None had ever seen such a weird and startling effect before.
“Great Scott!” cried Jack.
As Aleck slowly swung his lantern from side to side, a crowd of shadowy giants hovered menacingly above them. Each movement sent them springing about, to dance and flitter on the restless, eddying vapor.
As arms uplifted, great images with giant bands waved threateningly, and then flashed downward, as if to pluck them up and disperse them through the whitish haze.
Suddenly the grim shadows blended into one; then, with startling rapidity, the swinging lantern threw fantastic blots and blurs and queer-shaped patches of light on the moving curtain.
“Oh, but it’s strange,” remarked Joe, in awesome tones. “Wish we were a bit nearer the shore. Kind o’ ghostly, eh?”
“Creepy enough, I should say so.”
“Makes a fellow’s head dizzy.”
“Great Scott, that boat must be awfully near,—’most on top of us.”
The sharp, warning notes of its whistle, again sounding, seemed to burst forth from a point close at hand. The pounding of the engine, the labored exhaust all told of its approach, and seven figures, with a sudden flush of excitement, crowded to the edge of the deck, and vainly tried to pierce the gloom.