“Guess not,” said Frank. “She does not look like a fisherman. There is something mysterious in her appearance.”
“You know Capt. Kidd ran in here something over a hundred years ago and landed on the Thimbles,” Harry reminded. “He hid his vessel behind the rocky islands and buried his treasure where he and no one else has since been able to find it. His ‘punch bowl’ and initials remain to prove that he really did come in here.”
“Imagine we are living in the days of pirates,” said Diamond, his eyes sparkling. “Imagine that fellow coming yonder is one.”
“We’d be headed the other way, instead of bearing down to cross close under his stern,” declared Hodge.
“I don’t believe that schooner is much of a sailor, for all of her rakish appearance,” said Harry.
“She’s running under light sail,” observed Frank. “It would make a difference if she were to crack on every stitch.”
At the wheel a man seemed half asleep. Another man was at work forward, and those were all the boys could see.
“Don’t believe she carries a heavy crew,” said Browning, surveying the schooner with lazy interest.
Somehow or other as they drew nearer to the black vessel they lowered their voices and all seemed to feel an air of awe stealing over them.
“Do you make out her name, Merry?” asked Harry of Frank, who had the glass.