by Carol Norton
CHAPTER XII. A BLEACHED SKELETON
When Gibralter saw Nann crossing the wide beach that was shimmering inthe light of the early morning sun, he turned the punt boat and sailed asclose to the point of rocks as he dared go. Then, letting the sail flap,he took the oars and was soon alongside a large flat boulder which, atlow tide, was uncovered, although an occasional wave did wash over it.
"Quick! Watch whar ye step," he cautioned. "Thar now. Here's yer chance.Heave ho." Then he added admiringly as the girl stepped into the middleof the punt without losing her balance, "Bully fer you. That's as steadyas a boy could have done it. Whar's the other gal? Was she skeered tocome?"
Nann seated herself on the wide stern seat of the flat-bottomed boatbefore she replied. "Dori wanted to come just ever so much, but shethought that she ought to stay at home this morning and read to herGreat-Aunt Jane."
"Wall, I don't envy her none," the lad said as he stood up to push theboat away from the rocks. "That ol' Miss Moore is sure sartin thecrabbiest sort o' a person seems like to me." Then as he sat on thegunnel and pulled on the sheet, he added, beaming at the girl, "Say, MissNann, are ye game to sail over clost to the island yonder? Like's notwe'd find the skeleton o' The Phantom Yacht if it got wrecked thar, as Pathinks mabbe it did."
"Oh, Gib," the girl's voice expressed real concern, "I do hope thatbeautiful snow-white yacht was not wrecked. I don't believe that it was.I feel sure that those sailors took it safely back across the sea withthat poor heart-broken mother and the boy who was such a handsome littlechap, and the wee gold and white girl whom your daddy said looked like alily. Honestly, Gib, I'd almost rather not sail over to that cruel islandwhere so many boats have gone down. If the Phantom Yacht is there, I'drather not know it. I'd heaps rather believe that it is still sailing,perhaps on the blue, blue waters of the Mediterranean."
The boy looked his disappointment. "I say, Miss Nann," he pleaded, "comeon, say you'll go, just this onct. I'm powerful curious to see what theshoals look like. I've been savin' and savin' for ever so long to buythis here punt boat jest so's I could cruise around over thar. Miss Nann,won't you go?"
The girl laughed. "Gibralter, you look the picture of distress. I justcan't be hard-hearted enough to disappoint you. If you'll promise not towreck me, I'll consent to go at least near enough to see just what theisland looks like."
With that promise the boy had to be content. A brisk breeze was blowingfrom the land and so, before very long, the two and a half miles that laybetween the shore and the outer shoals were covered and the long gauntisland of jagged gray rocks loomed large before them.
"The shoals'll come up, sudden-like, clost to the top of the water, mostany time now," Gib said, "so keep watchin' ahead. If you see a place wharthe color's different, sort o' shallow lookin', jest sing out an' I'llpull away."
Nann, thrilling with the excitement of a new adventure, looked over theside of the punt and into water so deep and dark green that it seemedbottomless, but all at once they sailed right over a sharp-pointed rock.Then another appeared, and another.
"Gib!" the girl's cry was startled, "you'd better stop sailing now andtake the oars, slowly, for if we hit a rock, way out here, and capsize,pray, who would there be to save us?"
Nann shuddered as she gazed ahead at the gray, grim island. A flock oflong-legged, long-beaked and altogether ungainly looking seabirds arosefrom the rocks with shrill, unearthly screams, and, after circlingoverhead for a moment they landed a safe distance away. There was noother sign of life.
Gibralter let the sail flap at the girl's suggestion and began to rowslowly along on the sheltered side of the island.
"Hark!" Nann said, lifting one hand. "Just hear how the surf is poundingon the outer coast. Don't go too far, Gib; see how the water swirlsaround the rocks where they jut out into the sea."
As he rowed slowly along, the boy kept a keen-eyed watch along the shore."Thar'd ought to be a place whar a body could land safely," he said atlast. Then added excitedly as he pointed: "Look'et; thar's a big flatshoal that goes way up to the island, an' I'm sure as anything this herepunt could slide right up over it an' never touch bottom. Are ye game totry it, Miss Nann? Say, are ye?"
The girl looked at the wide, flat shoal that was about two feet underwater and which was evidently connected with the island. Then she lookedat the eager face of the boy. "I dare, if you dare," she said with abright smile.
Gibralter managed to row the punt boat within a length of the island overthe submerged shoal, and then it stuck.
"Well," Nann remarked, "I suppose we will have to stay here until therising tide lifts us off."
"Nary a bit of it," the boy replied as he stripped off his shoes andstockings. This done he stepped over the side of the boat, which,lightened of his weight, again floated.
Taking the rope at the bow, the lad pulled and tugged until the punt washigh and dry, then Nann leaped out. Standing on a rock, she shaded hereyes and gazed back across the three miles of sparkling blue waters. Shecould see the eight cottages in a row on the sandy shore. How strange itseemed to be looking at them from the island.
"We mustn't stay long, Gib," she said to the lad who was examining therocks with interest. "When the tide rises the waves will be higher andthat punt boat of yours may not be very seaworthy."
"Thar's nothin' onusual on this here side," the boy soon reported."'Twon't take long to climb up top and see what's on the other side." Ashe spoke, he began to climb over the rocks, holding out his hand toassist the sure-footed girl in the ascent.
"There doesn't seem to be a green thing growing anywhere," Nann remarkedas she looked about curiously, "even in the crevices there is nothing buta silvery gray moss." Then she inquired, "Are there any serpents on thisisland, Gib?"
