The Project Gutenberg eBook, Sign of the Green Arrow, by Roy J. (Roy Judson) Snell

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Title: Sign of the Green Arrow

A Mystery Story

Author: Roy J. (Roy Judson) Snell

Release Date: February 2, 2014 [eBook #44824]

Language: English

Character set encoding: UTF-8

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIGN OF THE GREEN ARROW***

E-text prepared by
Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
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SIGN OF THE
GREEN ARROW

By
ROY J. SNELL

Reilly & Lee
Chicago

COPYRIGHT 1939
BY
REILLY & LEE
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I “This is Our Secret” 11

II Spooky Waters 22

III A Bright Eyed Beach-Comber 34

IV Spies 46

V Whispering Depths 54

VI Real Progress! 73

VII Mystery Singers of the Night 82

VIII Monster of the Deep 96

IX Dave’s Electric Gun 105

X Little Big-Heads 115

XI Tigers of the Sea 125

XII Johnny’s Day Off 136

XIII The Green Arrow Trail 150

XIV An Important Discovery 161

XV Adrift in the Depths 167

XVI Voice of Drums 174

XVII Marching on the Castle 183

XVIII The Battle 192

XIX On the Bottom 204

SIGN OF THE GREEN ARROW

CHAPTER I
“THIS IS OUR SECRET.”

It was midnight. Johnny Thompson paced the deck of the Sea Nymph alone. He would be doing this until daybreak. The tropical night was glorious. There was a faint breeze—just enough to ripple the waters where the phosphorescent light thrown off by a million tiny creatures rivaled the stars above.

“Spooky,” he thought, meditatively. “Out here all alone with the night.... Natives over there.” He faced the east, where dark green hills loomed out of the water. Over there was a small island. Johnny never had been there. Some time he’d get into a canoe and paddle over. Earlier in the evening he had seen a light, a white man’s light, he had thought, without knowing why. He—

His thoughts were interrupted by someone moving, up forward. Or was there? He had supposed they all were asleep—the strange old man, bony and tall, with goggle eyes and heavy glasses, the tall young man and the blonde girl. They all had berths forward. The captain and mate were aft; the native crew, below deck. There was no need for any of the crew, now. The boat was anchored. Only he, Johnny Thompson, was needed, to keep watch for prowlers of the sea, or signs of a storm.

It was strange, this new job. He was not sure just what these people were planning—some scientific expedition, he thought. The ship’s outfit was rather irregular, but he had been glad of the chance to sign up as watch. He loved the sea.

“Someone—” he said to himself, “—is moving, up there.” He started forward, cautiously.

He had covered only half the hundred and twenty-five foot length of deck when suddenly he beheld the girl of the party.

“Walking in her sleep,” Johnny thought, with a touch of alarm. But she wasn’t.

“Hello!” She poked a hand from beneath her midnight-blue dressing gown. “It’s too swell a night to sleep.”

“Yes,” Johnny agreed.

“You’re not a regular watch, are you?” she asked.

“That—er—” Johnny hesitated. “That’s not my regular job. Nothing is. Does that matter?”

“No, I suppose not. Anyhow nothing could happen, here.”

“Plenty could happen,” he contradicted, quietly.

“How do you know?”

“I’ve been in the Tropics before. Natives get ugly sometimes. They imagine white men are getting the best of them—which, for the most part, they are!” Johnny laughed. “Then there are storms,” he went on. “Wildest place for storms you’ve ever seen. Once I drifted before a storm for thirty-six hours in a boat just about like this,