." - -Stepping to the chest of drawers in one corner of her room, she took out -the figured taffeta dress. It was a very attractive dress--pink roses -over a background of pale gray. She had never worn it. To wear it would -be to declare to her little world that she believed life was a joke. At -least that was the way she felt about it. So, as yet, she did not feel -ready to put it on. - -Spreading it out on the bed, she looked at it for a long time. Then, -carefully folding it up again, she put it back in the drawer. - -After that, with all the realization of what to-morrow might bring forth, -she did something she had not done since she was a little child. She -dropped on her knees beside her humble bed, and placed her palms together -in prayer. - - - - - CHAPTER XVI - THE OLD FORT - - -Coming events do not always cast their shadows before them; or, if they -do, those shadows are so filmy and ghostlike that only one endowed with -the keenest of vision is able to see them. Never was there a fresher, -calmer sea than that which greeted the three girls, Betty, Pearl and -Ruth, when they pushed off in Ruth's punt that morning bound for Fort -Skammel. A perfect morning, not a shadowy suggestion of adventure. And -yet---- - -An hour after they left the sandy beach of the island, Ruth's unnerved -fingers dropped a lighted electric torch on the floor at the heart of the -ancient fort. It fell with a dull thud, and blinked out. - -"Hot," Ruth whispered. "The air down there is hot!" - -"I told you," Betty whispered back. She was working feverishly, -struggling to free a second flashlight from the tangled mesh of her -knitted sweater pocket. - -Sensing what she was about, Ruth whispered: - -"Get--get it?" - -"Not yet." The younger girl's words came in short gasps. - -Little wonder that they were startled. Having penetrated into the very -heart of the old fort, having made their way through a one-time secret -passage to a dungeon, they had come at last to the door in the floor. And -the door stood wide open. Against their cheeks, grown cold from constant -contact with clammy air, had blown a breath that seemed hot like the -blast of a furnace. - -They had come to a sudden halt, and there they stood. - -Even in the broad light of day there is something gloomy, foreboding and -mysterious about old Fort Skammel. Children who have ventured across the -bay to the all but deserted island, where this ancient abandoned fort -stands, will tell you of curious tales of adventures met with there, how -the red eyes of rats as big as cats gleamed at them in the dark, how they -have discovered secret passageways that led on and on until in fright -they turned and went racing back into the bright light of day, and how at -times ghostlike voices sounded down the echoing aisles. - -In a little cove where the sand was snow white the three girls had drawn -their punt high on the beach. Pearl had volunteered to stand guard -outside. The other two had begun wending their way over a path that winds -between tall grass and bushes to the fort. - -Finding themselves at last before a great open stone archway that led -directly into the chill damp of the fort, they had paused to listen and -to think. The next moment, with a little quickening at her heart, Ruth -had led the way into the semi-darkness of a stone corridor, and from -there on and on into the deepening darkness. Now, here they were. Ruth -had longed to look into that mysterious room. The opening to it was now -at her feet, yet she felt more inclined to run away than to linger. - -"Can't you get it?" she whispered again, as no light appeared. - -"It's caught in my pocket. No, now I have it." - -The next instant a yellow light brought out once more the damp and -dripping walls of stone with the mysterious opening in the floor at their -feet. - -"It was hot." Ruth's tone was full of awe. "I felt it. I felt hot air on -my cheek!" - -"So did I." - -Putting out two fingers, Ruth felt the fanning of hot air. "Warm," she -said, "not hot. Just seemed that way. But how could it be?" - -"Can't be a stove?" - -"No. Tons of granite above." Her eyes sought the low stone arch over -their heads. - -"Going to see," said Ruth stoutly, dropping on her knees. - -With a gasp Betty put out a hand to stop her. She was too late. Ruth had -caught the ledge and swung down. Betty could but follow. The next instant -they were looking upon a strange scene. This room, warmed by some -mysterious power, as Betty had said, was piled high with bales and boxes -of every description. - -One of the boxes had slid from its place and burst open, revealing a half -dozen silk dresses of bright and varied hues. - -At once Ruth's heart was in her throat. Here was treasure. Where was its -keeper? - -A rapid survey of the room revealed the surprising fact that there was no -keeper, or at least, if there was one, he was away. - -The thing that the two girls did after recovering from their astonishment -might, by some cold and practical people, seem the height of folly. -Certainly, under the circumstances, it could not be called wise. But who -of us all behave wisely at all times? - -Placing the flashlight carefully in the niche in the wall, Ruth picked up -the top dress of the half dozen in the broken cardboard box. - -It was a beautiful thing of purple, so thin and soft that it waved like a -rippling sea. - -"How strange!" she murmured. "Just my size." - -Before she knew what she was about, her khaki waist and knickers were off -and the beautiful dress was on. - -Not a moment had passed before Betty, too, was dressed in silk, a -marvelous creation of flaming red. - -And then, faint and from far away, there echoed down the long-abandoned -corridors the sound of footsteps. - -"This way!" Seizing the flashlight, with no thought of how she was -garbed, Ruth leaped up and out, then on tiptoe went racing down the aisle -that led away from the chamber of mysteries, and on and on into the dark. - -Madly the feet of the two girls flew down a winding corridor, wildly -their hearts beat, as they fled from resounding footsteps. - -Now the round circle of yellow