THE MYSTERY.
Ned was unable to form any idea as to the cause of such a doleful sound.
He knew, or thought he did, that there was no one on the key when they
lay down, and yet there could be no mistaking the fact that something
unusual was going on.
The most natural course appeared to be the awakening of Roy, but this
was not accomplished without considerable difficulty, for the cook was a
very sound sleeper, and on this particular night it seemed as if his
eyelids were glued together.
It might have been really impossible to arouse him if, just at the
moment when he was more nearly awake than at any time since Ned began
operations, the groan had not been heard.
This time it was of a most doleful kind, and so loud that one might have
heard it half a mile away.
Roy was wide awake in an instant, asking wildly as he scrambled to his
feet:
“What was that?”
“We’ve been trying to find out,” Ned replied. “I can’t think of anything
around here that could make such a noise. It’s horrible!”
“Light one of the lanterns.”
“What good will that do?”
“If any one attempts to get in here we shall be able to see what is
going on,” Roy whispered.
“And if the thing which made the noise is bent on mischief, the light of
the lantern showing through the canvas might make matters worse.”
“But we must try to learn what’s the matter.”
“I’ll creep softly out if you fellows will follow. I’m willin’ to admit
that it frightens me an’ don’t care to take the chances of going alone.”
“I’ll stay close at your heels.”
Ned started, but did not attempt to rise to his feet.
Convinced that an enemy was near at hand, such a course hardly seemed
prudent, and he wriggled along over the sand until it was possible to
gain a view of that portion of the island directly in front of the tent.
The stars were shining brightly and he could see surrounding objects
distinctly, but nothing unusual met his gaze.
As a matter of course it was impossible to peer through the grove in the
gloom, and while he was wondering if some animal was not among the
trees, the fearsome noise was heard again.
It appeared to come from the rear of the tent, and Ned turned back to
whisper to his companions:
“I can’t see a thing, but whatever has come must be in our rear. Shall
we go out?”
“We’ve got to learn what it is.”
“I think some animal has swum up from the sea. At all events, we’ll soon
know. Don’t make the slightest noise as you follow me.”
Then very cautiously Ned crept out until he had a full view of the
shores and as far back in the interior as the center of the island.
There was not so much as a bird to be seen, and what seemed very
strange, the groan was not repeated, although they listened intently
fully five minutes.
Then he rose to his feet and his companions did the same.
The most perfect silence reigned save for the soft lip, lip, lipping of
the water on the sandy shore.
“Well, that beats me!” Ned said aloud after ten minutes had passed and
nothing was heard. “It can’t be that all three of us have been
dreaming.”
“There was more than a dream in that terrible noise,” Vance replied with
a shudder.
Ned led the way completely around the tents and then to the edge of the
grove without having discovered anything.
“It’s certain we haven’t visitors, and the best thing we can do is to go
to bed again.”
“I shan’t be able to get another wink of sleep to-night,” Vance said in
a voice that trembled woefully.
“Then you’ll be on hand to let us know if it comes again. But I won’t
make fun of you,” he added as he saw the look of horror on his
companion’s face, “for it was enough to frighten a wooden man, and I was
as badly scared as any one. There’s no use in staying out here any
longer now we’re certain nothing’s in sight.”
Ned led the way back to the tent, and once there Roy took good care to
light two lanterns.
“It won’t do any harm to leave them burning,” he said
half-apologetically. “If we hear the noise again we can at least see
each others’ faces, and there’ll be some little comfort in that.”
Neither of the party felt very much like indulging in slumber for a long
while, and they sat cross-legged on their beds talking in whispers of
what was to them, as indeed it might have been to any one, the most
profound mystery.
No reasonable theory could be formed regarding it, and after an hour had
passed with nothing to cause additional fear, one after another of the
little party began to grow sleepy, until all were slumbering soundly
once more.
If there were any more groans on the island during the night the
castaways were in blissful ignorance regarding them, and not until the
sun had been up from his bath in the sea fully an hour did either of the
party awaken.
Ned was the first to open his eyes, and after rousing his companions he
ran out of the tent to look for strange footprints in the sand.
