eplied, as he measured
distances. "Of course it would be easier to get over the bow, but we'd
have to go pretty close inshore for that, and I don't know just how deep
it is there. I don't want to take any chances with the _Ariel_."

Fred shortened sail, and they ran in cautiously under the stern. The
planks were weatherbeaten, but there were still some vestiges of paint
on the upper part, and the boys could clearly make out the name of the
unfortunate boat to have been the _Albatross_.

"Poor old _Albatross_," murmured Fred. "Her wings are broken, sure
enough."

"She'll never fly again," added Bill.

They put the fenders over the side to avoid scraping, and Lester tossed
a coil of rope over a butt that rose at the end of the stern. He held
the ends, while Teddy shinned up like a monkey and fastened it more
securely. Then Fred and Bill went up, while Lester stayed below to look
after the safety of his craft.

"Aren't you fellows coming along?" asked Fred, looking down over the
stern.

"I guess not," replied Lester. "I've seen lots of wrecks in my time, and
I want to make sure that the _Ariel_ doesn't make another."

"How about you, Ross?" inquired Teddy.

"I'll stay and keep Lester company," Ross answered, as he brought the
_Sleuth_ a little closer. "You can tell us what you see, which
can't be much, I suppose, after all this time."

After a little more friendly urging, the others acquiesced in the
arrangement and went forward, cautiously testing each plank before they
set their feet down, for fear it might give way under them.

A certain feeling of eeriness settled down upon them. Living men,
hearty, boisterous, vigorous men, full of the joy of life, had trodden
these planks when the vessel was in her prime and winging her way over
the seas as swiftly as the gull whose name she bore. Now the hungry
waves had swallowed them, and the subdued chanting of the water along
her side might well be their requiem.

Instinctively the boys drew closer together, and their voices lowered
almost to a whisper.

"Makes you feel kind of creepy, doesn't it?" remarked Bill.

"It sure does," answered Teddy. "I shouldn't care to sleep here over
night."

"You wouldn't do much sleeping," affirmed Fred. "You'd be expecting
every minute to see something standing at the foot of your bed."

But these first fancies could not long endure in the flood of sunlight
that beat upon the schooner, and the boys soon recovered their normal