“Didn’t any of the rest of you see it?” asked the other, eagerly.
“See what? Are you beginning on that ghost racket already?” insinuated Herb.
“Ghost nothing,” exclaimed Josh; “and yet truth to tell it did glide out of sight behind the point yonder like a phantom boat. Then the moon went under, and I lost it again!”
[CHAPTER VIII—IN THE MIDNIGHT WATCH]
Everybody sat up and took notice when Josh delivered himself after this strange fashion. If it had been a mere glimpse of some white object which he claimed to have seen ashore they might have smiled, and let it go at that. But a boat was a different proposition. They were interested in boats; and indeed, expecting sooner or later to be visited by a certain dark craft, fashioned along a piratical type.
“Where did you see it, Josh?” asked George, hastily jumping to his feet; and almost taking a header into the water; for his delicately balanced speed craft did not allow such energetic movements with impunity.
“Well, give a feller a chance, won’t you?” grumbled the other, as he clutched the brass railing just in time to save himself. “I’m not in such a hurry to go after the phantom boat as to want to swim! Besides,” he added, as an afterthought, “I haven’t forgotten that savage musky Jack brought in today. If they hang out around this region you don’t catch Josh Purdue doing any bathing, not much.”
“But tell us, where did you see this queer boat that moves along as silent as a specter?” asked Nick.
“Didn’t you get on to what I said?” continued the other, impatiently. “Around that point yonder it seemed to glide. I lost it in the shadows.”
“Listen to him hedge, fellows!” cried Nick. “Now he says it ‘seemed to glide.’ That is as much as saying he ain’t sure whether he was awake or dreaming.”