Mr. Temple beamed on the gathering in his sitting room at the Victoria Hotel. It was the afternoon of the following day. The party included the three chums and Inspector Burton. Ensign Warwick had duties demanding his attention. Inventor Bender and Doctor Marley had left for San Francisco.
“Well, boys, I can’t tell you how relieved I am at the safe outcome of your adventures,” declared Mr. Temple. “I was worried. There’s no denying it. When you left last evening for Santa Cruz Island, everybody said there would be no danger and that the smugglers would submit without a fight. But I had a premonition of trouble. Besides,” he added, twinkling, “I knew that where there was trouble, you three youngsters would be sure to be in it.”
“They were in it, indeed,” said Inspector Burton. “If it hadn’t been for them, I don’t know how matters would have turned out. Having isolated us in the stockade, the smugglers might have captured the Sub Chaser. Anything might have happened.”
The boys stirred uncomfortably under this praise.
“Inspector Burton, won’t you tell us now how you and Ensign Warwick came to be in the stockade?” asked Jack, to divert the conversation. “So far you have been busy with other matters, and we haven’t heard the story yet.”
“Yes, I meant to tell you as we crossed from Santa Cruz this morning, but the questioning of the prisoners kept me so engaged it was impossible. Folwell wouldn’t talk, but that man, Matt Murphy, gave me much valuable information.”
“He’s a pretty good scout,” said Frank thoughtfully, “and we took quite a liking to him. But, somehow, a man that turns traitor to his friends loses caste with me.”
“That’s a natural feeling,” said Inspector Burton, tolerantly. “But in this case, there are extenuating circumstances. It’s too long to explain now. At any rate, I’ll be able to make it light for Murphy.”
“Well, tell-tale or not, I’m glad of that,” said Bob. “He did us a good turn when we were captives aboard the trawler.”
Inspector Burton then proceeded to explain that, after landing from the Sub Chaser on the north shore of Santa Cruz the previous night, he had led his party through the mountains. After striking the headwaters of the creek, they followed down thecanyon until entering the valley where the stockade was located.
This they had inspected. Finding it untenanted, they had proceeded on down the canyon. When still some distance from the landing, they had encountered “Black George” and his men in superior numbers, and had fallen back in the stockade.
“That was when we first heard your shots. Then they grew more distant as you retreated,” said Bob.
The Secret Service man nodded.
Ensign Warwick and his party, he continued, had been ambushed as they pushed up the canyon, but had cut their way through and taken refuge in the stockade.
“Knowing the Sub Chaser was guarded and would wait for us, we determined to wait for daylight before attacking the smugglers,” continued Inspector Burton. “We were at a disadvantage through unfamiliarity with our surroundings. Fortunate for all concerned, you boys were on the job. Otherwise we in the stockade would not have known that the major portion of the attacking party had gone to the landing, and it might have gone hard with Robbins and his handful of sailors.”
“I suppose, Inspector, that the breaking up of this gang of coolie smugglers is a matter of some importance,” suggested Mr. Temple.
“Some importance, indeed,” Inspector Burton said.
He was silent a little while, gazing out of the window at the palm trees on the lawn and the bright sunshine flooding all.
“A great feather in my cap, and sure to bring me advancement,” he said, smiling. “The credit really belongs to you, boys, but matters of that sort are not recognized in official circles. I, as the man on the ground, will be the one rewarded.”
“And quite rightly, too,” said Mr. Temple, warmly. The genial Secret Service man had commended himself by his actions. “I am sure,” he added, “that these boys feel anything they were able to do was owing to the accidents of fortune.”
“Yes, indeed,” said Jack.
And Frank chimed in:
“We were in great luck, sir, to be permitted to have a hand in the ending of the adventure.”
Bob nodded.
“Very good of you, boys, to take it like that,” approved Inspector Burton. “But, remember, I have no illusions about the matter. I know of what help you have been.
“At any rate,” he continued, “the capture of this gang is of the greatest importance. Smuggling of Chinese coolies into the country has been growingalarmingly. Who would have thought the smugglers would be so bold as to operate a distributing point on Santa Cruz Island? Yet, after all, what better place could they have found? Isolated, practically uninhabited, it was admirably suited to their purpose.
“This man Folwell is a smooth crook with a tremendous reputation for elusiveness. We have never been able to obtain definite information connecting him with criminal activities. He is the head of a gang that has its ramifications not only up and down the Pacific but in the east, too, in New York.
“Through your instrumentality, we have him by the heels now, and not only him but his agents in our own official circles as well as old Wong Ho.”
“What,” interrupted Jack, “you have arrested that old Chinaman? Why, we had no idea where it was in Chinatown that we had been taken.”
“I know,” said Inspector Burton, “but from Matt Murphy I obtained information that I wired at once to San Francisco, and Wong Ho is in the toils. From Murphy, too, I obtained the names not only of Handby, but of several others in official positions, who have been spies for Folwell. They, too, are being watched and either under arrest already or soon will be. You see,” smiling, “I have had a busy morning.”
“And the other boats employed in the coolie traffic?”
“Ensign Warwick is attending to that matter. They will be rounded up.”
