THE FLYING STINGAREE

BY JOHN BLAINE

A RICK BRANT SCIENCE-ADVENTURE STORY

GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK, N. Y.

BY GROSSET & DUNLAP, INC., 1963

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Printed in the United States of America

[Transcriber's note: Extensive research found no evidence
that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

To
my sons,
Chris and Derek,
who have watched the stingarees
from the sun deck of the
cruising houseboat
Spindrift

Spindrift Island

THE FLYING STINGAREE

What's shaped like a sting ray and flies over Chesapeake Bay? This is the eerie riddle which confronts Rick Brant and his friend Don Scott when, seeking shelter from a storm, they anchor the houseboat Spindrift in a lonely cove along the Maryland shore and spot the flying stingaree.

The "thing," they learn, is not the only one of its kind—one is actually suspected of having kidnaped a man!

The residents of the Eastern Shore of Maryland believe the strange objects are flying saucers, but, weary of ridicule, have ceased reporting the sightings.

Rick and Scotty, their scientific curiosity aroused, begin a comprehensive investigation, encouraged by their friend Steve Ames, a young government intelligence agent, whose summer cottage is near the cove.

As the clues mount up, the trail leads to Calvert's Favor, a historic plantation house—and to the very bottom of Chesapeake Bay. How Rick and Scotty, at the risk of their lives, ground the eerie menace forever makes a tale of high-voltage suspense.

Little Choptank River

Contents

CHAPTER I Chesapeake Bay
CHAPTER II The Flying Stingaree
CHAPTER III Orvil Harris, Crabber
CHAPTER IV Steve's Place
CHAPTER V The Face Is Familiar
CHAPTER VI The Saucer Sighters
CHAPTER VII Sighting Data
CHAPTER VIII Calvert's Favor
CHAPTER IX The Duck Blind
CHAPTER X Ken Holt Comes Through
CHAPTER XI On the Bottom
CHAPTER XII Night Recovery
CHAPTER XIII The Night Watchers
CHAPTER XIV Daybreak
CHAPTER XV The Empty Boat
CHAPTER XVI Steve Waits It Out
CHAPTER XVII Crowd at Martins Creek
CHAPTER XVIII The Stingaree's Tail
CHAPTER XIX Lucky Lefty
CHAPTER XX Hunt the Wide Waters

RICK BRANT SCIENCE STORIES

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Little Choptank River

Scotty fitted the camera to the telescope

Now to find out what he had

The flying stingaree lifted him

CHAPTER I

Chesapeake Bay

The stingaree swam slowly through the warm waters of Chesapeake Bay. Geography meant nothing to the ray, whose sole interest in life was food, but his position—had he known it—was in the channel that runs between Poplar Island and the town of