light from their electric torch guided -them. And now, as Ruth suddenly realized that the light would reveal -their whereabouts, the light blinked out, and, dropping to a walk, then -to a slow creep, guided only by the sense of touch, they moved along -between the dripping walls. - -"Could anything be worse?" said Betty. - -"Nothing," Ruth came back. - -She was thinking, thinking hard. Tales had been told of ancient wells dug -there years ago to enable the garrison to withstand a siege. That the -wells now stood uncovered down there somewhere in the depths of the -earth, she knew all too well. - -"If we blunder into one of those!" Her heart stopped beating. - -"The dresses!" Betty whispered suddenly. "Our khakis! We left them. We -must go back for them. They will have us arrested." - -"We can't. They won't," said Ruth, still pushing ahead in the dark. - -"Ought to turn on the light," she told herself. "Must! It's not safe." - -Pausing to listen, she caught the shuffling scamper of rats, the snap of -bats. But louder still came the tramp--tramp of heavy feet. - -In her fear and despair, she sprang forward, to go crashing against a -solid wall. - -Knocked half senseless, she sank to her knees. There for a moment she -remained motionless. For a moment only, then she was on her feet and -away. Her eyes had caught a faint glimmer of light. Far down the narrow -passage to the left shone the steady light of day. - -"Light!" she whispered solemnly. "Light and hope." - -One moment of mad racing and they were blinking in the sunlight. - -The race was not over. Out of the passage, down a set of ancient stone -steps, into the grass and bushes, skirts tight and high, they flew until -they came up short and panting at the beach. - -There in the calm morning were Pearl and the punt. - -"You're here!" Ruth puffed. "Thank God, you're here!" - -Next moment she stood knee deep in water, launching the punt. Then with a -little gasp of hope, she swung the punt about and began rowing as if for -her very life. - - - - - CHAPTER XVII - SECRETS TOLD - - -For a full ten minutes the three girls appeared to act a perfect scene in -a moving picture. Ruth rowed furiously. Betty sat with eyes fixed on the -receding shoreline. Pearl stared at Ruth and Betty with unbelieving eyes. - -At the end of that time Ruth dropped her oars to mop her brow. They were -now well out in the bay. Fishing boats and motor launch dotted the bay. -It was day, bright and fair. No one was pursuing them. To all appearances -they were as safe here as at home. - -"Where did you get them?" Pearl was still staring at their silk dresses. - -"Why--er--" Ruth began, with mock gravity, "that's a marvelous place down -there in the old fort. You go in dressed in cotton blouse and knickers -and you come out all togged up in silk." - -"Ruth," said Betty, "we'll be arrested!" - -"Let 'em try it!" said Ruth. "If we'd taken the whole pile they wouldn't -dare. They're trespassers, smugglers, thieves, perhaps. It's safe enough. -But girls," her tone grew suddenly sober, "it's time some one in -authority took a hand. This has been a perfectly glorious adventure, -thrilling, mysterious and all that, but it's gone quite far enough. Who -shall we tell?" - -"My little man at Witches Cove," said Pearl. "He is a Secret Service man. -Besides, he's quite wonderful." - -"All right, then. Witches Cove it is," said Ruth, gripping her oars once -more. "We'll hug the right shore. That way, anyone that's watching can't -tell for sure where we're going." - -In spite of this precaution some one knew whither they were headed, and -no good came of it. - -The little man of Witches Cove had an uncanny way of anticipating the -arrival of visitors to his rugged shores. They found him seated on a -great boulder with his feet dangling perilously near the water. - -"Well, now!" he exclaimed. "Here we are all dressed up for a party. Two -sisters and Cinderella. I suppose I am to fit out our little sister with -a silver slipper." - -His round, good humored face grew suddenly sober as Ruth told their -reason for coming. He interrupted her but once. Then he cautioned her to -lower her voice. - -"You have truly made a marvelous discovery," he said when she had -finished. "I've been looking for some such thing. It comes a little -sooner than I expected. Three of my men will be on the afternoon boat -from Boston. As soon as they are here we will formulate plans for action. -In the meantime I shall have an eye on the old fort. They cannot remove a -schooner load of silks from under my nose, I assure you. - -"As for you," his gaze swept the circle of three eager faces, "this, I -take it, is going to be a splendid day for fishing. And when you fish," -his smile broadened, "you keep very still. In other words, mum it is. You -must not breathe a word to another soul." - -"We won't," they said in unison. - -So the day was well begun. But it was not ended, not by a good deal. - -The three girls did not go fishing, at least not at once. They did accept -the little man's counsel in regard to the earlier happenings of the -morning. Not one word regarding them passed their lips. - -They did wish to go fishing, later in the day, but in the meantime there -was work to be done. Summer folks must have their clam chowder. To Ruth -and Pearl fell the lot of digging the clams. All forenoon, under the -boiling sun, ankle deep in mud and sand, they dug and clawed away with -their clam forks until three great baskets were heaped high with -blue-black clams. Then they hurried home to dinner. - -By mid-afternoon they were ready for a well-deserved lark. - -Betty joined them at the pier. Ruth had drawn the _Flyaway_ alongside, -had put on board their lines, bait and lunch, and was preparing to cast -off the line when her eyes fell upon a woebegone and drooping little -figure on the dock. - -"It--it--Well, I never!" she exclaimed. "It's the little girl I saved -from the surf up at Monhegan." - -"Hey, there!" she called. "I thought you'd gone back to Monhegan." - -"No." The girl's head shook slowly. - -"Mother got afraid when we sailed away down here in