The Flying Stingaree   By: Harold L. Goodwin (1914-1990)

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

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.

[Illustration: Little Choptank River ]

Contents

I CHESAPEAKE BAY

II THE FLYING STINGAREE

III ORVIL HARRIS, CRABBER

IV STEVE'S PLACE

V THE FACE IS FAMILIAR

VI THE SAUCER SIGHTERS

VII SIGHTING DATA

VIII CALVERT'S FAVOR

IX THE DUCK BLIND

X KEN HOLT COMES THROUGH

XI ON THE BOTTOM

XII NIGHT RECOVERY

XIII THE NIGHT WATCHERS

XIV DAYBREAK

XV THE EMPTY BOAT

XVI STEVE WAITS IT OUT

XVII CROWD AT MARTINS CREEK

XVIII THE STINGAREE'S TAIL

XIX LUCKY LEFTY

XX HUNT THE WIDE WATERS

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 Wittman on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The ray was also directly in the path of an odd looking cruising houseboat, the Spindrift , that had just rounded the north point of Poplar Island and entered the channel.

The sting ray's color was an olive brown, so dark in tone that he looked like wet black leather. He was roughly diamond shaped, like a kite, with rounded sides. He had a long, slim tail that carried vicious barbs along the base of its upper side. It was from the barbs, which served as defensive weapons, that the name sting ray, or stingaree, derived. The ray was harmless to men unless one chanced to step on him as he lay resting on the bottom ooze. At such rare times, his tail would lash up, inflicting a serious and painful wound.