William Arden - The Secret Of Phantom Lake

“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!”

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?”

“Yes, Jupiter. He must have had the treasure in his car already, and have come back for something. I’m afraid he’s escaped now.”

“Perhaps,” Jupiter said slowly as they walked back to Professor Shay’s car. Suddenly, he looked round. “Where is Rory?”

“Rory?” Cluny said. “I haven’t seen him all morning, Jupe. He likes to take early morning walks.”

Jupiter’s eyes flashed in the rain. “Cluny, you said Rory’s only been here a year. Just how did he come here?”

“Wh-why,” Cluny stammered, “he just turned up with a letter from people we know in Scotland, Jupe. He knew all about our family and old home!”

“Anyone could learn that!” Pete declared. “Jupe, you think Rory’s working with Java Jim? Or maybe is Java Jim?”

“He’s the same size,” Jupiter exclaimed. “He tried to stop our looking for the treasure from the start. He was away from Phantom Lake both times Java Jim tried to get the journal from us, and he showed up awfully fast at the ghost town right after Java Jim ran away!”

Bob said, “He knew we were at that quarry because he took us there! He was the first one we told about the ton of stone from the Ortegas. He could have locked us in that shack and come back here to knock down the smokehouse — he didn’t know yet that the stones were all big ones!”