The Mystery on Cobbett's Island

“Come, ye bold fishermen, listen to me; I’ll sing you a song of the fish in the sea.” There were endless verses, and the others soon joined lustily in the chorus. “Blow ye winds westerly, westerly blow. We’re bound to the southward, so steady we go.” He had a good voice and a seemingly endless stock of such songs, which raised everyone’s spirits.
    Mart rummaged through the lunch basket, hoping that something might be left from lunch, but there wasn’t a crumb, and for once he refrained from mentioning his hunger.
    The wind had died away as night really settled down on them, and a few stars became visible in the sky. Suddenly Trixie exclaimed, “I thought you said this was a flashing buoy, Peter! When does the light come on?”
    “By Jove, Trix, you’re right. It is supposed to be lighted,” Peter cried. “The light flashes day and night, but, of course, in the daytime you don’t notice it. Hand me the flashlight out of the drawer, and I’ll see if I can find out what’s wrong.” He jumped up on deck, ran to the bow of the boat, and played the beam of light over the buoy. “The bulb has been smashed!” he exclaimed.
    “Jeepers, what if a bunker boat happens to be coming in tonight? There won’t be any light to guide it into the channel,” Trixie said. “They’ll be in a worse mess than we are. They could go aground!”
    “Isn’t there any way to fix it?” asked Mart, for once dead serious. »
    “Not a chance in the world,” Peter answered in a low voice as he climbed back into the cockpit.
    All four were silent, their fears rising as time passed with no sound except the slapping of the water against the side of the boat.
    Presently Trixie said, “Say, Di, do you remember that Christmas when we decided to go out to sing carols to the shut-ins, and we each carried a flashlight covered with red crepe paper to shine up into our faces?”
    “Sure I do,” answered Diana. “Are you thinking of singing carols now, instead of sea chanteys?”
    “It’s not a bad idea, folks,” Mart said. “Only two hundred and some odd days till Christmas.”
    “No, it wasn’t that, silly, but I thought that if we could use the red protest flag to cover the flashlight, it might take the place of the buoy light,” answered Trixie.
    “No sooner said than done,” said Peter as he quickly hauled down the red pennant.
    They took turns standing up and holding the flashlight as high as they could, turning it off and on at what they estimated to be six-second intervals. Just as they were beginning to worry lest the battery give out, they again heard the sound of a motor in the distance and saw a boat with a searchlight coming toward them. As it came nearer, they could hear the speed of the motor gradually being reduced. Again they stood up on the deck and yelled as loudly as they could, and soon they knew they had been sighted. A huge searchlight circled the area, and in a few minutes the boat came alongside the Star Fire.
    “It’s the Coast Guard,” cried Peter when the cutter was close enough for him to see it clearly. “What a break!” He got ready to catch the line that one of the sailors was holding ready to throw to him.
    “What are you doing out here at this time of night?” came an angry-sounding voice from the deck of the Coast Guard boat.
    “We’re not here because we want to be, sir,” answered Peter. “I broke my rudder on the way back to Cobbett’s Island Yacht Club, but I managed to grab on to this buoy as we drifted past it. I’m Peter Kimball, and this is my Lightning.”
    “So that’s it.” Now the voice sounded less cross. “And just how did you rig up that signal?”
    “It was just a flashlight covered with red cloth,” said Trixie. “Could you see it plainly?”
    “Certainly could,” the man answered as he jumped aboard the Star Fire. “I’m Captain Price of the Coast Guard,” he continued as he seated himself in the stern.
    After Peter had introduced his friends, the captain continued. “We’ve been having no end of trouble with the flashing buoys in this area. Someone apparently thinks it great sport to break the bulbs. This makes the fourth time this one has been knocked out. When I saw you tied up here, I thought I’d caught the culprit, but no such luck.”
    Two of the men from the Coast Guard boat had been working to replace the broken bulb, and when it started flashing again, cries of “Hurray!” and “Three cheers for the Coast Guard!” went up