Читать книгу The Mystery of Hidden Harbor - John Stephen Doherty - Страница 5

Pete was up early in the morning. While the Professor cooked breakfast over an open fire, Pete took a quick swim. When he had dried himself and dressed, Professor Nevins handed him his breakfast of eggs and bacon, two slices of bread and a small mound of jelly.

“Nothing fancy,” the Professor said, “but you won’t starve.”

They ate in silence for a few minutes.

“What are you going to do today?” Pete asked.

The Professor lit his pipe and leaned back against a log.

“My project this summer is to study the nesting habits of the sea birds living here in the marsh and out on Sea Bird Island. I finished two dozen nesting boxes and set them out during the Easter vacation. Today I’m going to check them out in the marsh. In the next couple of weeks I hope the eggs will start hatching. Then I can study how the nests are built and how long the young birds use them.”

“Want me to help you?” Pete asked.

“Thanks, Pete, but I had better do it alone. Even one person going into the marsh will frighten the birds. Two people will make it worse. Anyway, you have to put up your tent.”

“All right,” Pete said, “but I can help you with your boat.”

Pete and the Professor went down to the edge of the water and Pete waded out to get the Professor’s rowboat. It was tied between two posts just off shore so that it wouldn’t be left high and dry when the tide went out.

Pete called back to the Professor, “Boy, you sure hit this boat a hard whack against something!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Your boat. You cracked a plank in it.”

Pete pulled it in to shore. On one side there was a long scrape in the paint and under it a side plank was broken. Something had certainly hit the rowboat hard.

The Professor looked surprised. “I didn’t do that,” he said. “The boat was in perfect shape when I tied it up there yesterday afternoon.”

Pete said, “I’ll bet it happened while we were having supper.”

“But how?”

“That speed boat,” Pete said. “Remember? It made a run down this end.”

“You mean Fannin?”

“Who else? It’s just like him. Look!” Pete leaned over and pointed. “Looks like red paint to me, and red is the color of Fannin’s boats.”

“We don’t even know for sure that it was Fannin’s boat speeding around last night,” the Professor told him.

“I do,” Pete said. “I would bet my life on it.”

“Is the boat going to leak?” the Professor asked.

Pete nodded. “Sure is.”

“That’s no good. I have to carry valuable instruments around in it.”

Pete took a closer look at the damage. “We can fix it over at the yard in a couple of hours. I can have it back right after lunch.”

The Professor smiled gratefully. “Fine. I can write up my reports while you are gone.”

Pete pulled the boat through the shallow water down to his camp. Then he tied it behind his sailboat, raised sail and started across the harbor.

When he got to the boat yard, Nick was standing on the upper dock.

“Hi, Pete!” he yelled. “Did you catch only one?”

Pete grinned. “Sure, but look at the size of it.”

When Pete told him what had happened, Nick raised his eyebrows. “Well, it could be Fannin with that red paint on it, but how can you be sure?”

Nick tied Pete’s boat up to the main dock and raised the Professor’s rowboat on to a sort of wooden cradle where he could get at it. Then he started the repair work.

“Where is Dad?” Pete asked.

“Went in to buy supplies,” Nick told him.

By noon, when Wesley Dana returned to the yard, Pete was painting the new plank that had been put in.

“What happened?” his father asked Pete.

Pete explained. When he had finished, Mr. Dana paused for a moment.

“You can’t be sure Fannin did it,” he said. “And even if he did, how do you know he did it on purpose?”

Pete felt angry. He wanted to tell his father that Fannin was going to bring trouble to Hidden Harbor. But he knew that his father would say the same thing Nick and Professor Nevins had said.

When the paint on the repairs was dry enough, Pete once more towed the boat across the harbor.

“That was a quick job,” the Professor called out as Pete came drifting in to the beach.

“Nick is pretty good,” Pete agreed.

“And what is your special job?” Nevins asked.

“I am the gas float expert,” Pete said, grinning.

The Professor laughed. “It’s a little late for me to check all my nesting boxes this afternoon. How about your first skin diving lesson?”