that boat you fixed -up. She thought Monhegan was too wild and dangerous. But it isn't!" Her -spirit flared up like a torch. "It's just glorious. It's dreadfully dull -down here. We--" she looked at the boy at her side, and Ruth saw that it -was her brother, "we're going to do something terrible pretty soon!" - -"Oh, please don't," said Ruth. "I say! We're going fishing. Want to go -along?" - -The girl looked up at the boy. "Go ahead." He pushed her toward the -_Flyaway_. - -Ruth recognized this as a generous act. She wanted to ask him to come, -too, but it had been agreed that this was to be a girls' party. - -It was Don who saved the day for her. He was on the _Foolemagin_, busy -mending a lobster trap. - -"Going round the island in a little while to lift some traps," he said, -looking at the boy. "Care to go along?" - -"Be glad to." The boy turned and helped his sister aboard the _Flyaway_. -Ruth cast off the line. The sail went up. She swung about. Then they went -skimming down the bay. - -Pearl and the little city girl went forward to lie upon the prow and -watch the water gliding by. Ruth and Betty remained at the wheel. - -"Betty," said Ruth, quite suddenly, "is life a joke?" - -"Is life a joke?" Betty gave her a quick look as she suspected her of -playing a trick upon her. "No," she said slowly when she realized that -her friend was in earnest, "life is not a joke. Life is beautiful, -wonderful. How could anything that is all this be a joke? Why? What made -you ask?" - -As the boat glided smoothly over the water, Ruth told her why; told her -of the city boy's laugh and of his remark about life. She told, too, of -the figured taffeta dress, the alligator shoes and the gay hat. - -When she had finished, little Betty, who was so young, yet who had seen -so much of life, of its joys and sorrows, its struggles, pains and -triumphs, sat with half-closed eyes, thinking. - -"Do you know what life is?" she said at last. "Life is a struggle, a -glorious, terrible battle. You begin it when you begin life. You end it -when you breathe your last breath. To hope, to dream, to struggle on," -her slight figure grew suddenly tense, "to fall and rise again. To see a -star, a gleam of hope, to battle toward it, to be beaten back, defeated, -to turn again to hope and dream and win, only to see a fairer light, a -lovelier vision farther on the way, then to hope and dream again. That--" -she ended, throwing her arms wide, "that is life, a beautiful, glorious -thing! No! No! It can't be a joke! It can't be!" - -"But Ruth," she said presently, "what have your new dress and shoes and -hat to do with life being a joke?" - -"Well," the flicker of a smile played about the big girl's face, "I -thought if life were a joke, then one might as well have what she wants. -I've always wanted those things, so I--I got them." - -"They spell happiness to you?" - -"I--I suppose so." - -"Then you had a right to them. Everyone has a right to happiness. Did you -ever think of that? Every man, woman and little child has a right to -happiness bought at a fair price. And the price of a new dress, shoes and -a hat is not too much. There now!" Betty ended, "I've done a lot of -preaching. Here's Witches Cove. Give me a nice fat clam and a big hook. I -feel lucky to-day." With a laugh she began unwinding her line. - - - - - CHAPTER XVIII - KIDNAPPED - - -The dull gray of evening hung over a calm sea. From out the west came -threats of sudden storm that, sweeping in with the speed of thought, -might at any moment turn twilight into darkest night. - -The two boys, Don and the city boy, Lester Hilton, had just completed the -laborious task of dragging a heavy dory up a rock-strewn beach. Don had -left some lobster traps here. He had come ashore to pick them up. - -Shading his eyes, Don gazed out to sea. Some object out there caught his -eye. - -"It can't be a barrel," he said in a puzzled drawl. "It's too big. Can't -be a sailboat, nor a motorboat, nor a punt, unless it is adrift. No one -is staying out while such clouds are threatening." - -Climbing to a higher level, he paused to look again, and at once there -came over his face a look of deep concern. - -"It can't be," he muttered. "How could it happen on a calm sea?" Closing -his eyes for a moment to secure a clearer vision, he stood there erect, -motionless. - -Then, with the suddenness of one who has received a terrible revelation, -he exclaimed: - -"It's Pearl and Ruth and your sister in the _Flyaway_. Their mast is -gone. They are powerless. In five minutes it will be dark. Soon the sea -will be white with foam. They are out there, your sister and mine, out -there! Just think!" - -Lester did think. One instant his mind sped, the next his hand was on the -dory. - -"Yes," said Don, "but you must go alone." - -"Alone?" The younger boy stood appalled. - -"The dory will ride almost any storm. You must reach them, take them off -the schooner and bring them round the island to the lee side." - -All the time he talked Don was helping to shove the dory off. "You can't -possibly reach them before the storm and complete darkness come. Both of -us couldn't, not half way. - -"I will guide you. I'll find you a light so strong you'll see all the -way." - -The younger boy stared as if he thought his companion mad. - -"In the center of the island," Don spoke rapidly, "there is a powerful -searchlight, a government light for use only in time of war or a great -emergency. You have no idea of its power, hundreds of thousands of candle -power. The keeper is away, but I know how to swing it into place, to put -on the power, to direct its rays. Go! Quickly!" He gave the dory a stout -shove, then went racing up the bank. - -The impossible sometimes happens. That a thirty-foot sailing vessel, as -staunch a craft as ever sailed the rock-ribbed sea, with a mast twice the -required thickness, should be drifting helpless with mast and sail cast -off and lost from sight, should lie helpless in a calm sea while a storm -came tearing in from off the land was, in time of peace, you might say, -impossible. Yet all this was just what was happening. The _Flyaway_ was -hopelessly adrift. What was more, Pearl Bracket, the golden-haired, -freckle-faced girl of Peak's Island, and Ruth with her city friends, -twelve-year-old Jessie Hilton and Betty, were aboard. How could all this -happen in one calm afternoon? - -It had all come about so suddenly that even the four girls shuddering -there on the mastless schooner could scarcely believe it had happened at -all. They had sailed to Witches Cove. Having dropped anchor within the -shadows of the overhanging rocks, they had tried their hand at fishing. - -It had been a curious afternoon, not exactly cloudy, yet not exactly -clear. A haze, a lazy mist, drifted here and there. Never did Witches -Cove seem so spooky as now. Once as Pearl looked up from her fishing she -saw a film of gray rise in the darkest corner of the pool. As if -fashioned by an invisible hand it took the form of a witch with high hat -and hooked nose. She was even riding a broom. - -Pearl touched Ruth's arm and pointed. Ruth saw and shuddered. - -"Gray Witch is riding to-day," she said. "Something is sure to happen." -In this she was not wrong. - -The fishing was unusually good. Soon the deck of the _Flyaway_ was alive -with flapping fish. In the excitement the Gray Witch and all else was -forgotten. - -Then had come the supreme moment. Jessie had hooked a twelve-pound rock -cod. The cod had showed fight. Before she could draw him in he had fouled -the line among the kelp. So securely was he hooked that even then he -could not escape. So, with three girls tugging at one line and the fish -at the other, the red kelp went swinging and swaying back and forth at -the bottom of the pool. - -It was just at the moment when the kelp seemed about to lose its hold on -the rock and to come floating to the top with the magnificent fish in its -wake, that Pearl, chancing to look away, dropped the line to spring back -in an attitude of fear. - -She found herself looking into a pair of dark eyes. Instinct told her to -whom those eyes belonged. "The face-in-the-fire," her mind registered. - -"The--the bombers!" she had whispered to Ruth. - -Like a flash all that the little man of Witches Cove had told her passed -through her mind. He, the man of the rocky island, was a Secret Service -man in the employ of his government. He had been stationed there to trace -and if possible capture two men who had been stealing high explosives -from the Army and Navy store houses. These men were supposed to belong to -a band that was opposed to all organized society. Several disastrous -explosions had been laid to their door. - -"If you can assist me in capturing them," the Secret Service man had -said, "you will not alone perform a great service to your country, but -may save many lives as well." - -And here were the very men! Pearl could not doubt it. She shot one wild -glance toward the cabin on the rocks. No one was in sight. Little hope -for aid. - -"No use," she said aloud as she recognized the second man. It was one of -the men who had stolen Ruth's punt and loaded it with dynamite. A cold -shudder ran up her spine. - -"Not a bit of use in the world," the man went on in a cold voice. "We got -you. We'll teach you to meddle!" - -At that, to her great terror, he produced a long whip such as was once -used by cruel slave owners. Cracking this about their ankles, he ordered -them down into the _Flyaway's_ cabin. Once they were down, he closed the -door behind them. - -For a whole hour, feeling the gentle roll of the boat, knowing they were -going somewhere but having no notion what the destination might be, they -cowered in great fear. Finding courage only by praying to the great -Father of all, they waited they knew not what. - -At the end of that time they caught the sound of the strokes of an axe. -This was followed by a sickening splash. - -"The mast is gone!" Pearl thought to herself. "Will they sink our boat -and leave us to drown?" - -The two men had evidently planned for them a more cruel fate. Having cut -away the mast and taken the oars, they set the motor boat in which they -had reached the schooner going once more, and left the _Flyaway_ and her -crew to drift helpless in the storm. - -"Be broken up on the rocks!" Pearl's eyes were dry, but in her heart was -a solid weight of sorrow. - - * * * * * * * * - -Don was racing up a rocky trail while Lester was tugging with all his -might at the long oars, driving the heavy dory farther and farther out -into the face of the oncoming storm. - -Then, like the dropping of a purple curtain on a stage, came wind, rain -and deep darkness. - -The testing of Lester Hilton, the reckless and daring city boy who -believed that life was a joke, was at hand. He now stood face to face -with triple peril--night, the sea and the storm. He had no compass. There -was no light to guide him. There was now only to wait and hope. This was -hardest of all. - -With unfaltering footsteps Don hastened on into the dark until just -before him a long low bulk loomed. This was the power house. In this -house was the hoisting machine and the powerful dynamos that lifted the -great searchlight. To break a window, to crawl through, to touch a lever -setting a dynamo purring, to switch on a light, to throw a second lever, -was but the work of a moment. - -Then again, he was outside. A little up the hill, like a gigantic black -ghost, some object was rearing itself upward. This was a frame on which -the powerful searchlight rested. When not in use it lay prone. It must -now be raised to an upright position. Powerful machinery was doing this. - -It was still leaning at a rakish angle when the boy sprang up the ladder. -By the time it snapped into position he was in the small cabin above. -Here again he threw on an incandescent lamp. One moment of suspense and a -great light flashed far out over the sea. - -"Ah!" he breathed. - -With skillful hand he began spraying the sea with light as a gardener -sprays a lawn. Here, there, everywhere the light traveled. Once, for ten -seconds his eyes were fixed upon a small gasoline boat ploughing its way -through the tossing waves. Then