154CHAPTER XVIIRESCUE ARRIVES
Tom Barnum had disappeared. Now he ran up from the rear of the radio station.
“Quick, Mister Frank, with that revolver,” he said. “They’ve split up an’ the fellows in the woods are trying to work their way around to take us in the rear. I been watchin’ from the back side.”
Frank nodded and started to follow. Then he spun around, ran again to his former vantage point, and sent a couple of bullets towards the figures in the sand.
“That’ll hold ’em there for a minute,” he said.
As he ran after Tom Barnum to the other corner of the station on the side which sheltered them, he refilled the emptied chambers of the precious weapon.
“There,” said Tom Barnum, crouching low, and pointing.
Frank tried to follow directions but saw nothing. He pressed the revolver into Tom’s hand.155
“Don’t waste time trying to show me,” he said. “If you see anybody, shoot.”
Tom took the weapon, glanced along the barrel, and pressed the trigger. A yell of pain was the response. Twenty yards away there was a crash in the bushes, then silence.
“Back to the other corner,” said Tom, chuckling, and dashed again to the post from which Frank originally had fired.
Frank sat down, with his back against the wall of the station and laughed hysterically.
“Golly, but this is a game of hide and seek, all right,” he gasped.
Again the revolver spoke, a yell followed, and then came a rain of bullets.
“Here they come,” cried Tom, and in quick succession he pumped out four more shots.
Howls and shrieks of anguish rose. Tom was shooting with deadly intent. The attempted rush was halted, broken. The desperadoes composing the attacking force could not stand before that deadly aim. They broke and ran back toward the trees, leaving three figures groveling in the sand.
“One for Mister Frank, and three for me, them two and one back behind,” said Tom Barnum grimly, to Bob and Jack, who were peering over his shoulder. “That ain’t so bad.”156
A cry from Captain Folsom, followed by Frank’s voice calling urgently, caused the three to spin around. They were just in time to see one man go down under a terrific blow from the doughty, one-armed officer, while Frank leaped in under the arm of a second desperado, upraised to fire, and brought him crashing down with a flying tackle.
“As pretty as I ever saw,” muttered Bob. “Old Frank ought to make the All-American team for that.”
Quick as thought, having felled his man, Captain Folsom stooped down and wrenched a revolver from his grasp, then spun about on his knee and fired just as a third rounded the corner. The man toppled forward. By this time Bob and Jack had reached the scene. But the attack from the rear had spent its force. The three most daring evidently had taken the lead. And the way they had been disposed of deterred the others. A half dozen in number, they hung uncertainly in a group along the wall of the radio station.
Captain Folsom helped them make up their minds as to which direction to take by sending several shots over their heads. Without even waiting to reply, they ran for cover toward the trees and bushes at the edge of the clearing.
The man whom Frank had tackled capitulated157without a struggle, seeing the fight had gone against him. Frank took his revolver. From the fellow whom Captain Folsom had shot, and who proved to be wounded only in the thigh, Bob obtained a revolver. All except Jack were now armed, and he had the butcher knife which Frank had carried away from the Brownell house, although he laughed as he flourished it.
“The way you fellows treat our friends,” he said, “I expect none of them will come close enough to give me a chance to use this.”
“Look here,” said Captain Folsom, approaching the boys, after having ascertained first that the man whom he had shot had only a flesh wound; “we aren’t out of the woods yet. These fellows are determined scoundrels, and they know they can’t afford to let us escape. Finding they can’t rush us, they will next try to work around through the trees and attack us from this side. I think we had better make a dash around Tom Barnum’s corner and get into the radio station.”
“But how about my going to the beach to meet Lieutenant Summers?” asked Jack.
“Our position ought to be evident to him,” said Captain Folsom. “He can understand what is going on, and come up cautiously. I can’t risk having any of you lads run the gauntlet. I’ve reproached158myself a hundred times already for leading you into danger.”
“Nonsense, Captain,” said Jack. “We volunteered. And we’re safe so far, aren’t we?”
The other shook his head with a smile of admiration. These boys were made of manly stuff.
“Come,” said he, “there is no time to waste. Any minute we may expect to be peppered from the woods on this side. Here, you two,” he added, addressing the two unwounded prisoners, “help your pal and march. We’re going into the radio station.”
The men, young, smooth-shaven and looking like what they were, city toughs, were cowed. Without a word, they moved to obey.
“All clear there, Tom?” asked Captain Folsom of Tom Barnum, who had kept up his watch at the forward end of the side wall.
“If we move fast we can make it,” Tom replied. “There’s nobody out here in front but the wounded, an’ they’re crawlin’ to cover.”
“Good,” answered Captain Folsom. “Now, altogether.”
A quick dash from cover, and the party was safely within the sending room of the station.
Jack’s first move was to ascertain whether any of the enemy had gained entrance to the power159house. He approached the connecting door at the rear of the room. It still was closed and locked. Tom Barnum had taken up his post inside the door, which he had swung shut behind him, not, however, until Frank had found and pressed a wall button which switched on a cluster of electric lights overhead.
“Lucky for us there is no other entrance to the power house than through this door,” said Jack. “At least there is none, so far as I have seen. If there had been, they might have slipped in that other room, come through here and have gotten close enough to rush us before we could have stopped them.”
