The Howling Ghost by Christopher Pike

him? We have to ask ourselves this question.”
    Watch shrugged. “Maybe a shark got him.”
    Cindy wept louder.
    â€œWould you please quit being so depressing!” Sally yelled.
    â€œBut you’re the one who’s been talking about sharks all day,” Watch said.
    â€œThat was before Adam was missing.” Sally froze suddenly and then snapped her fingers. “I got it! Adam left the spot where you last saw him because he saw the wreck. It’s the only explanation.”
    â€œI didn’t see the wreck,” Watch said, rubbing the water off his thick glasses, which he had worn under his custom-made mask.
    â€œYeah, but you’re half blind,” Sally said, pacing. “This is logical. And if Adam did go inside the wreck, there’s a good chance he found an air pocket. He could still be alive. We have to get more air. We have to go back down for him.”
    â€œWe?” Watch asked.
    â€œYes,” Sally said proudly. “I will risk my life to save Adam because my love for him is more powerful than my fear of death.” She stopped and glared at crying Cindy. “I bet you can’t say the same thing.”
    Cindy wiped at her face. “I don’t mind going after him.”
    Watch nodded. “You two go while I rest.”
    Sally threw another tantrum. “You have to go because you’re the only one who knows where you left him! You have to go back to that spot and search for the wreck. It has to be in that area.” Sally paused. “Actually, you’ll have to go alone. We don’t have any more scuba equipment.”
    â€œSo much for your brave promise to save Adam,” Cindy said.
    Sally sneered. “It’s the thought that counts. But you can rest for a few minutes, Watch, while Cindy and I get you another air tank. Come on, Cindy, and quit sassing me. Adam’s life is all that matters now.”
    Watch nodded. “I’ll stay here to see if any huge trails of blood float to the surface.”
    Sally shook her head as she walked away. “Somehow I get the feeling you don’t know what a positive attitude means,” she said.

8
    A dam had stopped screaming. The reason the skeleton had been rushing toward him was because—in his panic—he had been splashing in the water and created a mild current inside the stateroom. This had set the skeleton free to float toward him. The skeleton was not alive, after all, but as dead as any other creature that had gone down with the ship. Too bad Mr. Spiney wasn’t around to inspect it, Adam thought. The librarian probably would have loved the old sailor’s strong white bones.
    Adam didn’t know if anyone was coming to hisrescue. He hoped someone was because he didn’t like to think what his bones would look like after he’d been rotting in the ship for a few years. He didn’t know what he could do to help his friends locate him. He wished Watch had given him a flare gun along with the flashlight. One thing was sure, he knew he couldn’t swim to the surface without another tank of air. He’d just have to be patient.
    While waiting, Adam studied the contents of the stateroom, trying to get an idea of what Captain Pillar had been like. Just looking at his skeleton didn’t tell Adam much. There were the usual things one would expect to be floating about: books, chairs, boxes of food, and cans of soup. But the most dominant item in the yacht was booze. It seemed that Captain Pillar had gone to sea with gallons of alcohol. Indeed, when Adam examined the skeleton closer he saw that Captain Pillar had plunged to his watery grave tightly clutching a bottle of whiskey. Even in death, he couldn’t give up the stuff.
    It made Adam wonder if the broken lighthouse had had anything to do with the wreck of the ship. Adam was pretty sure Captain Pillar had been so drunk that dark night thirty years ago that he hadn’t known where he was going,