This page has been validated.

THE SKELETON IN THE SAND

But Mr. Flagg was thoroughly subdued, and the sails of the Firefly began to flutter without the slightest delay.

"I don't think he will come back, somehow," Tempest commented as the craft passed through the channel and into the open sea. "All the same, we must keep our eyes skinned. But for the love of Mike, let's get something to eat."

Nothing had been disturbed in the Nautilus. Even Dave's cherished binoculars were exactly where he had left them. In a few minutes the trio were ravenously devouring a meal and regaling themselves with steaming cups of coffee, after which they took turn and turn about in keeping watch until dawn.

As soon as it was light, Dave and Tempest paid their first long-deferred visit to the Hatteras, and the boy's face fell as he scrambled onto the ruins of the bark. The ravages of time had not left much of her framework. Her hull was more or less intact, being embedded deeply in sand which

363