Captain Folsom approached Tom Barnum, after asking the boys to keep an eye on the prisoners.
“I see you are keeping watch through a crack in the door,” he said. “But, I believe we would be better off with the door open entirely. That would give us a clear view of the side from which attack must come. We can push this big table across the doorway, upending it. So.” And, suiting action to word, he and Tom dragged the heavy article of furniture into position. “Now let us push the door open,” he said.
Just as Tom was about to comply, an outburst of shooting in the clearing split the air.160
“Hurray,” shouted Jack. “The ‘Dry Navy’ got on the job. Come on, fellows, open the door.”
As Tom Barnum, who had paused in that very act, stunned by this new development, completed the task and the door swung outward, the others crowded to the barrier of the upended table.
Jack’s surmise was apparently correct. Along the wall of the radio station were ranged a dozen men. They had been stealing up to pour a hot fire through the door. But Lieutenant Summers with his landing party, drawn to the clearing by the sounds of combat, had made a hurried march up from the beach, and opened fire. His men were advancing across the clearing, scattered out fanwise, crouching and shooting as they came.
Taken by surprise, the smugglers were returning only a ragged fire.
Seeing how matters stood, Captain Folsom directed the table be pulled away and then, commanding the boys to keep in the background, he and Tom Barnum stepped out to the stoop and poured the contents of their revolvers, fast as they could pump them, into the smugglers.
The surprise of the latter was complete. Caught between two fires, they did not know which way to turn. They wavered a moment, then dashed away161along the wall of the radio plant in an opposite direction from the door.
As they disappeared among the trees, pursued by a detachment of Lieutenant Summer’s men, the latter with a half dozen followers dashed up to the radio plant and, in the lighted doorway, recognized the figure of his colleague, Captain Folsom.
Greetings were exchanged, and then Captain Folsom called the boys forward and introduced them.
“Plucky lads, if ever I met any,” he said, warmly, “and resourceful, too. Their ingenuity has pulled us through time and again to-night.”
“Not to mention,” said Bob, gruffly, “that it was my darned foolishness that got us into this scrape to begin with.”
“Nonsense, my boy,” said Captain Folsom. “You did only what any of us would have done in jumping that rascal, Higginbotham. Well, now, let us head for the house. Probably that is where these rascals will take refuge. They must be wondering who you are, Lieutenant, and how you happened to appear on the scene.”
162CHAPTER XVIIIHIGGINBOTHAM ESCAPES
A hasty marshalling of forces was first made. Besides the three boys, Captain Folsom and Tom Barnum, Lieutenant Summers had twelve men under his command. Thus they numbered eighteen in all. It was decided to split this force into two equal parties, one commanded by Lieutenant Summers, the other by Captain Folsom.
Tom Barnum went with Lieutenant Summer’s party as guide, the boys with Captain Folsom. They were to move against the front and rear entrances of the house, summon those within to surrender and, if necessary, to blockade the house until surrender was made. As an afterthought, each party detached a man, as they moved up through the woods, to stand guard over the tunnel and thus prevent any who had taken refuge either therein or in the house from making their escape.
As it proved, however, when Paddy Ryan discovered he was besieged by government forces, he163surrendered without resistance, together with the half dozen men with him. The others had scattered and made their escape. And when the government forces came to take inventory of their prisoners, it was discovered that among those who had fled was Higginbotham.
“Ye’ll get nothin’ out of me,” said Ryan sullenly, when he was questioned as to Higginbotham’s whereabouts. “He beat it away. That’s all I know.”
Frank’s quick eye, however, was caught by the gleam in Ryan’s glance, and he suspected the other knew more than he would admit. Drawing his chums to one side, he said in a low voice:
“Look here, fellows, I believe Higginbotham is hiding in one of two places. Either he is up in the attic, in that secret passage through which we made our escape from the dark room, or else hiding in the tunnel.”
“Maybe you’re right,” said Bob. “But we couldn’t ferret him out alone. If he is hiding in either place, he is armed, and would have us at his mercy. A desperate man would shoot. I believe we would be foolhardy to take such a chance.”
“Let’s ask Captain Folsom’s advice,” suggested Jack, sensibly.
Waiting an opportunity, they beckoned Captain164Folsom aside and Frank propounded his suspicions. The latter looked thoughtful.
“I agree with Temple,” he said, emphatically. “I am glad you boys told me of this and did not attempt to make a search by yourselves. Let me see, however, if we cannot evolve some scheme to bring the rascal out, provided he is in hiding in one or other of these places.”
Facing about, he called:
“Ryan, come here.”
The leader of the smugglers, who stood lined up with his men, including the negro, Mike and Pete, against the wall, under guard, stepped forward.
Quickly Captain Folsom explained his suspicions as to where Higginbotham might be in hiding. Then he added:
“Higginbotham knows your voice. I want you to go to whichever place he may be hiding and summon him to come out and surrender. Say that if he refuses, I shall not imperil the lives of any of my men by sending them to dig him out, but shall starve him into submission.”
There was a slight smile of triumph on Paddy Ryan’s face as he replied:
“Sure, an’ I’ll go to both places an’ whistle in the wind. But it’s in nather place he is, for he did not return to the house, I’m tellin’ ye.”165
“Do as I say, Ryan,” commanded Captain Folsom, shortly. “Try the attic first. The tunnel is guarded, I may as well tell you, and Higginbotham cannot make his escape that way.”