that spot went dark. As yet his search -was unrewarded. - -But now, as the light swung closer in, it fell upon a boy in a large -dory. He was battling the storm to keep his dory afloat. - -"Lester." Don's heart swelled. - -Swift as the flight of a gull, the light shot outward until it fell upon -a mastless boat wallowing in the trough of a wave. There it came to rest. - -How the young city boy, little accustomed to the sea, pulling for the -spot marked by that light, battled his way forward until at last, -drenched, hands blistered, well nigh senseless with fatigue, he -overhauled the crippled boat, and how after that three girls and a boy -fought the storm and won will remain one of the tales to be told round -island cottage fires on stormy nights. - -One incident of that night will always remain burned on Don's brain. As -he held his light steadily in its place, there struck his ears a -deafening crash that was not thunder, and instantly the sky was illumined -by a glare that was not lightning. When, a half hour later, he was free -to search the sea for the floundering motor boat which his light had -first picked up, it had disappeared. - - - - - CHAPTER XIX - A FIRE ON THE BEACH - - -As Don at last threw off the powerful searchlight and descended the steel -stairway that led to the ground, two problems stood out in his mind. He -had broken all rules in using the searchlight. There had been strict -rules about that. No civilian was to touch it. - -"Well," he told himself, "they may send me to jail if they must. I'd do -it again for my sister and for them." - -The other question that puzzled him was one regarding that explosion at -sea. Since he knew nothing of the afternoon's happenings at Witches Cove -and their aftermath at sea, he could make little of it. - -As for the four girls, they had, it seemed to Ruth at least, lived a -lifetime in a few hours. In one short afternoon they had experienced -peace, hope, joy, near triumph, fear, disaster and all but death. What -more could there be to life? - -The little city girl had behaved wonderfully. She had sat wide eyed, calm -and silent through it all. - -The city boy puzzled Ruth most of all. Battling the waves like a veteran -seaman, he reached them alone in the heavy dory. Then, without a word, he -put his shoulder to an oar and began helping them to beat their way back -to land. - -"And he thinks life is a joke," Ruth told herself. Then in a flash it -came to her. This boy once thought that life was a joke. He did not -really believe it; was not living as if life were a joke. - -"He'll forget all he thinks," she told herself, "and become a wonderful -man. I am glad." - -When they had circled a rocky point and come to the lea, they drove their -boat on a narrow beach. There they built a roaring fire and sat down to -dry their clothes. There Don joined them. - -"How did you lose your mast? What was that explosion?" he demanded -excitedly. - -It was Ruth who told of the afternoon's events. In the telling she was -obliged to add much about old Fort Skammel and the bombing smugglers that -he had not known before. - -"But did you hear that explosion at sea?" he asked as she ended. - -"Yes," said Ruth, "and I have my ideas. Looks to me as if we had seen the -last of those two men." - -"You think their motor boat blew up?" - -"I think they had explosives on board and that the jarring of the waves -set them off." - -"Hm!" said Don. "That might be true." - -Early next morning Don tuned up the _Foolemagin_ and went in search of -the _Flyaway_. He found her piled up on the beautiful broad beach on Long -Island. Save for a bump here and there and the loss of her mast, she was -quite unharmed. - -In a half hour's time he had her pulled off and in tow. - -"Get her in shipshape by noon," he told Pearl over a belated breakfast. -"Uncle Joe has a mast he took from an old boat. I'll put it in and you -can give her a tryout." - -It was during this tryout of the _Flyaway_ that the three girls bumped -square into the last great adventure of the season. - - - - - CHAPTER XX - THE CHASE - - -They had just circled the last pleasure yacht anchored before the island -and were squared away for a trip down the bay, when their attention was -attracted by a small motor boat apparently stranded in mid-channel. - -"The ferry will run them down if they don't watch out," said Ruth, -reaching for their ancient brass field glass. - -"It--well, now what?" She dropped the glass to stare at the boat with the -naked eye. "It's your little friend the Secret Service man from Witches -Cove," she told Pearl. "There are three men with him and they seem no end -excited. One is trying frantically to get the engine going. The other -three are waving wildly at us. Head her in that way. Give her all the -sail." - -Pearl swung about. In an incredibly short time they were within hailing -distance. - -"That boat can sail some, can't she?" the little man shouted. - -"She can," said Ruth through cupped hands. - -"Come alongside and take us on board. They're getting away." The Secret -Service man swung his arm down the bay, where through the light fog a -second motor boat was just passing behind the island. - -"Who's getting away?" Ruth asked in some astonishment as they came close -up. - -"The bombers--the smugglers--the--the wild rascals, whoever they may be, -you know as well as I." The man was in a great state of perspiration. -"They just left old Fort Skammel." - -The three girls stared as if they had seen a ghost. - -"They can't have," said Ruth as soon as she found her voice. "They're -dead, blown into a thousand pieces by their own dynamite." - -"Strange," puffed the little man as he scrambled aboard the _Flyaway_, -followed by his three companions. - -"Let her drift," he said as he saw Ruth eyeing the stalled motor boat. -"Someone will pick her up. There's important matters afoot. What's one -motor boat more or less?" - -"Dead! Blown to pieces!" he exclaimed as soon as he had taken three deep -breaths. "Show us you are sailors, and we'll prove to you that they are -neither dead nor blown to pieces. I saw that wild