CHAPTER VII. THE PHANTOM YACHT
The girls dressed hurriedly and silently, then crept down the boarded-instairway and emerged upon the back porch of the cottage. It was not yetdawn, but a rosy glow in the east assured them that the day was near.
The waiting lad knew that the girls had something to tell, nor was hewrong.
"Oh, Gibralter, what do you think?" Dories began at once in an excitedwhisper that they might not disturb Great-Aunt Jane, who, without doubt,was still asleep.
"I dunno. What?" the boy was frankly curious.
"We saw it last night. We saw it with our very own eyes! Didn't we,Nann?" The other maiden agreed.
"You saw what?" asked the mystified boy, looking from one to the other.Then, comprehendingly, he added: "Gee, you don' mean as you saw the spookfrom the old ruin, do you?"
Dories nodded, but Nann modified: "Not that, Gibralter. Since there is nosuch thing as a ghost, how could we see it? But we did see the light youwere telling about. Someone was walking along the rocks out on the pointcarrying a lighted lantern."
"Wall," the boy announced triumphantly, "that proves 'twas a spook,'cause human beings couldn't get a foothold out there, the rocks are sojagged and irregular like. But come along, maybe we can find footprintsor suthin'."
The sun was just rising out of the sea when the three young people stoleback of the boarded-up cottages that stood in a silent row, and emergedupon the wide stretch of sandy beach that led toward the point.
The tide was low and the waves small and far out. The wet sand glistenedwith myriad colors as the sun rose higher. The air was tinglingly coldand, once out of hearing of the aunt, the girls, no longer fearful, ranalong on the hard sand, laughing and shouting joyfully, while the boy, toexpress the exuberance of his feelings, occasionally turned a hand-springjust ahead of them.
"Oh, what a wonderful morning!" Nann exclaimed, throwing out her armstoward the sea and taking a deep breath. "It's good just to be alive."
Dories agreed. "It's hard to believe in ghosts on a day like this," shedeclared.
"Then why try?" Nan merrily questioned.
They had reached the high headland of jagged rocks that stretched outinto the sea, and Gibralter, bounding ahead, climbed from one rock toanother, sure-footed as a goat but the girls remained on the sand.
When he turned, they called up to him: "Do you see anything suspiciouslooking?"
"Nixy!" was the boy's reply. Then anxiously: "D'ye think yo' girls canclimb on the tip-top rock?" Then, noting Dories' anxious expression asshe viewed the jagged cliff-like mass ahead of her, he concluded with."O, course yo' can't. Hold on, I'll give yo' a hand."
Very carefully the boy selected crevices that made stairs on which toclimb, and the girls, delighted with the adventure, soon arrived on thehighest rock, which they were glad to find was so huge and flat that theycould all stand there without fear of falling.
"This is a dizzy height," Dories said, looking down at the waves thatwere lazily breaking on the lowest rocks. "But there's one thing thatpuzzles me and makes me think more than ever that what we saw last nightwas a ghost."
"I know," Nann put in. "I believe I am thinking the same thing. _How_could a man walk back and forth on these jagged rocks carrying alantern?"
"Huh," their companion remarked, "Spooks kin walk anywhar's they choose."
"Why, Gibralter Strait, I do believe that you think there is a ghostin--" She paused and turned to look in the direction that the boy waspointing. On the other side of the point, below them, was a swamp, densewith high rattling tullies and cat-tails. It looked dark and treacherous,for, as yet, the sunlight had not reached it. About two hundred feet backfrom the sea stood the forlorn ruin of what had once been, apparently, afine stone mansion.
Two stained white pillars, standing in front, were like ghostly sentinelstelling where the spacious porch had been. Behind them were jagged heapsof crumbling rock, all that remained of the front and side walls. Thewall in the rear was still standing, and from it the roof, having lostits support in front, pitched forward with great yawning gaps in it,where chimneys had been.
Dories unconsciously clung to her friend as they stood gazing down at theold ruin. "Poor, poor thing," Nann said, "how sad and lonely it must be,for, I suppose, once upon a time it was very fine home filled with loveand happiness. Wasn't it, Gibralter? If you know the story of the oldhouse, please tell it to us?"