“All right. You’re the captain,” said Ryan. “Follow me.”
As he turned to proceed up the steps, after ordering two sailors to accompany Ryan, Captain Folsom said to the boys and Lieutenant Summers, who had joined the party:
“From the way Ryan is acting, I believe he is trying to throw us off the scent, and that Higginbotham really is hidden hereabouts.”
No reply, however, was received in response to Ryan’s announcement of the ultimatum laid down by Captain Folsom, both at the secret passage under the roof and the other underground.
“Very well,” said Captain Folsom, lips compressed, at the failure of his stratagem. “We shall post guards here until we can decide what to do.”
Ryan therefore was returned to keep company with the other prisoners under guard in the big living room. In another room the two officers, together with the boys, gathered for a consultation. Tom Barnum, meantime, seeing that dawn had come, and that the first faint streaks of daylight were beginning to light up the woods outside, left the knot166of sailors to whom he had been recounting the events of that exciting night and re-entering the house called Jack aside.
“Mister Jack,” he said. “It’ll be broad day in another hour. Don’t you think I had better go back and tell the Temples and your housekeeper what’s become of you three and of Captain Folsom, too. If they happen to notice you’re missin’ they’ll be worried.”
“Right, Tom,” approved Jack. “But do you think it’s safe for you to make the trip alone? Some of these fellows may be lurking in the woods.”
“Oh,” said Tom, “it’ll soon be daylight, as I said. Besides, I’ll be on the beach. And, anyhow, why should any of them attack me? They’ll be runnin’ like hares to get away, and none of ’em will be around here.”
Thereupon Tom set out, and Jack returned to the conference. On his re-entry, he learned the two officers had decided to remove the liquor in the cellar to the beach and thence by boat to the Nark, as the easiest method for getting it to New York and the government warehouses for the storage of confiscated contraband. A sailor appointed to inspect the premises had reported finding a large truck and a narrow but sufficiently wide road through the woods to the beach. Evidently, it was by this method that167liquor had been brought from the beach to the house on occasion.
This would be a long process, but it was considered better than to attempt to remove the liquor by truck to New York. Only one truck was available, in the first place, and that would not carry more than the smallest portion of the big store of liquor.
Before the two officers departed to issue the necessary orders for the carrying out of their plans, Jack for the first time since he had had that one brief glimpse of them at the beginning of their adventure, remembered the torpedo-shaped metal objects on the beach and spoke about them.
“I am quite sure they must be great containers controlled by radio,” he said. “Probably they were launched from a liquor ship well out to sea, and then brought to shore by radio. I suppose Higginbotham directed the current, although it might have been that thug with him whom you first attacked, Bob. That fellow who said it was he had damaged the airplane. Remember?”
“By George, yes,” said Bob, starting up, a vengeful expression on his face. “And that reminds me. Where is that particular ruffian, I’d like to know. He isn’t among the prisoners.”
“Maybe, he’s among the wounded,” suggested168Jack. “A half dozen have been gathered up, none seriously wounded, and are out in the kitchen where that apprentice surgeon is fixing them up.”
He referred to one of the sailors, a medical student who because of ill health had enlisted in the “Dry Navy” in order to obtain an outdoor life. Lieutenant Summers earlier had assigned him to look after the injured. Despite all the shooting that had taken place, none of the sailors had been wounded, and the boys, Captain Folsom and Tom represented, with their injuries from blows, the sole casualties in the government forces. Of the half dozen smugglers injured, moreover, none had been shot other than in the arms or legs. As Lieutenant Summers had explained to the boys, even in pitched battle a good deal of powder and shot was spent often without anybody being injured.
Bob made hasty examination of the kitchen and returned to report the man he sought could not be located. He found Jack and Frank awaiting him, the officers having departed to see about preparations for moving the liquor.
“Believe me, if I could find that fellow,” grunted Bob, and he did not finish the sentence.
“Well,” said Jack, looking out of the window, “it’s daylight now. Let’s go down and have a look at those torpedo things on the beach. Then we can169take a plunge and go home. I’m beginning to feel let down now, and I could sleep the clock around.”
The others agreed, and passing through the living room made their way outdoors and headed for the beach. Frank stopped suddenly, and emitted an exclamation of disgust.
“We’re a fine crowd,” he said. “Why hasn’t one of us thought of that radio-controlled airplane before? What’s become of it?”
“Oh, I guess it’s somewhere along shore in Starfish Cove,” said Jack. “We’ll soon see.”
But arrival at the beach failed to disclose the tiny speedster of the sky. Only the great metal objects lay outstretched above the tide, like so many seal basking in the sun. The disappearance of the plane was temporarily forgotten, while they investigated. As they had surmised, these objects proved to be liquor containers, from several of which the cases of bottled liquor in the holds had not yet been removed. They were replicas of each other. At the rounded end was a propeller driven by an electric motor. A rudder governed by an electric compass imparted direction. A wire trailing overside and a spiral aerial coiled upright about a mast completed the mechanism.
“Mighty ingenious,” declared Jack, inspecting one of the contrivances. “And it must have cost a pretty170sum to build it, too. These liquor smugglers certainly must have money behind them. Until we became involved in this business, I had no idea except in a general way that all this was going on, certainly no idea that it was organized as it is.”
