The Secret of Phantom Lake - Arden William (книги бесплатно TXT) 📗

“The island in the pond!” Bob and Pete cried together.

“Exactly,” Jupiter crowed. “Old Angus built that small island in Phantom Lake! That was Laura’s surprise. Everyone thought old Angus found the pond with the island in it, just like home, but he didn’t. He built the island!

“Originally there must have been a narrow peninsula jutting out into the pond. Angus built a barrier of sluice timber on each side, cut a channel across the peninsula, put the big stones in to be the Phantom’s Steps, and let the water back in. He had an island then. He put a ship’s lantern from Wright and Sons on a pole for a beacon, and planted a twisted cypress to recreate the legend of the phantom!

“He built a miniature replica of what he had loved at home — the view down the loch. That was his surprise present for Laura.” Jupiter paused for breath. “Then, when the Captain of the Argyll Queen and his men appeared, Angus used his island as a hiding place for the treasure. He left the letter and the second journal as clues!”

Bob and Pete were silent in admiration of old Angus’s clever riddle and Jupiter’s solution of it.

“No one ever knew the island was man-made?” Bob said finally.

“No one besides Angus, except the miners who dug it,” Jupiter said. “Miners in those days were mostly drifters, and even fugitives. By the time anyone started looking for the treasure, most of the diggers had probably gone away. Angus’s family assumed that the island was natural, and never knew about the miners because they never read the second journal!”

“But we found it, and now we’ll find the treasure!” Pete exclaimed.

“I’m certain of it,” Jupiter declared.

Bob said, “One thing still confuses me, First. What did old Angus mean when he wrote about seeing the secret in a mirror?”

“Maybe the pond is like a mirror?” Pete suggested.

Jupiter said, “I think I can explain that, too. But first I want to go to the pond and — ”

The truck had turned on to the side road to Phantom Lake some minutes earlier. Now Hans slammed on the brakes, throwing the boys backwards. They recovered, and jumped out. Hans was already out of the cab, hurrying forward.

They were at the last curve before the lodge, just out of sight of the house. Professor Shay’s station wagon was parked on the gravel shoulder behind a grove of pines. The car’s front door was open, and the professor himself sat on the edge of the front seat with Cluny bending over him!

“You are all right, Herr Professor?” Hans asked.

“I… I think so,” Professor Shay said, feeling his jaw. He looked at the boys as they ran up. “It was Java Jim! I drove up just a few minutes ago and saw him on the road! I tried to apprehend him, but he attacked me and ran off into the trees!”

“Java Jim?” Jupiter cried. “Then we haven’t a second to lose! Cluny, get the tools, quickly!”

20

The Phantom’s Secret

Mrs. Gunn watched them go off through the rain towards the small pond, with Hans and Professor Shay carrying the tools.

“Be careful now,” Cluny’s mother called. “Try to keep dry.”

The boys nodded, and hurried through the undergrowth to the edge of the pond. The Phantom’s Steps gleamed wetly in the narrow channel. They jumped across the stones in single file and stood on the tiny pine-covered island. It was less than one hundred feet wide, with two small hills that reached up thirty or forty feet.

“The legend says that the phantom stands on a crag and watches down the loch for the Vikings,” Jupiter said. “So we’ll look for a twisted tree on the far side of the island on some high point!”

They circled the island to the far side, the rain dripping off their hats and coats and down their necks. They climbed up the slope that formed the tiny hill facing down the pond. The beacon was on the top, its lantern hanging against the pole. Pete inspected the lantern.

“Jupe was right!” the Second Investigator exclaimed. “The brass plate’s on the lantern?

“’Wright and Sons’!”

“Look for the twisted cypress,” Jupiter urged. But there was no need to look far.

“There it is!” Professor Shay cried. It stood not fifteen feet away from the beacon — a small, twisted cypress just like those on Cabrillo Island. In the rain it looked like a ghostly human shape with a gnarled head and a long, skinny arm pointing out towards the pond. Like a phantom forever watching out to sea for the Vikings to come again.

“Look,” Pete said, pointing back towards the lodge across old Angus’s man-made channel. “The cypress is completely hidden from the house and shore by other, bigger trees. No wonder we never noticed it.”

Jupiter nodded. “It was probably clearly visible when old Angus planted it here, but these dwarf cypresses grow very slowly. It probably hasn’t grown a foot in the last hundred years, while the other trees grew to hide it.”

“Never mind about trees, First!” Pete declared. “Let’s start digging!”

Bob looked all round the cypress. “Java Jim hasn’t been here, Jupe. No signs of digging.”

“Come on, Pete,” Cluny urged, reaching to take the pickaxe from Hans. “We’ll dig all round?”

“No,” Jupiter said. “We won’t dig here.”

They all looked at him.

“But, the letter says remember the secret of Phantom Lake,” Professor Shay said. “That must mean look where the phantom is.”

“It also says to see the secret in a mirror,” Jupiter reminded them. “Angus was saying look at the phantom in a mirror.”

“There’s no mirrors round here, First,” Pete objected.

“No, and Angus knew that,” Jupiter agreed. “So he must have meant as if in a mirror. A mirror reverses things! So Angus meant us to reverse the phantom to find the treasure!”

He looked at the stunted old tree. “The phantom looks and points out to the pond. So we have to reverse it — and look back along the pointing arm the other way!”

Putting action to words, Jupiter stood in front of the small cypress and stared back along the thin, armlike branch. Bob looked along the arm behind him.

“Gosh, I can’t see much through this rain,” Bob said. “It’s too dark today.”

Jupiter said, “Give me your flashlight, Cluny!”

Jupiter laid the large flashlight along the arm of the phantom tree and switched it on. The strong beam shone through the rain — and fell on a flat, open area of thick brush. Jupiter started.

“Hurry, fellows!” he cried.

They all scrambled down the slope of the beacon hill and ran to the flat area. Overgrown with heavy brush, unmarked in any way, there was no sign to indicate that treasure might be buried there. No sign — until now!

They all stared at the torn-up brush — and the gaping hole!

“It’s gone!” Cluny cried.

“Someone guessed before you, Jupe!” Pete groaned.

Professor Shay bent down. He held up a brass button. “Java Jim! That’s why he attacked me and ran! He has the treasure!”

“We must call the police!” Hans said.

They rushed back across the Phantom’s Steps and up to the lodge. Jupiter asked Mrs. Gunn to call Chief Reynolds of the Rocky Beach Police and tell him that The Three Investigators needed help! Stop Java Jim from escaping!

“We’ll search where he attacked you, Professor Shay,” Jupiter decided. “Maybe we can see where he went!”

Where the professor’s car had pulled off the road just out of sight of the lodge, they began to search the ground with their flashlights. The gravel round the car revealed nothing. Professor Shay pointed to an open space a little way from the car. It was muddy, and boot tracks crossed it going straight towards the highway. The professor sighed.

“He must have had his car on the highway. He’s gone, boys!”

Jupiter examined the boot tracks in the mud.

“These are shallow tracks,” he pointed out. “Was Java Jim empty-handed when he attacked you, Professor?”