looking fellow with the -tangled black hair and shining eyes, saw him plainly." - -"The man of the face-in-the-fire," Ruth said to Pearl, as she set the -_Flyaway_ to skimming up the bay. "The very one. Must be. What do you -know about that!" - -Not one of the three knew what about it, so they were silent until they -too had rounded the island and saw the fleeing boat, a low, dark affair -of moderate speed, popping along dead ahead. - -"Well, will we overhaul them?" the little man asked anxiously. - -"Will if the wind holds. May drop any time," said Ruth. "Little fog. May -burn off. May thicken. Can't tell." With a boy's cap jammed tight over -her head, she stood there swaying with the boat and giving her every inch -of sail she'd carry. - -"It's to be a race," she told herself, "a race between the _Flyaway_ and -that motor boat." There was something altogether unusual about the whole -affair. If these were the men, if indeed they had escaped the storm and -the explosion, as indeed they appeared to have done, then the _Flyaway_, -which they had attempted to destroy along with the three of them, was -hunting down the very ones who had meant to destroy her. - -"Good old _Flyaway_!" she whispered. "Do your best!" - -"We'll catch them," she told herself a short time later. "And then?" She -dared not think what might follow. These were desperate men. If caught, -they would serve long terms in prison. They would not surrender without a -battle. - -It was strange the thoughts that passed through her mind as they sped -along. Now she was thinking of that secret room in old Fort Skammel. How -was it heated? Were the silks still there? If the men were captured, what -then? The silks would be confiscated by the customs office. - -"There's some sort of law that gives the finder a share," she told -herself. "We found them right enough." She thrilled at the thought of -owning a room half filled with silk dresses and bolts of silk cloth. - -A moment later she was talking with the little Secret Service man, -joining him in an effort to unravel the tangled web of mysteries that had -been woven about them. - -She spoke first of the ancient wood carrying schooner, of its dark -foreign skipper and the bales of cloth in the hold. The little man seemed -astonished. - -"There," he said, "I think you are entirely wrong. Did you ever happen to -look at that skipper's hands?" - -Ruth had not. - -"They're hard as pine knots and the muscles of his arms are like wooden -beams. You don't get a man like that for smuggling or stealing. They love -physical labor too much and the contentment that comes with it." - -He agreed with her when she said that the smugglers had a hand in the -destruction of _Black Gull_. That the cache in the old fort was theirs, -neither of them doubted. - -When Ruth spoke of the dark seaplane Pearl had seen off Monhegan on that -stormy night, he seemed greatly surprised and excited. - -"Are we doing the best we can?" he asked suddenly, wrinkling his brow and -looking up at the sail. - -"Our level best," said Ruth. "And if the wind holds it is good enough. -See, we have gained half the distance already." - -It was true. They had now come so close to the fleeing craft that they -were able to make out moving figures on her. - -Lifting the glass, Ruth studied the sea and the power boat for a moment. -Then, quite suddenly she dropped the glass. She had looked straight into -that dark visage, the face-in-the-fire. - -"How can one explain it?" she said, as a shudder ran through her stout -frame. - -"Explain what?" the little man asked. - -Ruth told him of their harrowing experience of the previous day and of -the tremendous explosion at sea. - -"There is no explanation at present," he said quietly. "There may never -be any. We who spend our lives delving into hidden mysteries know that -half of them are never solved." - -In spite of the realization that they were off on a perilous mission, -Ruth felt a comforting warmth take possession of her. Only yesterday, -with every hope apparently gone, she had been drifting on a sailless, -mastless boat out to sea in the face of a storm. Now, with that same -boat, she was treading on the heels of those who had willed her death. -The end of all the summer's excitement and mystery was near. - -But what was this? A thin film of smoke rose from the power boat ahead. -Ten seconds had not passed before this had become a veritable pillar of -black towering toward the sky. "Their boat is on fire!" she cried. - -"Smoke screen," said the little man, still calm. "There! There! See? They -are taking to their dory! We'll get them now." - -"But what is that a little way over there to the right, close to that -little rocky island?" - -All eyes followed the direction she had indicated. Then as one, they -exclaimed: - -"A seaplane! A seaplane! The dark, trans-Atlantic plane! We have lost -them!" - -That the men should escape now seemed inevitable. The seaplane was moving -rapidly across the water. Soon she would be upon the dory from the -smoking schooner. A hasty scramble aboard her, and they would rise to -speed away at such a pace as no sailboat ever knew. - -Ruth was ready to sit down and cry. She had risked so much. She had -experienced such terrible things. She had hoped and hoped again. Truly -she had come to know what life was. And now-- - -But again a surprise leaped at them from the air. The thunder of an -airplane motor, not that of the dark seaplane, but another, struck their -ears. As it doubled and redoubled in volume Ruth thought of the young air -scout who had assisted her in saving Betty's life off Green Island, and a -great surge of hope welled up within her. - - - - - CHAPTER XXI - ON AIR AND SEA - - -The scene that followed will remain in the memories of the three girls as -long as life shall last. The sea, a thin fog, a great dark plane rising -slowly like a black swan from the water, a small American pursuit plane -appearing on the distant horizon. - -"Is it our young aviator?" Ruth asked herself, gripping at her breast to -still her heart's wild beating. "Will he be in time?" - -Higher and higher rose the giant plane. Nearer and nearer came its little -pursuer. - -When she had risen to a height of a thousand feet, the dark marauder -began thundering away. - -But of a sudden, a white gleam appeared above her. The little silver -plane was possessed of great speed. The black giant, laden with hundreds -of gallons of gasoline for a long journey, was slow in picking up. The -tiny pursuer was upon her. The fight was on. - -"It's like a catbird attacking a crow," Ruth told herself. "What will the -end be?" - -With a daring that set the girl's blood racing, the young aviator swooped -down upon his broad winged opponent. - -"He--he'll crash into them," she thought in sudden terror, "He--he has!" - -"No! No!" said Betty who, all unconscious of her actions, was dancing -wildly about the deck. "There! There he is! He's come out from behind." - -Again the little plane rose. Again, he came down, this time to the right -and all but upon a broad wing of the Devil Bird. - -Then came a short, sharp, insistent sound that was not made by motors. - -"They--they're shooting," said Ruth as a fresh terror seized her. "We -must get closer. They may bring him down." - -Gripping a rope, she sent her sail upward, then prepared to glide ahead -at full speed. - -But now, matters took a fresh turn. So close did the young aviator dive -in that the great black plane was set wobbling. It was with the utmost -difficulty that she righted herself. - -Hardly had this been accomplished when the little plane, with all the -ferocity of a bird robbed of her young, was upon her again. - -"He'll be killed!" screamed Betty, now fairly beside herself. "There! -There he goes!" - -But the little plane did not drop. It wobbled and twisted, turned half a -flip-flop, righted itself and was at the dark antagonist once more. - -Again the pop-pop-pop-pop of shots. - -This time, however, it broke short off as the black plane, after an -instant of seeming to hang motionless in air, suddenly went into a tail -spin. - -"There! There!" Betty closed her eyes. - -When she opened them the black plane was gone. - -"Where--where--" she stammered. - -"Gone to the bottom," said Ruth solemnly. "We'll get over there at once. -They may rise. It--it's terrible to think--" - -"Poor fellows," said the little man. "They will never come up. The plane, -with her heavy motors and her loaded tanks, took them straight to the -bottom. They deserved little enough. They were the enemies of law and -order and all government. Since men must live as neighbors, laws of -conduct cannot be avoided. They were blind to all this. They saw wrongs -in every land; men rich and living extravagantly who deserved to live on -hard bread and wear rags, other men living in poverty, and they said, 'We -must destroy.' - -"Nothing was ever gained by destruction. Wrongs must be righted by laws, -and by instilling into the hearts of all men a feeling of brotherly -kindness. Those who will destroy will in the end bring destruction upon -themselves." - -The little pursuit plane had come to rest on the sea. For a half hour -both plane and sail boat cruised the waters there, but no sign of the -missing plane rose from the depths. - -When the little plane at last drew in close Ruth saw, with a sudden -tremor at her heart, that the young aviator of that other day by Green -Island was in the forward cockpit. - -"Sorry to spoil your game," he said, standing up. "But he was about to -get away. And that wouldn't do. Done enough damage already." - -"Quite enough," said the little man. "We owe you a vote of thanks. You -were lucky to escape. There was shooting." - -"They did all the shooting," said the young man. "I was only trying to -force them down for you." - -"Well," said the little man, "you did that with a vengeance. And now," he -said briskly, "we better get back to old Fort Skammel. These young ladies -tell me that there's a secret cache of silks there. I have no doubt there -are papers of great importance there too." - -"Like to ride back with me?" said the young aviator, looking at Ruth. -"I--I promised you a trip, you know." - -"Yes," said Ruth, climbing into the plane. - -"We'll get over to the fort and keep guard there until you arrive," said -the aviator, waving them goodbye as Ruth's last strap was safely buckled -into place. - -It was a strange world that Ruth looked down upon as she sped along--her -own little world seen from above. Islands, homes, ships, all floated like -miniature affairs of paper beneath her. Then, much too soon, they were -skimming the bay for a landing. - -All was serene and dreamy about old Fort Skammel as the two, Ruth and her -pilot, came ashore there. Dragon flies darted here and there. Spider webs -drifted by. - -"The calm of a Sabbath afternoon," said the young pilot. "How good it is -to be alive!" - -"Life," Ruth replied, blinking at the sun and struggling to reassemble -her scattered thoughts, "could not be sweeter." - -An hour later, with the Secret Service man in the lead and an armed guard -stationed along the corridors, the little company entered the room of -many mysteries. - -They were all there, Ruth, Pearl, Betty and even the little city girl who -had come over in a row boat. And such a time as they had feasting their -eyes on the softness and beauty of the silks laid out before them. - - - - - CHAPTER XXII - THE STORY TOLD - - -A few moments later the men from the revenue cutter were passing boxes -and bales of silk up from the strangely snug underground room, and had -begun carrying them down dim corridors to the ancient granite dock that -had once served the fort. - -"Ingenious chaps, those fellows were," the little Secret Service man -said, touching an electric heater. "Ingenious and resourceful. Heated the -place with electricity." - -"But where did they get the current?" Ruth asked. - -"There's an electric power cable passing across the island. They wired -this place, then waited for a time when the current was off to tap the -line, I suppose." - -"So that's it," said Ruth. - -"There is a great deal more that remains to be explained," said the -little man. "I fancy I shall