While Jack and Bob bent above the radio boats, absorbed in examination of them, Frank pursued further search for the missing radio-controlled airplane. Presently he rejoined his comrades with the information that it was to be found nowhere along the shore and that apparently it had not drifted away, as at first he had suspected might have been the case, because the sun had risen now and except for the Nark and her two boats drawn upon shore, there was nothing in sight.
Suddenly, as he concluded his report, another idea came to Frank and he laughed aloud.
“What’s the joke?” demanded Bob. “Have you done––”
“No, sir,” Frank interrupted, “I’ve not gone crazy, at least not any more than the rest of you. It just occurred to me that the reason why we couldn’t find Higginbotham links up with the reason why his airplane is missing. Higginbotham flew away in it, while that plugugly who damaged our airplane and whom Bob couldn’t locate worked the radio for him.”171
“You mean he had the nerve to come back here while we were up at the house? And that his man calmly walked into the radio plant and operated it for him? Oh, say.” Bob was contemptuous.
“Why not?” said Frank coolly. “What was to stop him? The airplane makes no noise, and it would be the easiest matter in the world for Higginbotham thus to make his escape.”
172CHAPTER XIXWARNED!
Frank’s surmise was communicated to Captain Folsom, and the latter at once sent a radio message to the Custom House at New York, giving a bare outline of the details of the raid and asking that a watch be kept for Higginbotham. Custom House communicated with the New York Police Department, and a guard was set at the bridges and ferries leading from Long Island to Manhattan.
Several days elapsed, however, with Higginbotham still uncaught. Meanwhile the next day after that eventful night, the radio-controlled plane was found floating in the waters of Great South Bay, so near the shore as to make it practically impossible Higginbotham had been drowned but, on the contrary, to give rise to the belief that he had made his way ashore. A fisherman made the discovery.
It was some twenty-five miles as the crow flies from the Brownell place to the point where the airplane173came down. That, Jack estimated, when told of the discovery, probably was the limit of the radio plant’s radius of control. Higginbotham, therefore, had not descended until compelled to do so.
All this, however, did not come until later. Meanwhile, after saying farewell to the two officers, the boys returned afoot to their homes with the understanding on Jack’s part that Captain Folsom, the main portion of whose wardrobe still was at his house, would return later. On arrival, Jack learned that Tom Barnum already had explained the reason for his absence to the housekeeper and, after telling her Captain Folsom should be shown to his room on arrival, turned in and went instantly to sleep.
As for Bob and Frank, only the servants as yet were astir at the Temple home. And the boys, after stating only that they had been routed out by a fire at the airplane hangar, went instantly to bed.
Once Bob was partially awakened by Della, who demanded indignantly if he intended to sleep his young life away and commanded that he awaken Frank in order that she and her guest might have company. Bob merely grunted unintelligibly, and Della retired in a high state of indignation, resolved to give the boys a “piece of her mind” when finally they should arise.
That event, however, did not come to pass until174mid-afternoon. Bob on his sister’s departure the first time had gotten up and locked the doors of his room and that of Frank, which adjoined. Thus, although Della several times came to the door and knocked, she received no reply.
The “piece of her mind,” however, went undelivered when once the boys did arise, for in the absorbing story which they had to tell of the night’s occurrences, her sense of injury evaporated speedily. The recital occupied considerable time. At its conclusion, Bob, who had been looking so frequently at Della’s guest, Marjorie Faulkner, as to cause Frank to chuckle to himself, suggested they play tennis. But Della protested.
“That’s all we’ve had to do to-day while you boys slept,” she said. “We’re tired of tennis. Propose something else.”
“The airplane’s out of commission, or I’d take you up for a flight,” said Bob. “Wouldn’t you like that, Miss Faulkner?”
“Oh, wouldn’t I, just,” she exclaimed. “I’ve never been up in an airplane, and I’m dying to try it. What is it like? Does it make you sick?”
Bob grinned. Before he could reply, Frank interrupted.
“Say, Bob,” he exclaimed, “we ought to telephone the factory over in Long Island City right away,175and tell them to send a couple of mechanics over here with new wings and whatever else is needed. First, though, we ought to make a thorough inventory to see what we need.”
Bob agreed, and, accompanied by the girls, they repaired to the hangar. After returning to the house, Frank rang up the airplane factory, and gave the necessary orders. He was told the mechanics would arrive the next day with all that was required, but that putting the plane into condition would take three or four days at the least.
“Just when I had it all in good shape for flying,” mourned Bob, on his chum’s return. “Oh, what I’d do to that little monkey, Higginbotham, if I had the chance.”
He grinned as he uttered the threat, yet it could be seen that he was badly cut up by the damaging of the plane. Frank said nothing, but threw an arm over his shoulder as they walked back to the house, and for the remainder of the journey neither had much to say, leaving it to the girls to carry the burden of conversation.
Arrived at the house, they found Jack with Captain Folsom. The latter was introduced to the girls, whom he had not met on his arrival the night previous.
“I’ve come to say good-bye,” he explained to Bob176and Frank. “I have to go back to the city, and Hampton is going to motor me to the railway. I can’t thank you fellows enough for your part in this affair. If it hadn’t been for your perspicacity, in the first place, we might not have gotten wind of what was going on. And the way you all fought and acted on your own initiative time and again when we were in trouble was fine, indeed.”
