“Nice cheerful one,” grinned Don. “It is called the Black Mummy!”
“Oh, boy!” breathed Jim. “Some undertaker or grave digger must own it!”
They drew so near to the freighter that the aid of the glass was no longer necessary. Both Don and Jim discovered an important fact at the same time.
“There is no one at the wheel!” they said, in a chorus.
“What does that mean?” Terry asked.
“I don’t know,” Don confessed. “The wheel isn’t lashed down, either. It must mean that either the captain and crew are all sick or there is no one on that freighter!”
“An abandoned freighter?” cried Terry.
“Possibly. If everything was normal there would surely be someone around. But something is wrong when there isn’t a man anywhere on deck.” He turned to Jim. “Suppose we ought to hail them?”
“Yes,” nodded the younger boy, promptly. “It might be that someone is ill there, and if that is the case we wouldn’t want to pass by without finding it out. Sure, go ahead.”
They were now close beside the freighter, and Don stepped to the rail. As the boys had noted before, boxes and fragments of rope lay tumbled about the deck, and the freighter was in anything but shipshape condition. The door to the companionway was open.