Sandy and Dick, standing1 by the airplane on the beach, whirled to see a short, stoutish2 man in regulation flying togs come unexpectedly into view from behind an inshore hillock of sand.
“As I live and breathe!” the man continued, “I’m seeing things!”
His gaze was bent3 on the aircraft.
Sandy discerned instantly that he was looking at the pilot who had handled the control job on the amphibian4 during the recent excitement.
The stranger had a pleasant, round face, with eyes that twinkled in spite of the creases5 around them that showed worry. No wonder he was worried, Sandy thought: having deserted6 the craft they had foiled in its attempt to get the gems7, the man had returned from some short foray to discover his craft replaced by another.
65
“Howdy!” Dick greeted the stranger and replied to his exclamation8. “No, sir, you’re not seeing things! At least you’re not if you mean the airplane near where the amphibian was——”
Sandy wanted to nudge his comrade, to warn him to be careful. There was no chance; the man was observing them intently.
“Amphibian? You know the different types, eh? May I ask if you belong around here, and if not, how you got here—and who took the ‘phib’?”
Unable to check Dick, his younger chum had to stand, listening while Dick related some of their most recent adventures.
“As I live and breathe! So you’re two of the lads who were in the other ‘crate’. Where’s the third—and was that Jeff with you? I thought it must be.”
“Superstitions9 and all!” chuckled10 Dick.
Dick judged the man to be both friendly and “all right,” from his pleasant, affable manner and his evident knowledge of their pilot’s identity.
Not so Sandy!
His mind leaped through a multitude of theories and of suspicions.
This man might be “in cahoots” with Jeff, and Sandy was determined11 not to take Jeff, or anyone else, at face value too readily.
66
The whole strange affair looked “queer” to him.
Jeff had falsified the true reason for the landing in the Everdail field. He might falsify other things—his real reason for flying out to the yacht. This man might be his partner in some hidden scheme. Even the Everdail Emeralds, Sandy decided12, might be just “made up.”
“Nothing has been what it seemed to be,” he mentally determined. “I wish Dick would be careful what he says.”
Since Dick had already given the man a sidelight on Jeff’s character by mentioning his superstitions, it occurred to Sandy that he might learn, from the stranger’s reply, how well he knew Jeff.
His expression, as Sandy watched narrowly, became one of amusement, he smiled broadly, threw back his head and as he answered Dick’s phrase about superstitions and all, he laughed.
“He must have walked under a ladder, from the way things have turned out,” he said, amusedly.
“Who are you, please?” Sandy shot the question out suddenly.
“Me? Oh—” Did the man hesitate, Sandy wondered. It seemed to be so before he continued. “I’m Everdail.”
67
“Mr. Everdail?” Even Dick, questioning as he repeated the name, was a little doubtful. “Why, I thought Mr. Everdail was in——”
“California? So I was. But one of my air liners brought me across in record time.”
Anybody could have learned that the millionaire was in California, Sandy reflected; it would be easy for a clever jewel robber, one of a band, to impersonate the man when he was caught off guard by their exchange of aircraft.
“If you boys were with Jeff you must be all right,” the man advanced, hand extended.
Dick shook it warmly.
Sandy’s grip was less cordial, but he played the part of an unsuspecting youth as well as he could by finishing the handshake with a tighter grip and a smile.
“I thought Jeff might be in the ship, yonder, until he nearly threw us out of control with his propeller14 wash. Then I thought—he might be——” he hesitated.
“He thought you might be—” Dick smiled as he made the response, winking15 broadly.
Sandy wished his chum would be more careful.
The man who called himself Mr. Everdail nodded.
68
“As long as you’re not, and I’m not—what neither of us cared to say,” he turned toward the airplane, “let’s get together! I’m here because my passenger, a buddy16 of mine, wrenched17 his shoulder climbing back into the ‘phib’ and we set down here so I could leave him at the fishing shack18, yonder, and go back to see what was what. He was in too bad shape to take chances if I felt called on to do any stunts—I thought I could take the air in time to catch that seaplane coming out of the fog, but it fooled me. I already know why you’re here,” he added, “suppose we hop19 off in Jeff’s ‘crate’ and give a look-see if your friend and my war buddy need any help.”
“You can’t set down if they do,” objected Sandy, his confidence in the man’s possible guilt20 shaken by his knowledge of Jeff’s war record. “I don’t see, for my part, why Jeff didn’t use the amphibian in the first place!”
“I wondered about that when I got in at the estate, soon after you’d left,” Mr. Everdail—or the man who claimed to be the millionaire—asserted. “I could see he had been working on it, getting it ready—even had the tank full up, but he had disconnected the fuel gauge21 to fool anybody who might be looking around, I guess.”
69
“Maybe he landed and changed his mind about using it,” Dick suggested. “On account of taking us in—we organized a sort of Sky Patrol, to oversee22 things—but everything went wrong.”
“That accounts for it. I didn’t know he was going to make the hop or I might not have come myself—but now—well,” the man broke off his phrase and started to clamber into the control seat, “let’s get going.”
“And leave your passenger?”
“He’s comfortable, lying quiet in the fishing shack.”
Sandy, who had spoken, felt his suspicions returning at the reply. Could there be any reason why they must not identify the other man? Might he be the ringleader, or have some outstanding mark that they had seen before and might recognize?