“You’ve got to come down again, Captain,” said big Bob, on whom the other had made a favorable impression.
“I’d be delighted to do so, sometime,” Captain Folsom replied.
“By the way, Captain,” interposed Frank, “keep us posted, will you, on how this affair turns out? Let us know if Higginbotham is located.”
“I’ll do that,” the other promised. “Well, good-bye.”
And bowing to the girls, he crossed the lawn to Jack’s side and the two swung down the drive to where Jack had left the car parked by the side of the main road at the gate.
On Jack’s return, he informed his chums that the liquor at the Brownell place had been removed to the Nark, the captives placed aboard, and that then Lieutenant Summers had steamed away, leaving a detail of men on guard at the house and the radio plant177to round up any of the smugglers who, thinking the place deserted, might straggle back.
“He gave me a bit of advice to be passed on to you fellows,” Jack added, out of hearing of the girls. “That was, to go about armed for a time, and to be on guard.”
“Why?” asked Bob, in surprise.
“Well,” Jack replied, “he said some of those fellows who escaped into the woods undoubtedly would have it in for us for having spoiled their plans, and that it was barely possible they might have learned where we live and might try to waylay us. He pointed out the men were a desperate lot, and that some of them were Italians who are notoriously revengeful.”
“Huh,” grunted Bob, contemptuously.
Frank, however, showed anxiety.
“That’s all right, Bob,” he commented. “But Captain Folsom wouldn’t have given Jack that warning if there were no grounds for it. Look here, Jack,” he added, “Uncle George won’t be home to-night. Have you heard from your father?”
“The housekeeper received a message while I slept that he wouldn’t be out for several days,” Jack replied.
“Well,” said Frank, “I believe it would be a good plan for you to sleep at our house. At any rate178until your father returns home. You can bunk in with me. I’ve got a big bed. Then, if anything happens at night, we’ll all be together.”
“All right, I’ll do that,” Jack agreed. “Not that I expect anything will occur. But, as you say, if there is trouble, it is best to be together. Well, now let’s join the girls. We’ve still got some daylight left, and we might make up doubles for tennis.”
179CHAPTER XXOUT FOR REVENGE
After dinner, which the five young people ate without the presence of their elders, as even Mrs. Temple was absent, having been picked up in a friend’s motor car during the afternoon and whisked away to a country home near Southampton, all adjourned to the gallery. A desultory conversation was maintained, but presently at a whisper from Frank, Della slipped indoors with him. Then from the long french windows of the music room came two voices mingling harmoniously in the strains of an old Southern melody to an accompaniment played by Della on the piano.
The others listened until the conclusion which they greeted with spirited applause. Then by common consent all three arose and went in to join. Thereafter for an hour, the singing continued, with first Della and then Miss Faulkner at the piano.
When the common repertoire of songs had been nigh exhausted, Bob who had wandered off to a window and stood there in the breeze, looking out180at the play of moonlight on the lawn, returned with a suggestion that they all go for a short spin in the motor boat. The others eagerly assented. What a lark. A spin in a speed boat under the moonlight.
Wraps and sweaters were procured, for although the night was warm it would be cool on the water, especially if any speed were attained. Then the party set out, Jack and Bob squiring Miss Faulkner, and Frank slightly in the rear with Della.
On the walk to the boathouse Della reproached Frank for having taken so many risks the previous night. He regarded her slyly.
“But Jack and Bob took risks, too,” he said.
Della flushed. Was the young rascal intimating her interest in him was greater than in the others. She was about to reply tartly, but Frank awkwardly took her hand and squeezed it, then hurriedly released it again. Demonstrations of affection were not frequent between these two, yet they had a pretty good understanding. They walked on in silence.
“Just the same, Frank,” said Della presently, “you must take better care of yourself.”
Frank nodded. He did not trust himself to speak. The interest shown by this girl with whom he had grown up, living in the same household with her from early boyhood, threw him into a softened mood. Then, too, the moonlit surroundings were not without181their effect. He knew that if he spoke now, he would say something “soft.” So he maintained his silence.
The trio ahead meanwhile chattered gaily. And at length the boathouse was reached. Bob swung back the door and, all pushing together, the boat was trundled out on its little trucks, removed to the chute in which rollers were set, and rolled down to the water and launched. Then all climbed in, Bob examined the fuel supply and found the boat well stocked, Jack seized the tiller, they seated themselves in the little cockpit and, with Bob manipulating the engine, the boat moved away, gathered speed and, with a roar, began zipping out to sea.
It was glorious sport, to which four of the five were accustomed, but which they enjoyed enormously no matter how often engaged in. To Miss Faulkner it was a revelation, and bundled in a sweater, her hair loosed and flying back in the wind, her eyes dancing with the zest of the adventure, she looked like an elf, as Della told Frank in a whispered aside. Frank nodded and grinned.
“Bob thinks so, too,” he whispered in reply. “He can’t keep his eyes off her. If we didn’t have the whole sea ahead of us, he’d run into something sure.”
Up and up and up went the speedometer. The boat seemed no longer to be rushing through the182water. It spurned that heavier element, and took to the air. It leaped from crest to crest of the swells. The girls shrieked, the boys let out great chesty whoops of pure animal delight. Then Bob cut down the speed and Jack, controlling the tiller, swung her about towards home. They had been out only half an hour, but the shore was miles away. However, the return was made without incident or trouble of any kind, the motor working perfectly, and once more they stepped ashore at the boat landing.