find it all recorded here." He patted a -great heap of books and papers which he had collected from one corner of -the room. "If you young folks wish to come out to Witches Cove rather -late in the afternoon, I am quite sure I shall have a lot to tell. Like -to come?" - -"Would we!" said Ruth. - -"Try us," said Betty, standing on tiptoes in her excitement. - -"That's settled, then. Come in the _Flyaway_ at dusk. I'm sure the three -gray witches will be there to greet you. So will I, and my two black -cats." - -"It's a pity," he said a little later as he stood by the great heap of -silks that lay on the dock ready to be transported to the customs house, -"that I can't permit each one of you to select a wardrobe from among -these beautiful creations, but the law wouldn't permit that." - -As their eyes rested on the broken bundles from which rich garments of -rare beauty shone through, they felt that he spoke the truth. - -That evening, just as the shadows had turned the dark green waters of -Witches Cove to pitchy black, the three girls, Ruth, Pearl and Betty, -rode into that little natural harbor of many mysteries. Having dropped -anchor, they rowed Ruth's punt silently to the rocky shore, then mounted -the rugged natural stairway to the cabin that crowned the crest. - -A curious light, flickering and dancing, now waving, now glowing bright, -played hide and seek through the cabin's two small windows. A driftwood -fire was burning in the large room of the place. - -Before this fire, on the skin of some great bear whose grinning white -teeth seemed ready to devour them, sat the little man. On either side of -the hearth the two black cats sat blinking. Before him was a heap of -papers and a thick black book. - -"Sit down," he said, moving over to give them room. Lifting a simmering -pot from the hearth, he poured them delicious hot chocolate in cups as -blue-green as the waters of Witches Cove. - -"We drink to the health of all loyal sons and daughters of Maine," he -said, lifting a cup to his lips. - -"It's all written here," he said after a moment of solemn meditation. -"Written down in this book." He patted the fat black book. - -"It's strange," he said thoughtfully, "that men cannot resist recording -deeds of daring. Whether they be done for lawful or unlawful purposes, -makes no difference. Even the Buccaneers had their historians. - -"The author of this," again he touched the book, "was none other than -that dark fellow, whom you called the 'face-in-the-fire' man. - -"It's a remarkable story," he went on. "Lindbergh crossed the ocean once -alone, and the whole world went mad. This man made seven round trips from -Europe to America and there was not one shout. Because," he -paused--"because almost no one knew. Seven men knew. They dared not tell. -He brought them to America one at a time in the gray seaplane in which he -to-day met so tragic a death. Our nation refused them entrance. He -brought them. Very soon now they will be found and sent back. But because -these men could not pay him, he engaged in silk smuggling. He used the -old fort as a hiding place because no one would expect to find him -there." - -"But why?" Ruth leaned forward eagerly. "Why did he do all this?" - -"He crossed the ocean seven times bringing each time a man," the speaker -went on impressively. "Each time he recrossed the lonely old ocean alone. -Think of it! Seven times! An unbroken record! - -"Loyalty," he stared thoughtfully at the fire, "loyalty is a wonderful -thing. But loyalty to a wrong cause can bring only disaster. - -"This man and his seven friends believed that the private ownership of -property was wrong, that your home, your boat, your horse, your dog, yes -and perhaps your very father and mother, should belong to the State. That -all men should own everything, and no individual anything." - -"How terrible!" said Ruth. - -"You think so," the little man said. "So do I. So do most Americans. And -yet that was the principle for which they stood. For this principle they -would smuggle, bomb, cast helpless girls adrift in a dismantled boat, -destroy all." - -"That," said Ruth, "is a terrible way to live." - -"We think so. We believe that you have done your country a great service. -You will not go unrewarded." - -"The thing I can't understand," said Betty, "is why they remained in the -old fort and kept their silks there after they knew that Ruth and I had -been in that room." - -"They thought you were at the bottom of the sea where they meant you to -be," the little man smiled. "You would have been, too, had it not been -for that chap you call Don and the fearless city boy." - -"Yes, we would," Ruth said solemnly. - -"And that," said the little man, "is the end of the story. You have all -been fortunate. You have helped solve mysteries and have known -adventures. - -"Your lives from this day may flow as smooth as a river, but the memory -of this summer, with its joys and hopes, its perils, despairs, its -defeats and victories can never be taken from you." - -"To-morrow night," he said, as he walked with them to their waiting boat, -"Witches Cove will be dark. My black cats and I are leaving to-morrow. -Good night, good-bye, and good luck." - -That night Ruth sat looking out once more from her room upon the moonlit -bay. Her summer of adventure was over. Betty was returning to Chicago. -The cottages were closing. Soon there would be left only the fisher folks -and the sea. - -"Life," she told herself, "is quite wonderful, and not a joke at all." -She doubted if anyone really, truly in the depths of their hearts, ever -thought it was. - -So, sitting there in her chair, dreaming in the moonlight, she allowed -her head to fall forward and was soon fast asleep. - - - THE END. - - - - - Transcriber's Notes - - ---Copyright notice provided as in the original printed text--this e-text - is public domain in the country of publication. - ---Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and - dialect unchanged. - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Witches Cove, by Roy J. 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