Dick performed the “mech’s” duties for the pilot in getting the engine started again, then he clambered into his old place. Sandy was already behind their new pilot.
“Whoever and whatever he is,” Sandy mused13, “he knows how to lift a ‘crate’ out of the sand.”
The man claiming to be Mr. Everdail made a skillful getaway from the beach, and it took them very little time to get over the marsh24, already free of fog.
70
Dick located the crack-up, Sandy indicated the spot and the pilot dropped so low that his trucks almost grazed the waving eel-grass.
“There’s no amphibian in sight, though!” Dick murmured. “I wonder——”
“I see Larry! Yoo-hoo!” Sandy shouted.
Larry, in his rubber boat, just having given up trying to explain how a number of bits of chewing gum had transferred themselves from the amphibian, where last he saw them—or some like them—to the seaplane, gestured and pantomimed to try to tell them his news.
Flying past they could not fully25 understand.
The new pilot waved a reassuring26 glove at Larry and swerved27 back toward the end of the island. Larry wondered who he was and what his comrades were doing with him; but Larry, always practical, let the questions wait for their eventual28 answers and continued to study the half-sunken seaplane.
No new clues offered themselves. He detached one of the hard, adhering chunks29 of gum and dropped it into his pocket, “just in case,” he said, half-grinning, “just in case they transfer themselves somewhere else. I’ll leave twenty-nine of them—and see.”
71
The supposed Mr. Everdail scribbled30 a note which he handed back to Sandy, who caught his idea of dropping instructions on the deck of the yacht.
Borrowing Dick’s jackknife for a weight, Sandy prepared the message.
Cruising slowly the yacht came into sight.
Their pilot was skillful at coursing in such a direction and at such a height that he could skim low over the water craft’s radio mast and come almost to stalling speed while Sandy cast the note overside.
Dick, who had caught up Larry’s abandoned binoculars31, saw as they zoomed32 and climbed that a sailor had rescued the note before it bounded over the cabin roof and deck into the sea.
At once the hydroplane was manned and sent away, the yacht took up its own course, and Mr. Everdail—to give him his own claimed title—pointed the airplane’s nose for his estate. Sandy occupied the time of the flight by trying to piece together the strangely mixed jig-saw bits of their puzzle—or was it only one puzzle?
By the time they sighted the hangar and field, he had all the bits joined perfectly33. Sandy’s solution fitted every point that he knew, and was so “water tight” and so beautiful that he landed with his face carrying its first really satisfied, and exultant34 grin.
72
The beautiful part of it, to Sandy, was that he could sit by and watch, do nothing, except “pay out rope and let them tie themselves up in it.”
For Sandy’s suspects would certainly incriminate themselves.
“Let them guy me and call me ‘Suspicious Sandy,’” he murmured as he followed Dick toward the wharf35 on the inlet by the shore of the estate. “If I untangle this snarl36 the way I expect to, I may not bother to go in for airplane engineering. There might be as much money in a private detective office.”
Mr. “Everdail” proceeded at once to tie himself in his first knot.
“Well—hm-m!” he remarked to Dick, “feels good to be on the old place again. First time I’ve set foot on it for three years.”
“And he told us, on the beach, he’d been here this morning,” Sandy whispered to himself.
He decided to pay out another bit of rope.
“Mrs. Everdail will be glad you’re here when she lands,” he remarked.
The man whirled, frowning, hesitated and then spoke23 very emphatically.
“Look here, boys,” he said earnestly, “don’t say a word to her about me! I won’t be here when she lands—and I don’t want it known I’m in the East. There’s a good reason——”
“I’ll bet there is!” Sandy said to himself.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
stoutish
|
|
| 略胖的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
amphibian
|
|
| n.两栖动物；水陆两用飞机和车辆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
creases
|
|
| （使…）起折痕，弄皱( crease的第三人称单数 )； （皮肤）皱起，使起皱纹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
deserted
|
|
| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
gems
|
|
| growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
exclamation
|
|
| n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
superstitions
|
|
| 迷信，迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
chuckled
|
|
| 轻声地笑( chuckle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
determined
|
|
| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
mused
|
|
| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
propeller
|
|
| n.螺旋桨，推进器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
winking
|
|
| n.瞬眼，目语v.使眼色( wink的现在分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
buddy
|
|
| n.（美口）密友，伙伴 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
wrenched
|
|
| v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
shack
|
|
| adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
hop
|
|
| n.单脚跳，跳跃；vi.单脚跳，跳跃；着手做某事；vt.跳跃，跃过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
guilt
|
|
| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
gauge
|
|
| v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
oversee
|
|
| vt.监督，管理 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
marsh
|
|
| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
fully
|
|
| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
reassuring
|
|
| a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
swerved
|
|
| v.（使）改变方向，改变目的( swerve的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
eventual
|
|
| adj.最后的，结局的，最终的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
chunks
|
|
| 厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
scribbled
|
|
| v.潦草的书写( scribble的过去式和过去分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
binoculars
|
|
| n.双筒望远镜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
zoomed
|
|
| v.（飞机、汽车等）急速移动( zoom的过去式 )；（价格、费用等）急升，猛涨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
exultant
|
|
| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
wharf
|
|
| n.码头，停泊处 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
snarl
|
|
| v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |