He stopped at Anderson’s Landing long enough to check with the owner
about a boat for him and Teena the next day.
“That’s our agreement,” Mr. Anderson said, smiling. “After all, you
earned it. Don’t want you chasing any submarines with it, though.” The
boatowner laughed. Apparently people weren’t taking the rumored
submarine sighting very seriously. Eddie supposed that, as long as there
was no proof, perhaps it was just as well. Besides, even a foreign
submarine was not likely to cause any trouble. After all, there was no
war going on.
Still, Eddie couldn’t shrug it off so lightly. The tangle of strange
happenings during the past days upset him, and he didn’t feel much like
joking; not when his father and Teena’s father were both in the thick of
serious trouble.
Eddie took his time getting to the cove. Sandy chased back and forth
into the surf after bits of driftwood which he kept dropping at Eddie’s
feet, and which Eddie threw back into the water.
By the time he reached the cove, Eddie wished he hadn’t dawdled along so
slowly. The sun had dropped fast, and was already squashing down against
the horizon.
“Come on, Sandy,” he said, starting for the foot of the bluff. “We’ve
got to hurry.”
He started up the narrow winding trail. Sandy scurried ahead and finally
stood, panting heavily, on top of the bluff, waiting for Eddie.
The shack was still plainly visible in the waning light. Eddie started
along the path. In most places it could hardly be called a path, except
that there were dim tracks to follow. The heavy growth of brush and
weeds tore at his clothes. He kept his arms tucked in close to his body
to keep from getting scratched. Sandy had no difficulty whatsoever in
racing back and forth through the thick scrubby growth. All of his
running had tired the cocker spaniel enough that he wasn’t yipping and
barking as he so often did.
Within a few minutes Eddie was to be very thankful for that.
As he had suspected, the faint trail ended at the door of the old
abandoned fisherman’s shack. In the eerie light of dusk, Eddie
remembered Teena saying that it looked almost haunted. It certainly did.
Broken shutters dangled from boarded-up windows. Gaping holes in the
roof yawned at the darkening sky. The warped and twisted wooden siding
made the whole structure look as though it were about to cave in.
Eddie approached the shack cautiously. He figured his curiosity would be
satisfied if he took just one look inside.
His hand was poised over the latch on the door when a slight scratching
sound from inside froze it in mid-air. It sounded like someone
scratching a match.
Even as he stood there with sudden fear prickling along his spine, a
small flare of light seeped through one of the cracks between the warped
boards of the door. It _was_ a match! Eddie sucked in his breath and
drew back. His first thought was to turn and run.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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