If their unwelcome visitor had come from the sea there must have been
some signs left behind, yet Ned failed to find any.
He returned to the tent with joyful tidings, however.
“The yacht must have worked herself off some during the night!” he
cried. “The hawsers are considerably slacker than when we saw them last,
and I fancy she isn’t heeled over quite so much.”
Vance and Roy ran out of doors to assure themselves by a personal
inspection that such was the case, and the former said, after looking
scrutinizingly at the little steamer:
“I think you are right, Ned, and I sincerely hope so. If that craft was
afloat I wouldn’t sleep another night on this island. I can stand a good
deal, but when it comes to living where dead men are prowling around,
then I get more than I need.”
“You surely are not foolish enough to believe that what we heard last
night was caused by those wretches whom we buried,” Roy said in
surprise.
“Tell me what else could have made the noise, and I’ll own up to being
foolish.”
“Of course I can’t do that; but this much I’ve got sense enough left to
understand, that there’s no such things as ghosts.”
“Then what made the noise?”
Roy turned away unwilling to continue such a profitless conversation,
and Ned said decidedly:
“If it is heard again I’ll get at the bottom of the mystery, or know the
reason why. We should have gone directly outside when the noise was
first heard.”
“You were prowling around soon enough to distinguish anything, if it
could be seen,” Vance persisted, “and I have an idea you failed to find
the tracks you counted on.”
“How did you know that?”
“I watched while you were searching, and, of course, understood what you
expected to see.”
Ned joined Roy at the tent without making any further reply.
He did not believe in ghosts, but at the same time it made him just a
trifle nervous to have Vance attribute the disturbance to an unearthly
source.
There was too much work to be done before sunset to permit of spending
many moments discussing what was so profitless as the subject of ghosts.
The hawsers were to be hauled in until they should be as taut as on the
night previous, and Ned was revolving in his mind the use of blocks and
wedges to bring the yacht on an even keel more quickly.
In order to perform this labor, however, it was necessary all hands
should assist, therefore Ned was forced to remain idle until after
breakfast had been prepared and eaten.
This did not prove to be such a very long task, owing to the fact that
all hands assisted in the work, and at a reasonably early hour the
wreckers were ready for business.
The hawsers were drawn as taut as possible once more, and Ned said in a
tone of satisfaction when this had been done:
“There; now it’s for the tide to do the rest. If it helps us as much as
it did last night, we shan’t have to work a very long while in order to
get her into the bay. Now we’ll rig something to shore her up on this
side, and that will come pretty near finishing the day.”
He set about this portion of the work with such zeal and determination
that the others, urged on by their fear caused by the noises heard on
the previous night, were soon laboring with feverish eagerness, and
before the tide had turned all had been done that was possible until the
hawsers should need tautening once more.
“Now we can afford to rest,” Ned said as he walked slowly toward the
tent, wiping the perspiration from his face.
“And it’s high time,” Roy replied with a laugh. “It plays a fellow out
mighty fast to keep at a job when the weather is so very warm. I don’t
believe I should ever make a very good citizen for this part of the
country.”
“Why not?”
“Because the heat pulls me down so severely.”
“You would soon get accustomed to working in the early morning and late
at night,” Vance replied. “That is the way people do in the tropics.”
“I notice you don’t take kindly to turning out so very early,” Roy
replied as, they having arrived at the tent, he flung himself upon one
of the mattresses.
“But it is most likely I should if I got in the habit of indulging in a
siesta every noon, the same as we saw those fellows at Key West.”
Ned took no part in this conversation. He had followed Roy’s example, so
far as lying down was concerned, but his mind was fully occupied trying
to devise some means for floating the Zoe more quickly than it could be
done by waiting for the tide to pull her off the shore.
It was not many moments before all the party were in a proper mood for
the siesta, which seems so necessary in warm climates, and before either
was aware of the fact, all three were sleeping soundly.
How long this state of happy unconsciousness lasted no one could say;
but all were awakened at the same instant by a repetition of the
horrible groaning which had so disturbed and frightened them on the
previous night.
As if electrified by one common current, the little party sprang to
their feet, and it is no stretch of the imagination to say that Vance’s
teeth were actually chattering from fear.