“Which do you like best, Mr. Temple,” asked Marjorie Faulkner, as big Bob rejoined the party on the landing, after locking the doors; “boating, flying or motoring?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” replied Bob, “there’s something fascinating about every one of the three. To feel that powerful engine under your control, that’s what grips me. It’s power, you know; you have vast power under your control. They’re all good,” he concluded, with a quick look at the others who were moving away, “but to-night I like boating best.”
He looked at her so pointedly that her eyes dropped. Then she laughed.
“And think of you saying that,” she declared. “Why, Della always told me you were a perfect bear and never made a pretty speech to a girl in your life.”183
“Neither did I,” said Bob, boldly, “before to-night.”
Once more the girl laughed as she danced away after the others, but Bob following her was sure he had not displeased.
Events of the previous night were far from the thoughts of any of the boys, as they moved across the open sandhills along the beach and approached the grove separating them from the Temple home. There was no thought of danger in their minds.
But barely had they entered the narrow trail, walking single file, Jack in the lead, followed by Frank, Della and Miss Faulkner, with Bob bringing up the rear, than from the trees on either side darted a number of men who sprang upon them. The girls screamed in fright and alarm, their shrieks rending the silence of the night.
Cursing, several of the attackers sprang for them, too, they were seized, and rough hands clapped over their mouths.
But, attacked thus unexpectedly though they were, and without weapons, the boys fought desperately. How many their assailants numbered they could not tell. There was no time to take account. Frank was bowled over by the sudden rush, Jack borne back against a tree, Bob managed to keep his footing, his arms wrapped about the body of his own assailant.184
Every muscle and nerve taut, Frank sprang up as if actuated by a spring, tripped the man who had attacked him and leaped towards the fellow who had Della in his arms. In falling, his hand had come in contact with a stone the size of his fist and he had clutched it. Della’s assailant had seized her from the rear and was bending her backward, a hand across her mouth. His back was towards Frank. The latter brought down the stone on the man’s head with a tremendous crash, and the fellow’s arms relaxed, setting Della free, then he fell to the ground, stunned.
The man whom he had tripped made a leap for Frank, but his blood up, the boy dodged aside to avoid the blind rush and, as the man lurched past, he lashed out with his right fist. The blow caught the other under the ear, a fatal spot, and sent him toppling to the ground.
Meantime, Jack, with his back to a big tree, was hard pressed by two men. In the hand of one gleamed a dagger. Good boxer though he was, Jack could not ward off an attack like that for long, and Frank realized it. He sprang forward to go to the rescue. Then a blow on the head felled him, and all became darkness.
That blow came from a blackjack in the hands of Marjorie Faulkner’s assailant. Seeing the danger to his comrades from Frank, he released the girl185and attacked Frank. But his act brought down on him a perfect fury, tearing, scratching at his face. It was Della, crying with rage at the danger to Frank, insensible to everything else. She was a whirlwind and the man had all he could do to ward her off. In fact, he did not fully succeed, for her hands found his face and her tearing fingers ripped a long gash down over his right eye, from which the blood began to spout. Temporarily blinded, he dropped his blackjack, and stumbled back, cursing.
Della did not follow up her advantage, but dropped to her knees beside Frank and pillowed his head in her lap. His eyes were closed. The blow that had felled him had been a shrewd one. Fortunately, however, instead of descending full on his head, it had glanced off one side. As she cradled him, smoothing back his hair and crying unrestrainedly, Frank opened his eyes and gazed up.
For a moment his daze continued. Or did it? Was there not a gleam of satisfaction in his eyes, quickly veiled, as he saw who had come to his rescue?
Then he started to struggle to his feet.
All this had taken very little time and, while it progressed, Bob had been gripped body to body with the biggest of the attacking party, a husky fellow of his own six foot height but with the added weight of a greater length of years. As this man leaped for186him from the woods, arm upraised with a blackjack clutched in his hand, Bob had seized the descending wrist and thrown his other arm about the fellow’s body. Thus they had wrestled.
As Frank shakily, with Della’s assistance, was getting to his feet, there came a panting cry from Bob, another scream from Miss Faulkner. Then through the air went flying the form of Bob’s assailant. He had fallen victim to Bob’s famous wrestling grip, which lifted the man from his feet and sent him flying over Bob’s head. But into the propulsion this time Bob put all his great strength. The result was that, instead of falling immediately behind Bob, the fellow cannoned through the air a distance of several yards.
As luck would have it, this human meteor descended upon one of Jack’s assailants, and the pair went down to the ground together. At this, the other man turned and fled incontinently into the woods.
The first round had been won. But there were still five assailants left. And all armed, while the boys were without weapons. Frank saw the danger of delay and called:
“Bob, Jack, quick. We must get the girls home.”
Shaking his head to clear it, he seized Della by the hand and started running towards the house. A187glance sufficed to show him the others saw the danger of delay, and were pelting after him with Marjorie Faulkner. Bob was bringing up the rear.
But their troubles were not ended. Thus far the attackers had refrained from using revolvers in order to avoid bringing others to the scene. But, seeing their prey escape, several now whipped out weapons and began to fire.
Bob, the last in line, groaned:
“Got me.”
He fell. Jack spun around, took in the situation, then called:
“Girls, you run on home and get help. Frank and I will stay with Bob.”
“I’m not hurt much,” Bob declared. “Just put my leg out.”
He struggled to regain his feet.
Several more shots whistled unpleasantly close. Their assailants were approaching, shooting as they came.
“Run, girls,” cried Jack.
They darted away.
Suddenly Tom Barnum came crashing through the woods, service revolver gripped in his hand. He had been aroused, as he slept nearby at the Hampton radio plant, by the cries of the girls on first being attacked. In the moonlight, it was not difficult to188see at which party to fire, and Tom did not hesitate. He sent a half dozen bullets whistling about the attacking party in quick succession. The arrival of reinforcements completed the discomfiture of the latter. They fled back towards the beach.
Tom was all for pursuing them, but Jack called to him.
“Here, Tom, let ’em go. Bob’s hurt. Help us get him to the house.”
189CHAPTER XXITHE MOTOR BOAT STOLEN
When the boys and Tom Barnum arrived at the Temples’, they found the household in a great state of excitement. Some of the maids were hysterical. But Frank and Della, with a few sharp-spoken words, shamed the women and brought them to their senses. However, it was not to be wondered at that hysteria prevailed, as there were few men about to give protection in case of an attack on the house, the butler being an oldish and timorous man and the chauffeur absent.
Frank assured the women, however, that they need not fear attack, and they retired to the servant’s quarters.
Meantime, Jack and Tom Barnum had assisted Bob to his rooms and examined his injury. It was found he had been struck by bullets not only once but twice. In neither case, however, was the injury serious. One had creased his right thigh, the other190pierced the calf without touching the bone. The wounds were bandaged and dressed.
Then a consultation was held, which both Della and Marjorie Faulkner insisted on attending. Both had been thoroughly frightened, but were plucky spirits, and the boys were loud in praise of their behavior. Frank could not thank Della enough for her interference to save him from the ruffian who had felled him.
It was decided that, due to their isolation and the nature of the country, it would be highly unwise as well as unprofitable to attempt to go in search of the ruffians. Tom Barnum, however, was instructed to send a warning by radio to the government men at the Brownell radio plant that these fellows were in the neighborhood, and this commission he duly carried out on his return to his quarters.
The boys were of the opinion that they had seen the last of the smugglers, and that, thwarted in their attempt to gain revenge, the latter would now make their way to the railroad and return to Brooklyn and Manhattan. For that the attack upon them was caused by a desire to obtain revenge, they had no doubt. It was what Captain Folsom had told them they might expect.
What was their dismay, however, the next day when, on arriving at the boathouse they discovered191the door broken open, and the new speed boat, pride of the trio, gone. Bob who had hobbled along by the aid of a cane groaned as he stared at the vacant space where the boat had been stowed on their return the night before.
“We’re out of luck,” he said. “That’s all.”
“Airplane damaged, motor boat stolen,” said Frank. “What next?”
But Jack refused to lament. His eyes blazed with wrath.
“This is too much,” he said. “We’ll have to do something about this. That’s all.”
After a consultation, it was decided to call Captain Folsom by radio at the Custom House and apprise him of the latest turn in the situation. By great good luck, Captain Folsom was in the Custom House at the time, on business connected with the disposal of the vast amount of liquor taken from the Brownell house. He commiserated with the boys on their hard luck, as well as on their lucky escape the previous night when unexpectedly attacked.
He promised to notify the New York police who would keep a lookout for the motor boat along both the Brooklyn and Manhattan water fronts. Furthermore, he agreed to undertake to notify the police authorities of towns along the Long Island shore between the Temple estate and the metropolis, so that192in case the smugglers made a landing and abandoned the boat, the boys would be notified where to recover it.
In conclusion, he added that the big raid and the arrest of Paddy Ryan and others at the Brownell house had not as yet brought to light the principals in the liquor-smuggling ring. The lesser prisoners, questioned separately, maintained that Ryan and Higginbotham were the sole principals known to them. Higginbotham had not been found, and Ryan refused to talk. It was Captain Folsom’s opinion, however, that one or more men of wealth and, possibly, of social or financial position, were behind the plot.
“You boys have been of such assistance,” he said, “that I’m telling you this, first, because I know you will be interested, but, secondly, because I want to put you on the lookout. You have shown yourselves such sensible, clever fellows that, if you keep your ears open, who knows but what you will stumble on something of importance. I believe the man or men behind the plot may live in the ‘Millionaire Colony’ down your way.”
What Captain Folsom had told the boys opened a new line for thought, and they discussed the matter at some length after finishing the radio conversation. The girls also were keenly interested.193
“It’s so romantic,” said Della. “Just like the olden days when smuggling was a recognized industry in England, for instance, and big merchants holding positions of respectability and honor connived with the runners of contraband.”
“You needn’t go that far from home,” said Frank, a student of Long Island colonial history. “There was a time when, on both coasts of Long Island, pirates and smugglers made their headquarters and came and went unmolested. In fact, the officials of that day were in league with the rascals, and there was at least one governor of the Province of New York who feathered his nest nicely by having an interest in both kinds of ventures.”