“Great!” Pete agreed.

They brought the new gear down to the rowboat. Pete carried the small motor from the tent and fastened it to the stern. He started the motor and turned to the Professor.

“Where to?” he asked.

“Go down past your camp toward Lighthouse Point. We need clear water and a sandy bottom.”

Pete nodded and steered the boat to the west, toward Lighthouse Point.

“This looks pretty good,” the Professor said. “How deep is it?”

Pete stopped the motor, picked up an oar from the bottom of the boat and pushed it down into the water.

“About up to my chest.”

“Fine. Let’s anchor,” the Professor said.

Pete dropped the anchor and, when it caught, stripped down to a pair of swimming trunks. The Professor did the same and they dived into the water.

“All right, Pete,” he said. “Let’s start with the masks.”

Professor Nevins showed Pete how to wet the inside of the glass face piece in the mask. “If you don’t wet it,” he said, “it may steam up when you stay under for a while.” Then he showed Pete how to get a tight fit around the edges, so that no water would get in. After that, Pete swam under water. He was surprised at how clearly he could see.

Next, Pete tried on the rubber swim fins that fitted over his feet.

“They look funny,” he told Professor Nevins, “but they sure help. With them, I could keep up with a fish.”

“Don’t bet on it,” the Professor said, laughing. “But they do add a lot of speed under water.”

Next they put on the belts that were weighted with lead. Hanging on each belt was a bag holding a knife with a cork handle.

“You won’t always need the belt,” the Professor said. “Most of the time the weight of the oxygen tank will keep you under water when you want to stay down. But sometimes you need one, and I thought you should get the feel of it under water.”

With the belt on, Pete found he would settle to the bottom when he went under.

“Now let’s get started on the best part of skin diving—using the oxygen tank.” Professor Nevins reached into the boat and lifted out a tank about two and a half feet long, painted bright yellow. From the pointed end, two rubber tubes came out of the tank and ran to a rubber mouth piece. There was also a round knob set in the top of the tank. Pointing to it, Nevins said, “This controls the flow of air into the mouth piece. You can reach it over your shoulder when you are wearing the tank. That way, you can get more air, or less air, whichever you need.”

He held the tank while Pete slipped his arms through the two canvas straps so that the tank hung on his back. Then the Professor looped the two rubber air tubes over Pete’s head and handed Pete the mouth piece.

“Here, slip this into your mouth. You will find that you can hold it easily with your teeth. Even if you open your jaws a little, it won’t fall out. The rubber front here covers your lips so no water can get into your mouth while you are breathing.”

Pete slipped the mouth piece into his mouth and the Professor gave the handle one turn.

“Breathe in, Pete,” he said. Then, “Are you getting enough oxygen?” Pete took several breaths and shook his his head that he was not.

The Professor gave it another turn. “How’s that? Are you getting enough now?”

Pete nodded and pointed down at the water.

“All right, go ahead. Try it,” the Professor said.

Pete went under. A moment later he came up, choking for air. The Professor burst out laughing.

“It’s not funny.” Pete said.

“Sure, it is. You wouldn’t wait until I told you how to breathe.”

Pete laughed too, this time. “I thought I knew how to breathe!”

“It is a little different with the tank. You have to pull in hard with your mouth, then blow the air out through your nose.”

“Got it. Let me try it again.”

Pete dived and this time he did it right.

For the next half hour Pete practiced. He went out into the harbor for a hundred yards under water, then came to the surface. The Professor made him practice going in a straight line.

“You have to swim with an even stroke, Pete. When you stay under longer, you want to know exactly where your boat is when you come up. If I am in town tomorrow,” Professor Nevins went on, “I will pick up a couple of wrist compasses. Then we can practice doing some map problems under the water.”

Pete thought how useful a compass could be. With it, a man could approach a boat under water without being seen. And when he learned to judge distance under water, he would be able to come up just where he wanted to.

On the way back to camp, Professor Nevins said, “This time the supper is on me.”