The boy shook his head. "Never heard tell of anything hereabouts, 'ceptjust an octopus. Pa says onct a fisherman's boat was pulled under by oneof them critters with a lot of arms sort o' like snakes."
Nann stood still and stared at the boy. "Gibralter Strait," she cried,"if I thought there was one of those terrible sea-serpents about here,I'd go right home this very instant. Why, I'd rather meet a dozen ghoststhan one octopus."
"I guess 'twant nothin' but a story," the boy said, sorry that he hadhappened to mention it. "Guess likely that was all." Then, as they hadreached the top of the rocks that were piled high, they stood for amoment side by side gazing down to the rugged shore far below.
The boy suddenly caught the girl's arm. "Look! Look!" he cried. "That'swhat I was wantin' to find." He pointed toward a whitening skeleton of aboat that was high on the rocks well out of reach of the surf and abouttwo hundred feet to the left of where they were standing. "Like as notthat wreck's been thar nigh unto ten year, shouldn't you say? An' if so,why mightn't it be 'The Phantom Yacht' as well as any other? I shouldthink it might, shouldn't you, Miss Nann?"
"I suppose so," the girl faltered. "But oh, how I do hope that it isn't.I want to believe that the mother with her boy and girl are safe,somewhere." Then pleadingly, "Don't you think we'd better start for homenow, Gib? I do want to get away before the tide turns, and even if thatold skeleton should be 'The Phantom Yacht,' there would be no way for usto prove it. You never did know the real name of the boat, did you?"
"No." the boy confessed, "I never did. Sort o' got to thinkin' 'PhantomYacht' was its name, but like's not 'twasn't."
The bleached skeleton of the boat was soon reached and the lad, leavingNann standing on a broad flat rock, scrambled down nearer and begansearching for something that might identify it as the craft which, manyyears before, had sailed, white and graceful, to and fro in the shelteredwaters of the bay, and which had been called "The Phantom Yacht."
Half an hour passed, but search as he might, the disappointed boy foundnothing that could identify the boat. The storms of many winters hadstripped it, leaving but a whitened skeleton and, before long, even thatwould be broken up and washed on the shore where the
cottages were, to begathered and burned as driftwood.
It was with real regret that Gibralter at last left the wrecked boat andreturned to the side of the girl. He found her gazing into the swirlinggreen waters beyond the rocks as though she were fascinated.
"What ye lookin' at, Miss Nann?" he inquired.
She turned toward him, wide-eyed. "Gib," she said, "I thought I saw thatoctopus you were telling about. Look, there it is again! See itstretching out a long brown arm."
The boy laughed heartily. "That thar's sea weeds, Miss Nann," hechuckled, "one o' the long streamer kind." Then he added, more seriously,"We'd better scud 'long. 'Pears like the tide is turnin'." Then hisoptimistic self once again, "All the better if it has turned. It'll takeus to Siquaw Point a scootin'."
When they reached the ridge of the island, the boy looked regretfullyback at the grim skeleton. "D'ye know, Miss Nann," he remarked, "I'm suresartin that we're leavin' without findin' a clue that's hidin' tharwaitin' to be found. I'm sure sartin we are."
It was a habit with the boy to repeat, perhaps for the sake of emphasis.
"Wall," Nann declared, "to be real honest, Gib, I'd heaps rather bestanding on that sandy stretch of beach over there where the cottages arethan I would to find any clue that the old skeleton may be concealing."Then she laughed, as she accepted his proffered assistance to descend therocks. "I don't know why, but I feel as though something skeery is aboutto happen. Maybe I'm more imaginative on water than I am on land."
They slid and scrambled down the rocks and were nearing the bottom whenan ejaculation of mingled astonishment and dismay escaped from the boy.
"What is it, Gib?" the girl asked anxiously. "Has the skeery somethinghappened already?"
"The punt. 'Taint thar. The tide rose sooner'n I was countin' on andlike's not that boat o' mine is sailin' out to sea."
For one panicky moment the girl stood very still, her hand pressed on herheart. Then she recalled something that her father once had said: "Whendanger threatens, keep a clear head. That will do more than anything elseto avert trouble."
The boy, shading his eyes, was searching for the escaped punt far out onthe shining waters, but Nann, looking about her, made a discovery. Thenshe laughed gleefully. The boy turned toward her in astonishment. Then,being very quick witted, he too understood. "You don' need to tell me,"he said, "I'm on! We changed our location, so to speak, when we went tolook at the wreck, and that fetched us down at a different place on thishere side."
Nann nodded. "I do believe that we'll find the punt beyond the rocksyonder," she hazarded. And they did. Ten minutes later the boy had pushedthe boat safely over the submerged shoal. The rising tide carried themswiftly out of danger of the hidden rocks. Although Nann said nothing,she kept intently gazing into the dark green water. She would far rathermeet any number of ghosts on land, she assured herself, than even catch aglimpse of one of those dreadful sea monsters.
It was nearly one o'clock when Dories, who was standing on the porch ofthe cabin, saw the flat-bottomed boat returning, and she ran down to theshore to meet her friend.
"Did you find a clue?" she called as Nan leaped ashore.
"I don't believe so," was the merry response. "We found an old whiteningskeleton of some ill-fated boat, but I'm not going to believe it is thePhantom Yacht. Not yet, anyway." Then Nann turned to call to the boy whowas pushing his punt away from the rocks, "See you tomorrow, Gib, if youcome this way. Thank you for taking me sailing."
As soon as the girls had turned back toward the cottage, Doriesexclaimed, "Nann, I believe that I have thought of a splendid way to trapthe ghost tonight, but I'm not going to tell you until just before we goto bed."