The boy cast a quick glance at the timid Dories. "I dunno as I'd oughtto. She scares so easy," he told them.
"I'll promise not to scare this time," Dories hastened to say. "Honest,Gib, I am as eager to hear the story as Nann is, so please tell it."
Thus urged, the boy began. He did not speak, however, in his usual merry,bantering voice, but in a hollow whisper which he believed better fittedto the tale he had to tell.
"Wall," he said, as he seated himself on a rock, motioning the girls todo likewise, "I might as well start way back at the beginnin'. Pa saysthat this here house was built nigh thirty year ago by a fine upstandin'man as called himself Colonel Wadbury and gave out that he'd come fromVirginia for his gal's health. Pa said the gal was a sad-lookin' creatureas ever he'd set eyes on, an' bye an' bye 'twas rumored around Siquawthat she was in love an' wantin' to marry some furreigner, an' that theold Colonel had fetched her to this out-o'-the-way place so that he couldkeep watch on her. He sure sartin built her a fine mansion to live in.
"Pa said 'twas filled with paintin's of ancestors, and books an' queerfurreign rugs a hangin' on the walls, though thar was plenty beside onthe floor. Pa'd been to a museum up to Boston onct, an' he said as 'twaspurty much like that inside the place.
"Wall, when 'twas all finished, the two tuk to livin' in it with a manservant an' an old woman to keep an eye on the gal, seemed like.
"'Twan't swamp around here in those days, 'twas sand, and the Colonel hada plant put in that grew all over--sand verbeny he called it, but folksin Siquaw Center shook their heads, knowin' as how the day would comewhen the old sea would rise up an' claim its own, bein' as that had allbeen ocean onct on a time.
"Pa says as how he tol' the Colonel that he was takin' big chances,buildin' a house as hefty as that thar one, on nothin' but sand, but thatwan't all he built either. Furst off 'twas a high sea wall to keep theocean back off his place, then 'twas a pier wi' lights along it, and thenhe fetched a yacht from somewhere.
"Pa says he'd never seen a craft like it, an' he'd been a sea-farin' manever since the North Star tuk to shinin', or a powerful long time,anyhow. That yacht, Pa says, was the whitest, mos' glistenin' thing he'dever sot eyes on. An' graceful! When the sailors, as wore white clothes,tuk to sailin' it up and down, Pa says folks from Siquaw Center tuk aholiday just to come down to the shore to watch the craft. It slid alongso silent and was so all-over white, Gus Pilsley, him as was schoolteacher days and kep' the poolhall nights, said it looked like a 'phantomyacht,' an' that's what folks got to callin' it.
"Pa says it was well named, for, if ever a ghost rode on it, 'twas thegal who went out sailin' every day. Sometimes the Colonel was with her,but most times 'twas the old woman, but she never was let to go alone.The Colonel's orders was that the sailors shouldn't go beyond the threemiles that was American. He wasn't goin' to have his gal sailin' inwaters that was shared by no furreigners, him bein' that sot agin them,like as not because the gal wanted to marry one of 'em. So day arter day,early and late, Pa says, she sailed on her 'Phantom Yacht' up and downbut keepin' well this side o' the island over yonder."
Gibralter had risen and was pointing out to sea. The girls stood at hisside shading their eyes. "That's it!" he told them. "That's the island.It's on the three-mile line, but Pa says it's the mos' treacherous islandon this here coast, bein' as thar's hidden shoals fer half a mile allaround it, an' thar's many a whitenin' skeleton out thar of fishin' boatsthat went too close." The lad reseated himself and the girls didlikewise. Then he resumed the tale. "Wall, so it
went on all summer long.Pa says if you'd look out at sunrise like's not thar'd be that yachtslidin' silent-like up and down. Pa says it got to hauntin' him. He'deven come down here on moonlit nights an', sure nuf, thar'd be thatPhantom Yacht glidin' around, but one night suthin' happened as Pa sayshe'll never forget if he lives to be as old as Methusalah's grandfather."
"W-what happened?" the girls leaned forward. "Did the yacht run on theshoals?" Nann asked eagerly.