Bennie grinned amiably. “What’s the Phantom Ship?” he demanded.
“You’ll see.”
The boys noted with delight that Uncle Billy was taking his alpine rope. Lunches and cameras were carried, too. The trail down from the rim was now cleared of snow all the way, and the descent was quick and easy. But, at the bottom, they found that so many people had gone down ahead of them that all the boats were out. They had to wait two hours while some of the boatmen, who had gone across to the boat-house on Wizard Island, got the launch in commission over there, and towed back more boats.
“How did they ever get a launch down here?” asked Bennie.
“Brought it down in pieces and assembled it, I suppose,” Spider said. “Didn’t they?”
“Must have,” answered the doctor.
When the fresh supply of boats arrived, they pushed off, rowing in the opposite direction from Wizard Island. Now they passed directly under the jagged red walls of Eagle Crags, which form the north wall of Mount Garfield, and tower 2,000 feet above the water. Rounding Eagle Point, they saw Chaski Bay, invisible from the hotel, with a great snow-drift hanging over it, and beyond that another 2,000-foot cliff headland, with a long, steep talus slope of soft stuff leading up to the precipitous lava.
“What do you see right at the base of that cliff, in the water?” the doctor asked.
“Nothing,” said the boys. “Just some small rocks at the water’s edge.”
“Some small rocks, eh? Well, row on a bit. Keep in nearer shore, Bennie.”