“A good piece of work,” approved Mr. Temple, breaking the silence which followed the Secret Service man’s last remark. “And now, boys, we’ll go back to San Francisco for a day or two while I conclude the business matters which brought me west. Then we’ll return to New Mexico where I will leave you at the Hampton’s for the two or three weeks left of your vacation, while I return to New York.”
Inspector Burton leaned forward, and cleared his throat.
“Mr. Temple, I have a proposition to make to you,” he said.
The older man regarded him with surprise.
“Yes? What is it?”
“Just this,” said the Secret Service chief. “These boys have been of such service to the country that I want them to have some reward.”
“Oh, we’re not looking for anything,” said Frank quickly.
Inspector Burton smiled tolerantly.
“My dear boy, I know very well you aren’t. But what I am about to propose may please you, afterall. Have you ever been to Washington, the national capital?”
“No, sir. None of us have.”
“Well, wouldn’t you like to shake hands with the President? And wouldn’t it be nice to have the Chief of the Secret Service thank you personally for what help you have done?”
The eyes of all three chums shone. The unexpected proposal left them speechless. Mr. Temple spoke for them.
“That would be fine, Inspector,” he said. “You’ve knocked the wind out of the boys. They’ll tell you what they think of your plan as soon as they recover.”
“Boy, oh, boy, I guess that wouldn’t be scrumptious,” said Jack.
“Something more to tell the fellows at Harrington Hall when school reopens,” said Frank.
“I’m ready right now,” said big Bob, melodramatically leaping to his feet and grabbing the doorknob. “Come on. Let’s go.”
Mr. Temple laughed, and Inspector Burton joined him.
“Not so fast,” he said. “When you leave New Mexico for home, you can go by way of Washington. That will be time enough. In fact, I’ll have to precede you to arrange matters.”
After some discussion, the chums went out to wander around Santa Barbara, leaving Mr. Temple and the Secret Service man to make the necessary arrangements as to time, etc., for their proposed trip to Washington.
“Come on. Let’s go down to the beach for a plunge,” said Bob. “That’s the only way I can get this exuberance out of my system.”
Jack, Frank and Bob reached Washington alone, Mr. Temple, weeks before, having left them in New Mexico to return to New York.
“You fellows have given me the longest and most exciting vacation from business that I ever had,” he said, on leaving them at the Hampton ranch. “Little did I think I would be involved in international intrigue on the border or engaged in breaking up a tremendous smuggling ring. But I’m too old for all this excitement, although you youngsters seem to flourish on it.”
“Old,” protested Bob. “Why, Dad, you look fitter after all our experiences than for years.”
Mr. Temple’s eyes twinkled.
“Well,” said he, “I can’t say that I haven’t enjoyed it all. Quite a change from business, hey?” he added, appealing to Mr. Hampton, Jack’s father, the mining engineer.
Mr. Hampton nodded, smiling slightly. He himself led a life filled with more adventure and excitement than that of the quieter business man. Yet he, too, had had a considerable increase in thrills that summer, kidnapped in an airplane and held captive by Mexican rebels at the Calomares palace in the mountains of Sonora, as related in a previous tale ofThe Radio Boys on the Mexican Border.
Life at the ranch had gone along quietly for the boys during the two weeks after Mr. Temple’s departure, filled with riding, several short trips into the mountains and a visit to Santa Fe, second oldest city in America, to inspect the ruins of the Spanish occupation.
Then had come the expected invitation from Inspector Burton of the Secret Service to visit Washington, and with two weeks left of their vacation, all three set out for New York via the national capital.
Now, as they stood in front of the New Willard at Fourteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, just around the corner from the White House, they were filled with pleasurable excitement and some nervousness, too. For they were going to meet the President of the United States.
“Be at the office of the President’s Secretary ateleven o’clock,” had read the note from Inspector Burton, awaiting them at the hotel. He had written he would be unable by reason of business engagements to meet them at the hotel and conduct them to the White House, but that he would meet them there.
It was a hot August day. Not a cloud was in the sky, and the sun shone with an intensity that was almost unbearable. Heat waves danced on the asphalt, and there were few people moving about. Washington in mid-summer is at its deadest, for then the legislators and major government officials have fled to seashore or mountain, the city is depopulated, and those remaining stir abroad no more than necessary. In its ring of hills, drowsy, somnolent, the governing center of the nation takes a summersiestaand waits for the coming of crisper autumn when the wheels once more will begin to revolve.
For the President to be at the White House was unusual, but urgent business having to do with a crisis in a little-known corner of Latin America had demanded his presence. The boys had read of his return the day previous in their morning paper.
Being a little ahead of the appointed time they walked leisurely along Pennsylvania Avenue underthe dusty trees, with the broad White House lawn showing green and pleasant behind the high iron fence, and with the White House handsome and dignified through the trees. Following directions, they did not turn in at the wide main gateway, but at Fifteenth Street turned and retraced their steps to the small thoroughfare between the State, Army and Navy Building and the left wing of the White House, where the executive offices are located.
Down this thoroughfare to the left they went, nervousness increasing, turned in at a gateway and entered the anteroom of the President’s secretary. It was cool and quiet in there, and empty of its usual crowd of men and women clamoring to see the President on some business or other. Inspector Burton rose from a corner, and came forward hand extended, and at his smile and reassuring handclasp the knees of the chums ceased to be water and became a bit more solid once more.
After being introduced to the President’s secretary they were taken to the Blue Room, instead of the President’s office, and there, amid the summer dust cloths covering the furniture, in that room where the presidents of the past had conferred upon matters that shook the world, the President greeted them. Tall, elegant, elderly, gray, with a smile and a homely manner of talking which put them at easeat once in some magical way, he made a profound impression on the boys.
“Such boys as you,” said he, in parting, “renew my faith in the future of America.”
Then they were out, and walking along Pennsylvania Avenue with Inspector Burton, a bit dazed, sure that great distinction had been visited on them, but not yet able to understand it all.
At Fifteenth Street, where they had turned back on their previous stroll along the fenced White House lawn, the Secret Service man took them into the imposing pile of the Treasury Building.
“The Chief wants to thank you,” was the only explanation he vouchsafed.
First the President! Now the head of the Secret Service! Things were coming fast. Jack and Bob looked solemn, but Frank the irrepressible, catching sight of their long faces, burst into laughter.
“Brace up, my hearties,” he cried, thwacking each on the back. “He’s not going to eat you. I have private information that assures me he won’t.”
The tension was relieved, as all laughed.
Then Inspector Burton conducted the chums into a high-ceilinged office lined with books, looking more like a student’s library than the office of the head ofthe nation’s great super-police force. A small man, compactly built, with a close-clipped gray mustache, rose from a desk and advanced to meet them.
“Well, well, so these are the young heroes,” he said, grasping each in turn firmly by the hand as the introductions were managed.
Then he stood back and took a long look at them, a twinkle in his eye at the mounting color and embarrassed manner of the trio.
“I’d hate to meet any one of you in a rough-and-tumble fight,” he said. “No wonder you made things fly on the Pacific.”
All sat down then and a general conversation about the break-up of the smugglers’ ring followed. The boys learned that “Black George” and Wong Ho were in jail, awaiting trial, that three boats employed in the smuggling traffic had been captured, that Mexico had been asked and had agreed to prosecute the conspirators operating at Ensenada, that three employees of the government were under arrest for conspiracy in the smuggling operations, and that Matt Murphy was free on parole and the case against him would not be pushed.
Finally, Inspector Burton arose and the boys took that as a signal it was time to depart, and also got to their feet.
“I know of no way to reward you except to give you the thanks of the Service,” said the Chief at parting. “But that is yours. Good-by.”
“Wow,” said Frank, when they were alone at their hotel once more, “I feel as if I owned the world.”
“The common herd had better not talk to me for a while,” declared Bob, grinning. “I wouldn’t be able to notice anybody less than a general.”
“Same here,” said Jack. “Well, now, fellows, what are we going to do? Now that we’re on the ground with a fine chance to see the sights, we certainly aren’t going to go right home, are we?”
“I move we stay until we take in everything,” said Frank.
“Second the motion,” said Bob. “But I tell you, going around in this heat is going to cost me some weight.”
“Oh, it’ll just get you in condition for football,” said Jack. “You’re getting too fat, anyhow.”
That precipitated a general discussion of the forthcoming return to Harrington Hall Military Academy, the football prospects, the effect which recital of their thrilling summer would have on schoolmates, and other matters of similar ilk. It would be Jack’s last year, while Frank and Bob, aclass behind him, would have two years more before entering college. All three planned to enter Yale, of which both Mr. Hampton and Mr. Temple were graduates.
Three days they spent in sightseeing, paying visits to Mount Vernon, George Washington’s old home; the national cemetery at Arlington, quaint Annapolis, where the Naval College is located, and inspecting the capital and all the great public buildings.
Browned, looking taller and broader, every one, than at the beginning of summer, they arrived home at length a week before the opening of school, and spent the interim mainly in swimming and in reassembling the airplane owned by Frank and Bob, which had been shipped on from New Mexico, or in working at Jack’s radio plant.
Frank, as stated in a previous tale, was an orphan and lived with the Temples, Bob’s father being his guardian. Jack, whose mother was dead and whose father still was in New Mexico, decided to make his home at the Temples instead of opening his own home. The Hampton and Temple estates, situated on the far end of Long Island, adjoined each other.
And here, with their preparations for school, we shall leave our three friends. But—here’s a littlesecret—the following summer a mysterious airplane, a sandy and secluded cove and what they found there, strange lights at sea at night and the imprints of a one-legged man’s wooden peg on the sand of a deserted stretch of beach, all combined to draw the three chums into adventures as exciting and thrilling as any that had gone before. And these will be related inThe Radio Boys With the Revenue Guard.
THE END
THE RADIO BOYS SERIES
A Series of Stories for Boys of All Ages
By GERALD BRECKENRIDGE
The Radio Boys on the Mexican BorderThe Radio Boys on Secret Service DutyThe Radio Boys with the Revenue GuardsThe Radio Boys’ Search for the Inca’s TreasureThe Radio Boys Rescue the Lost Alaska Expedition