The boys knew the names of most of the owners of great estates along the Long Island shore up to Southampton and beyond, and some time was spent in laughing speculation as to whether this or that great man was involved in the liquor-smuggling plot.
“Captain Folsom said,” explained Jack, “that so much money necessarily was involved in the purchase and movement of all that liquor, in the radio equipment, the buying of the Brownell place, the hiring of ships, the employment of many men, and so on, that he was pretty certain the men captured were only underlings and not principals. And, certainly, the business must have taken a great deal of money.”194
Several days passed without the boys hearing further from Captain Folsom, nor was any word received that their motor boat had been recovered. They came to be of the opinion that it had been either scuttled or abandoned in some lonely spot upon which nobody had stumbled, or else that the thieves had managed to elude police vigilance in the harbor of New York. That the thieves might have used it to make their way to sea to a rendezvous where the ships of the liquor-smugglers’ fleet gathered did not occur to them, for the reason that despite the knowledge they had gained of the contraband traffic they were not aware as yet of its extent. Yet such was what actually had happened, as events were to prove.
Meantime, both Mr. Temple and Mr. Hampton returned to their homes, to be amazed at the tale of developments during their absence. Over their cigars in Mr. Hampton’s library, the two, alone, looked at each other and smiling shook their heads.
“I had to scold Jack for running his head into trouble,” said Mr. Hampton. “But—well, it’s great to be young, George, and to have adventure come and hunt you out.”
Mr. Temple nodded.
“I gave Bob and Frank a talking-to,” he commented. “Told them they had no business getting into trouble the minute my back was turned. But195Bob said: ‘Well, Dad, we got into trouble when your back wasn’t turned, too, out there in California last year. And we got you out of it, as a matter of fact.’ And Frank said: ‘We manage to come out on top, Uncle George.’”
Mr. Hampton laughed.
“Jack said something of the sort to me, too,” he said. “He recalled that it was only by putting his head into trouble, as I called it, that he managed to rescue me when I was a prisoner in Mexico and to prevent international complications.”
“It’s great to be young,” said Mr. Temple, looking at the glowing tip of his cigar.
Both men smoked in silence.
Sunday came and went without further developments. But on the next day, Monday, the fifth day after the momentous night at the Brownell place, Captain Folsom called the boys by radio. Tom Barnum, on duty at the plant, summoned Jack. The latter presently appeared at the Temple home in a state of high excitement.
“Say, fellows,” he cried, spying his chums sprawled out on the gallery, reading; “what would you say to a sea voyage, with a chance for a little excitement?”
Frank dropped his book and rolled out of the hammock in which he was swaying lazily.196
“What do you mean?” he demanded, scrambling to his feet.
“Yes,” said Bob, who was comfortably sprawled out in a long low wicker chair; “what’s it all about?”
He heaved a cushion at Jack, which the latter caught and returned so quickly that it caught Bob amidships and brought him to feet with a bound. He winced a little. His injured leg, although well on the road to recovery, was not yet in a condition to withstand sudden jolting.
“Ouch,” he roared. “Sic ’em, Frank.”
“Let up,” declared Jack, warding off the combined attacks of his two chums, who began belaboring him with cushions; “let up, or I’ll keep this to myself.”
The pair fell back, but with cushions still held aloft menacingly.
“If it isn’t good,” said Frank, “look out.”
“Well, this is good, all right,” said Jack, and hurriedly he explained. Captain Folsom was about to set out from New York with Lieutenant Summers aboard the Nark to investigate reports that a veritable fleet of liquor-smuggling vessels was some miles out to sea off Montauk Point, the very tip of Long Island. On their way, they would stop off at the Brownell place and send a boat ashore with a change of guards to relieve those on duty. They would be197at the rendezvous in the course of the next three hours.
“Captain Folsom said,” concluded Jack, “that it had occurred to him the smugglers who stole our motor boat might have made out to this fleet, and invited us to go along to identify the boat in case it was found. He said there was just a bare chance of its being located, and he didn’t want to arouse our hopes unduly. Also, he added that there would be no danger, and he thought we would enjoy the outing. This time, however, he said, he would not take us unless by the permission of our parents. If that could be obtained, we should make our way to the Brownell place and the boat would pick us up.”
“Hurray,” cried Frank, executing a war dance. “Whoo-oo-oo-oo-oo!”
“Call up your father, Bob,” said Jack, “and ask him. I’ll run home and get my Dad on the long distance.”
Both boys hastened to execute the commission, and when Jack returned in an incredibly short time it was with his father’s permission to make the trip. Mr. Temple proved similarly amiable. Both men felt there could be no danger to the boys on such an expedition, as it was altogether unlikely that any liquor-runners would make a stand against an armed vessel of the United States Navy. Also, they were198struck by Captain Folsom’s reasoning as to the possible whereabouts of the motor boat and, knowing how the boys were put out at the loss, they felt it was only fair to the chums to permit them to run down this clue.
“It’s a good three miles to Starfish Cove,” said Jack, anxiously. “Can you make it all right on that bum leg, Bob?”
For answer Bob swung the wounded member back and forth several times. “I’ll hold out all right,” he said. “If I can’t make it all the way, you fellows can carry me. I’m only a slight load.”
Frank groaned in mock dismay.
The girls had gone visiting with Mrs. Temple. So, leaving a note to explain their absence, the boys set out.