The Greatest Works of Otis Adelbert Kline - 18 Books in One Edition. Otis Adelbert Kline

talking, Grandon had been straining his eyes into the darkness before them. Suddenly he exclaimed:

      “I see a light dead ahead!”

      “Then I have steered better than I could have hoped,” said the yellow pirate, “for it must be the light from the cabin in the cove. We will be there shortly if we can pass through the shoals unscathed.”

      He set his course dead ahead, asking Grandon to watch the light and direct him, as he was unable to see it from the stern on account of the sail. This Grandon did, and was greatly mystified as he watched, for although the light had seemed to be not more than a mile away when he first saw it, and they continued to sail swiftly toward it, it did not increase in brightness or apparent nearness. It seemed to have an unnatural, phosphorescent gleam, also, that would scarcely be expected to come from a cabin light.

      The breakers roared louder and louder as they progressed. Suddenly their hull glanced from a submerged rock, scraped a second, and smashed, head on, into a third. There was a rendering crash as the little craft swung half around, buffeted by the waves for a moment before a huge roller engulfed her.

      Just beyond the treacherous shoal, two men struggled desperately in the boiling, seething water, in an effort to reach the shore. But the third had gone down, never to rise again.