After they had eaten and the sun was going down, Pete said, “I know everybody thinks I am off base, the way I feel about Fannin, but there is something fishy about that boat business of his. First of all, why didn’t he rent space down near the main part of town where all the people are?”

“All right, Pete. That’s one point.”

“Next, why is he buzzing around the water in the middle of the night?”

“That is point two, provided it was Fannin.”

“Third, what kind of business man making a start in a new town would treat me or any young fellow who was minding his own affairs the way he did me?”

The Professor nodded and Pete went on.

“Also, why hasn’t he put any notices of his business plans in the paper?”

“Is that right?” the Professor asked.

“That’s what my father said.”

“That’s odd, but not a full point against him. I can give you credit for only half on that one.”

Pete took a deep breath. “And the fifth thing is the way he handled his boat yesterday when he came over for gas. He used it as if it were a car. No real boat man would do that. A car is a car and a boat is a boat. I don’t think he knows enough about boats to tell the difference.”

The Professor pulled on his pipe for a minute. Then he said, “I will go this far with you: taken all together, it looks odd. So the question is, what do you want to do about it?”

“Watch him.”

“And you want me to help you?”

“Yes, if you will.”

After another moment the Professor said, “I won’t help you, Pete, but I will go with you if I have enough time. On one condition,” he added, “that everything you do is completely within the law.”

Later that evening, they moved silently around the curve of the beach, keeping the house boat in view. Lights were on. As they got closer, they stopped more often. They could hear voices but could not make out what was being said.

Pete and the Professor slid under the dock and sat on the damp sand. The hull of the house boat was only a few feet from them.

The Professor whispered, “What are you expecting them to do, Pete?”

“I don’t know,” Pete whispered back.

At midnight the Professor pointed to his watch, then toward their tents. Pete nodded. When they were far enough away to speak in normal voices, Pete said, “You go on back to your camp. I am going to walk up to the top of the dune and take a look at the ocean.”

Pete climbed slowly until he reached the top. There he sat down and stared out over the ocean. Far below him, the waves broke with a hissing roar on the beach, ran up the sand in a rush, and then slowly flowed back into the sea. As Pete leaned back, enjoying a sense of ease, something caught his eye far off to the right.

He stood and looked toward Lighthouse Point and could see the red and green light of a boat coming his way. At first it seemed to be heading straight for Main Inlet and he thought it was a fishing boat returning home. But it passed the inlet and kept coming toward him. Then a strange thing happened.

The lights suddenly went out.

Pete wondered what kind of fool would run at night without lights. Seconds passed . . . and then a full minute, before he saw the black shape again, drawing nearer. He could make it out quite clearly in the moonlight.

When it was directly opposite where he was standing, Pete said to himself, “That’s a PT boat, the kind that was used in the war!” He had seen too many of them at Hidden Harbor to make a mistake.

The PT boat kept on going. When it reached Sea Bird Island, three hundred yards off shore and in a direct line with the ocean side of shallow North Inlet, Pete heard the engines slow down.

A big anchor chain rattled down. After a moment it stopped. A man’s voice carried across the water.

“All right, that’s it!”

Pete watched for another fifteen minutes, but nothing more happened. Finally he could not stay quiet any longer. He had to tell Professor Nevins.

Getting up, he started back to the harbor. He turned to take one last look at the large black boat and got the surprise of his life.

A light was blinking from the pilot house of the PT boat. Pete ran back to a place where he could see the PT boat and still look down into the harbor.

Now there was a light blinking from the house boat!

Pete watched only a minute or so. Then he rushed down the beach. “Professor! Professor Nevins! Are you up?” he called when he reached the tent.

“Yes, Pete. What’s the matter?”

Quickly, Pete explained. In less than five minutes they were back on the dune.

The blinking had stopped. In fact, there was nothing to show that a boat had been near Sea Bird Island.

They walked back slowly. As they stood in the moonlight, the Professor said. “Pete, are you sure you saw a PT boat blinking its lights?”

“I couldn’t have dreamed up a boat that big. Honestly, Professor Nevins, you have to believe me,” Pete protested.