“Phineas told me that Jack Crab was the best pilot on this coast,” remarked Tom. “He knows every channel, and shoal, and reef from Westhampton to Cape o’ Winds. If there was a landing at Thimble Island, and any secret place upon it, Jack Crab would be likely to know of it.”
“Can you sail us around the Thimble?” asked Ruth. “That’s all we want.”
“I asked Phin before we started. The sea is clear for half a mile and more all around the Thimble. We can circle it, all right, if the wind holds this way.”
“That’s all I expect you to do, Tommy,” responded Ruth, quickly.
But they all three eyed the conical-shaped rock very sharply as the Jennie S. drew nearer. They ran between the lighthouse and the Thimble. The tide, in falling, left the green and slime-covered ledges bare.
“A boat could get into bad quarters there, and easily enough,” said Tom, as they ran past.
But when he tacked and the catboat swung her head seaward, they began to observe the far side of the Thimble. It was almost circular, and probably all of a thousand yards in circumference. The waves now ran up the exposed ledges, hissing and gurgling among the cavities, and sometimes throwing up spume-like geysers between the boulders.
“A bad rock for any vessel to stub her toe against trying to make Sokennet Harbor,” quoth Tom Cameron. “They say that the wreckers used to have a false beacon here in the old times. They used to bring a sheep out here and tie a lantern to its neck. Then, at low tide, they’d drive the poor sheep over the rocks and the bobbing up and down of the lantern would look like a riding light on some boat at anchor. Then the lost vessel would dare run in for an anchorage, too, and she’d be wrecked. Jack Crab’s grandfather was hanged for it. So Phineas told me.”
“How awful!” gasped Helen.
But Ruth suddenly seized her hand, exclaiming: “See there! what is it fluttering on the rock? Look, Tom!”