The Phantom Yacht

by Carol Norton

  CHAPTER XVIII. AN AIRPLANE SIGHTED

  Miss Moore did not awaken, apparently, until midmorning and the girls didnot want to go away until they had served her breakfast. They had been toher door several times and to all appearances the elderly woman had beenasleep. When, at length, Miss Moore did awaken, she complained of havingbeen disturbed by noises in the night. "Why did you girls tiptoe aroundthe living-room just before daybreak?"

  "Why, we didn't, Aunt Jane! Truly we didn't," Dories replied. She did notlike to tell that it would have been a physical impossibility for them tohave done so, as they were crouched behind "cabin seven" at that hourwatching "cabin eight."

  The old woman looked at the speaker sharply, then continued: "I calledyour name and for a time the tiptoeing stopped. Then, when I pretended tobe asleep, it began again. I was sure that under the crack of the door Icould see a fire burning as though you had lighted wood on the grate."

  "Oh, no, Miss Moore, we didn't, I assure you," Nann exclaimed. "Therewasn't any wood on it. We swept it clean yesterday afternoon." A cry fromDories caused the speaker to pause and turn toward her. She was pointingat the fireplace. There was a small charred pile in the center of thegrate. The old woman's thoughts had evidently changed their direction forshe asked, querulously, if they were going to keep her waiting all themorning for her breakfast.

  While out in the kitchen preparing it, Dories whispered, her eyes wide,"Nann, _what_ do you make of it all? You are smiling to yourself as ifyou had solved the mystery."

  "I believe I have, one of them; but, Dori, please don't ask me to explainuntil I catch the ghost red-handed, so to speak."

  "White-handed, shouldn't it be?" Dories inquired, her fears lessened byNann's evident delight in something she believed she had discovered.

  When Miss Moore's breakfast had been served, the girls, wishing to tidyup the cabin, set to work with a will. Nann was sweeping the porch andDories was dusting and straightening the living-room when a queer hummingnoise was heard in the distance. "Dori," Nann called, "come out here amoment. Can't you hear a strange buzzing noise? It sounds as though itwere high up in the air. What can it be?"

  The other girl appeared in the open doorway and they both listenedintently.

  "Maybe it's a flock of geese going south for the winter," Doriesventured, but her friend shook her head. "That noise is coming nearer.Not going farther away," she said. The buzzing and whizzing soundsincreased with great rapidity. Springing down the steps, Nann exclaimed,"Whatever is making that commotion, is now right over our heads."

  Dories bounded to her friend's side and they both gazed into the gleamingblue sky with shaded eyes.

  "There it is!" Nann cried excitedly. "Why, of course, it's an airplane!We should have guessed that right away. I wonder where it is going toland. There's nothing but marsh and water around here besides this narrowstrip of beach."

  "Oh, look! look!" This from Dories. "It's dropping right down into theocean and so it must be one of those combination air and sea planes."

  "Unless it has broken a wing and is falling," Nann suggested. Theairplane, nose downward, had seemed verily to plunge into the sea.

  "Let's run to the Point o' Rocks." Dories started as she spoke and Nann,throwing down the broom, raced after her. It was hard to go very rapidlywhere the sand was deep and dry, and so by the time they had climbed upon the highest boulder out on the rocky point, there was no sign whateverof the airplane either sailing safely on the water nor lying on the shoredisabled.

  "Hmm! That certainly is puzzling," Nann said as she half closed her eyesin meditative thought. "Now, where can that huge thing have gone that ithas disappeared so entirely?"

  "I can't imagine," Dories replied. "If only Gibralter were here with hispunt, we might be able to find out." Then she exclaimed merrily, "Nann,there is another mystery added to the twenty and nine that we alreadyhave."

  "Not quite that many," the other maid replied, giving one last long lookin the direction they believed the plane had descended or fallen. "I'minclined to think," she ventured, "that there is a bay or somethingbeyond the swamp. O, well, let's go back to our task. It's lunch time, ifnothing else."

  They decided, as the day was unusually warm for that time of the year, toeat a cold lunch, and, as their aunt did not wish anything then, thegirls decided to walk along the beach in the opposite direction and seeif they could find the cove where Gib kept his punt in hiding. But, justas they reached the spot where the road from town ended at the beach,they heard a merry hallooing, and, turning, they beheld Gibralter Straitriding the white horse that was usually hitched to the coach.

  "Oh, good, good!" was Dories' delighted exclamation. "Now perhaps we willfind out about the plane. Of course the people in town saw it and Gib mayknow----" She stopped talking to stare at the approaching steed and riderin wide-eyed amazement. "How queer!" she ejaculated. "Nann, am I seeingdouble? I'm sure that I see four legs and Gib certainly has only two."

  There were undeniably four long, slim legs, two on either side of the bigwhite horse, but the mystery was quickly explained by the appearance,over Gib's shoulder, of a head belonging to another boy.

  "Nann Sibbett!" Dories whirled, the light of inspiration in her eyes, "Ido believe that other boy is Dick Burton, of whom Gib has so oftenspoken."

  And Dories was right. Gib waved his cap, then leaped to the sand, closelyfollowed by the newcomer. One glance at the young stranger assured thegirls that he was a city lad. His merry brown eyes twinkled whenGibralter introduced him merely as the "kid that was crazy to find a wayinto the old ruin."

  The city boy took off his cap in a manner most polite, adding, "By name,Richard Ralston Burton, but I'm usually called Dick."

  Nann, realizing that Gib hadn't the remotest idea how to introduce hisfriend to them, then told the lad their names, adding, "Oh, Gib, you justcan't guess how glad we are that you have come at last. The mysteries areheaping up so high and fast that we simply must solve a few of them."

  But it was quite evident that the boys were equally excited about theairplane, which they, too, had seen as they were riding on the whitehorse along the road in the swamps. "I say," Gib began at once, "didyo'uns see where that airplane fellow dove to? D'you 'spose he's smashedall to smithereens on the rocks over yonder?"

  The girls shook their heads. "No," Dories replied, "we just came fromthere and there wasn't a sign of that airplane. We thought that at leastwe would see the wreck of it."

  "It must o' landed round the curve whar the swamp comes down to theshore," Gib said.

  "Come on, old man, let's investigate." Then Dick smiled directly at Nannas he added, "We won't be gone long."