“We shall be able to learn what it is this time,” Ned said in a whisper
as he stepped cautiously toward the flap of the tent.
“That is, if it’s anything which can be seen,” Roy replied gravely, for
he was beginning to share his cousin’s views as to the supernatural
causes of the blood-curdling sounds.
“Now don’t get as foolish as Vance,” Ned said sharply, and it is just
possible the reproof aided him in controlling his own fears, for even
the boldest could not but have been affected in some degree by the
groans which appeared to come from the immediate vicinity of the tent.
Cautiously the boy who had been marooned stepped from the camp and
looked around.
The sun was beating down upon the glistening sands with quite as much
fervor as he had shown at noon-day, and yet not an animate object was
within sight.
It would have been impossible for the smallest animal to have moved
within the boy’s range of vision and escaped his observation.
But even as he gazed around him the terrible noise was repeated.
“It beats me,” he said as Roy stepped close by his side. “I was looking
in the same direction from which the sound seemed to come, and failed to
see anything.”
“Then perhaps you won’t make so much fun of me after this,” Vance
suggested in a trembling voice as he timidly ventured outside with his
companions. “You can laugh about ghosts as much as you please, but how
else can you account for the noise now, when it is light enough to see
every inch of the island?”
“I’ve always heard it said that ghosts walk, if it is possible for them
to do such a thing, only in the night, and yet this one seems to be
prowling around while the sun is shining. There must be something in the
grove, an’ I’m goin’ to have a thorough look at the place before I’m
willin’ to admit the men we buried can come back to make trouble for
us.”
Ned advanced boldly as he spoke, but his companions did not follow.
It seemed to them as if the tent, frail though it was, might afford some
protection against the unearthly visitant, and they preferred to remain
where it would be possible to beat a retreat if necessary.
Ned did not pause because of being thus abandoned, as it were, but
continued straight on through the underbrush, overturning every fallen
branch, or poking amid the creeping vines in the hope of disturbing the
author of the terrifying noises.
Twice while engaged in this work did he hear the groans, and on each
occasion they sounded as if coming from the rear, much nearer the tent.
“It’s no use to hunt here any longer, for whoever is kicking up the row
must be behind me.”
Now he also was becoming disturbed in mind.
There could be no question but that the unearthly sounds came from that
portion of the key where was not the slightest shelter for man or beast,
and he began slowly to retrace his steps.
While doing so he involuntarily glanced toward the ocean once more, and
noted the fact that it was nearly high water.
“We shall have to haul in on the hawsers pretty soon, an’ I hope that
groanin’ will stop before then, or else it will be impossible to
persuade Vance into lending us a hand.”
With this thought in his mind he walked toward the yacht, and was
standing within thirty feet of her when the noise was repeated, and this
time he distinctly saw the little craft move seaward several inches.
The mystery was explained.
“Hurrah!” he cried with a shout of triumph, and immediately afterward
burst into a loud fit of laughter.
“What is the matter?” Roy asked as he ventured out of the tent once
more, his face several shades whiter than it had been, for this last
groan fully convinced him they were to be haunted by the ghosts of those
who had scuttled the Evening Star.
“I’ve found your spirits, an’ only hope they’ll keep on groanin’, for
then we shall have the yacht afloat just so much the sooner!”
“What do you mean?” and Roy gathered sufficient courage to admit of his
taking a few steps toward where Ned was standing.
“Watch the yacht, an’ you’ll soon find out what the trouble is. It’s
high tide, or will be in half an hour. The hawsers are strainin’ hard,
an’ as she has to slip off the shore there comes a sound as if something
was pulled out of the mud.”
“But there’s no mud here.”
“I know it, yet at the same time that is what causes the noise. She fell
heavy when she struck, and has made a hole in the sand, where, most
likely, the air is confined. Watch five minutes, and then if you’re not
convinced I’ll give my head for a football. Don’t spend any more time
than necessary, however, for we must help the little craft a bit.”
After some difficulty Vance was persuaded to join the committee on
investigation, and while they kept their eyes fixed upon the yacht, Ned
clambered on board by aid of the raft.