The Phantom Violin / A Mystery Story for Girls

, her black eyes reflecting the light of the setting

o her. Bird songs all the same. But now this. "It is celestial music from heaven!" she whispered. Yet as she

. At times a light breez

ir sound carries far. But where can

tone. Before her, almost straight down two hundred feet, were the black waters of Duncan's Bay

s Bay that she might be alone, that she might think. She was not thinking

and mother. Tears had stood in her mother's eyes as she bade her goodby, yet she had said bravely enough, "You must go, Greta. The doctor says yo

aves of longing swept over her, when her shoulders drooped and all her body w

the camping ground on Duncan's Bay that afternoon, she had been caught in such

. "Florence, I am going to climb the ridge. You and Jeanne go

u do you'll get lost. Keep on this side. If you lose your way, just come dow

atch the sun set over the black waters and to know that the same sun is making long sh

ge that towered above her and whispered

e at that hour would be found wandering there so far from the regular haunts of men, s

lone up here. There is someone else somewhe

ttention. Even thoughts of mother and the sunset were forgotten. It was enough

* *

on, she had been tempted to call Greta back. "Perhaps," she said to Jeanne, "

e cowards. The wild moose will not come near her. There

n her pole, hooked a lure to a bar on her reel, and,

harp as a shark's. From that time the big girl had experienced a compelling desire to try her hand at catching

how you fish for pike. You put this red and white spoon with its four-pointed hook on the line. Then you let the line out, alm

pens then?" She had caught a lit

urse the fish t

t with the spoon?" Je

s him mad. He's a wolf, this pike is, the wolf of all dark waters. He eats the other fish. He-but c

l disturbed the Sabbath-like stillness of that black bay, where the primeval fo

all out." She sat in the back seat an

waters. They circled it again. A giant dragon fly coursed through the sky. From afar came the shrill laugh of a

g! The line! It's burning my finger

she reeled in frantically. "It's a fish!" Her words came short and quick. "I-I feel him fla

, Florence felt her knuckles bruised and barked, but she persisted. Not ten feet

the line is stout, stout as a cowboy's l

ked in perfect time as she reeled i

a dark shadow in the water before a second mad

s sober, almost pleading. "Think what a monster he

grimly, "is Michigan, not Florid

was reeling in with a fierce and savage deli