“What do you see?” asked Belding.
“I see that it is the same word each time, of course,” replied Whistler. “But I don’t believe my eyes.”
“What’s that?” demanded the other two boys.
“If the ghost of the air,” said Whistler gravely, “did not spell out the name of this destroyer this afternoon, it certainly did try to put over the name of another ship.”
“Wow!” exclaimed Al. “Tell us.”
“What ship do you mean?” asked Belding, scowling thoughtfully at the paper.
Quickly Whistler covered the letters on the sheet as, with his own pencil, he filled in the gaps between them. When he flashed the sheet before the eyes of his two friends each of the lines of letters made the same word. And that word was:
“REDBIRD”
“My goodness! You have gone crazy, Phil Morgan!” almost shouted Belding.
“Cracky! that’s the ship your sisters and Belding’s folks are aboard, you know,” gasped Torry. “Why, Whistler, I believe with George that you are crazy!”