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This ebook is complete with illustrations and linked Table of Content making navigation quicker and easier.Known to his friends as Hal Goodwin, Goodwin wrote popular science books, mostly about space exploration, as Harold L. Goodwin, "Hal Goodwin" and "Harold Leland Goodwin". He also wrote children's books as Blake Savage (Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet) and John Blaine (the Rick Brant series). In the latter case, he co-wrote (with Peter J. Harkins) the first 3 books in the series and wrote books 4 through 24 by himself."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."
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THE FLYING STINGAREE A RICK BRANT SCIENCE-ADVENTURE STORY, No. 18 BY JOHN BLAINE Grosset & Dunlap ASIN: B0007EYL0O 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 kidnapped 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.
CHAPTER I Chesapeake Bay The stingaree swam slowly through the warm waters ofChesapeake 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, theSpindrift, that had just rounded the northpoint of PoplarIsland 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. A tiny crab, hatched only a week before, swam upward toward the gleaming surface, his churning legs making a slight disturbance. The ray sensed the small vibrations and instantly changed course, speeding throu