“Here come the rest of the boys,” said Bob.
The others had become tired of standing around the fires and now, as their courage began to return, they climbed the short slope and joined the boys with the lanterns. The lightbearers had made their way down to the base of the rock and there they flashed the light around, resulting in an instant discovery. On a smaller rock lay some fragments of a sea shell, now broken into several sections.
“Just an old sea shell!” cried Drummer. “What good is that?”
“Do you know what it is?” Ted asked Buck.
“Can’t say that I do,” he shook his head.
Ted picked up the fragments, fitting them together until the large shell was nearly whole. “This is a conch shell,” he said. “It is often used as a horn, and when it was blown it makes plenty of noise, as we just found out! This is the horn which was blown to scare us.”
“That’s a seashore shell, isn’t it?” Plum asked.
“Yes, a large marine shell, a univalve shell, and it can be blown into and makes quite a good horn. Somebody from up on top of that rock saw us down in the camp and just tooted that shell to scare us.”
“Didn’t they use those shells a lot in the Revolutionary war, to call people?” a boy asked.
“Yes, and this may be one as old as that. Some farmer around here must have owned it.”