The Mountains
ng moodily out at the Laughing Lass. As the night was calm the tow had made fair time toward their port in
lue, doctor?" aske
No," muttered Trendon. "Marie--Mar
? What ab
out was found derelict. Everything in perfect order. Captain's wife's hem on the machine
came of
to unravel our tangle." He shook hi
d," said Barnett, frowning at the fusty schooner a
is. Schermerhorn's work maybe," replie
wonders, why s
pedition,
id the other thoughtfull
you gentlemen in the ward room,
hered. Captain Parkinson was pacing u
ing the schooner which we have in tow to port at Honolulu. In the present unsettled weather we cannot continue to tow
e veteran Trendon to the you
gravest of perils. Nothing less would have driven Mr. Edwards from his post. All of us who know him will appreciate that. Nor can I free myself from the darkest forebodi
s a dead
? Dr. Trendo
ned light which we have twice seen, and the double desertio
the source of the light and however near to it the
tt. "That seems to vit
"In this respect you make my duty the more difficult. I shall accept Mr. Ives because
n the paymaster, "but I've handled a schooner yacht f
ire, you shall be th
k you
fort to find records of the schooner's cruise. Keep in company and watch for
rkinson was unwilling to compel any of them to the duty. Awed by the mystery of their mates' disapp
of nine men boarded the Laughing Lass. There were no farewells among
g Lass, making slow way through the mists, had become separated by a league of waves from the cruiser. One glimpse of her between mist areas the Wolverines caught at sunset. Then wind and rain descended in furious volume from the southeast. The cruiser immediately heade
from stem to stern of the Wolverine. For far toward the western horizon appeared such a prodigy as the eye of no man aboard that ship had
ring reds. Below, a broad band of paler hue, like sheet lightning fixed to rigidity, wavered and rippled. All the auror
leaden over the ship. It was broken by a scream of terror from forward. The quartermaster who had been at the wheel came c
The compass!"
ead spits venom, it spat forth a thin, steel-blue stream of lucent fire. Then so swiftly it whirled that the sparks scattered from it in a ti
nic?"
muttered the surgeon in his deep bass, as he looked forth u
r shot to the zenith. Barnett whirled t
ht be bewitched,
arkinson calmly. He had come from his cabin, all his nervous
ed her. Then fell blackness, sudden, complete. After that radiance the dazzled ey
," he shout
re a
ward, near where t
d, and beheld a majestic rolling volume of purpl
e," said Trendon. "V
her?" asked
lcano,
ins his bet," said Fo
th to collect it," rep
of prospect except that on the far horizon where the chart showed no land there ro