for some picnic trip to a well-known island
farther south along the coast? Or had they, as he had assumed, guided by
their ancient map, gone in search of the island of "many barbarians and
much gold," an island which he was convinced existed only in name?

The girl, too; what had she meant when she said she was in some ways
responsible for her brother's actions? There was something queer about
the whole affair. Who had taken the wireless equipment from the wrecked
car out there by the Forest Preserve? Did young Ardmore have the ancient
original of that interesting map or only the photograph? If he did not
have it, who was in possession of it? Strange thing that it would be
lost for a hundred years only to have a brand-new photograph of it show
up all at once. Rather ghostly, he thought. He had meant to ask Gladys
Ardmore about that. He'd ask her now if she were here. But he was more
than glad she was not here.

"No trip for a girl," he told himself, "and she said she'd go. Strange
she gave it up so easily. Strange that--"

His thoughts broke off suddenly as he stared forward. The _Kittlewake_
was equipped with three cabins; a forecastle and aftercabin, both below
the main deck, built largely for stormy weather, and a fair-weather
cabin in the center of the main deck. The night was dark, the moon not
having come up. It was difficult to distinguish objects at a distance,
but, unless his eyes deceived him, Curlie saw some object, all white and
ghostly, rising slowly from the hatchway leading to the forecastle. Cold
perspiration sprang out upon his brow, his heart beat madly, his knees
trembled as he involuntarily moved forward. That was the way he had of
treating ghosts; he walked straight at them.

In the meantime, had one been on some craft three hundred miles farther
on in the direct course of the _Kittlewake_, he might have caught the
thunderous drumming of two powerful Liberty motors. He might also have
seen a spot of light playing constantly upon the black waters. While
this light was constant, it moved rapidly forward in a wide circle. The
circle was never the same in size or location, yet the spot of light did
not move more than twenty miles in any direction from a certain given
center. The spot of illumination came from a powerful searchlight
mounted upon a seaplane. It was manipulated by a boy in the rear seat. A
second boy drove the plane. These boys, as you have no doubt long since
guessed, were Vincent Ardm