199CHAPTER XXIIWORD OF A STRANGE CRAFT
Picked up by the boat at Starfish Cove, to which Bob had made his way without suffering any great inconvenience, the boys were rowed to the Nark where they were greeted on deck by Captain Folsom and Lieutenant Summers.
At once the speedy craft got under way again, and was soon edging seaward yet with the low coast line on her bow, a creaming smother of water under her forefoot. Lieutenant Summers, after greeting the boys pleasantly, returned to his duties. Leaning over the rail with them, Captain Folsom began to speak of the liquor smugglers.
No trace had been found of Higginbotham, he said. Inquiry had been made at the McKay Realty Company offices, but Mr. McKay who was said to be out of the city on business, had not yet returned, and nobody else could be found who could give any information of Higginbotham’s haunts. It was learned he led a bachelor existence and had rooms200at a downtown apartment hotel. The hotel had been visited, but Higginbotham had not put in an appearance nor called by telephone.
A search warrant had been obtained and the rooms entered and inspected. But no papers of any sort that would give a clue to Higginbotham’s connections in the liquor traffic were found. A canny man, he had avoided keeping any such incriminating documents about. Ryan and the other prisoners had been released on bail, Ryan himself putting up the bond money which amounted to a large sum.
“If only I could lay my hands on the principals behind this plot,” said Captain Folsom, thoughtfully. “The liquor smuggling is growing, and there is every evidence that some organizing genius with a great deal of money at his command is behind it. The newest manifestation of the smugglers’ activities came the other day when an airplane which fell into a field near Croton-on-Hudson and was abandoned by the aviator, who was unhurt, was found to have carried 200 bottles of expensive Canadian liquor. And a map of the route from an island in the St. Lawrence near Montreal to Glen Falls, New York, thence to New York City was found in the cockpit. It was well-thumbed, and showed the trip must have been made many times of late.”
“But, if you do catch the principal, won’t that201merely result in curtailing activities of the smugglers for the time being, but not in putting a permanent stop to them?” asked Frank. “Aren’t the profits so large that somebody else with money, some other organizing genius as you say, will take up the work?”
“Perhaps, you are right,” said Captain Folsom. “This prohibition law has brought to pass a mighty queer state of affairs in our country. It is one law that many people feel no compunctions at violating. Nevertheless, I feel that behind all these liquor violations in and around New York City to-day there is a man of prominence, someone who has united most of the small operators under his control, and who virtually has organized a Liquor Smugglers’ Trust.
“If we can land that man,” he added, “we will strike a blow that will deter others for a long time to come from trying to follow his example. And I have the feeling that the events which you boys precipitated will lead us to that man—the Man Higher Up.”
So interested were the boys in this conversation that they failed to note the near approach of the Nark to an ancient schooner. They stood gazing at the creaming water under the bow, caps pulled low over their eyes to protect them from the sun’s glare, and their radius of vision was strictly limited. Now,202however, the speed of the Nark sensibly diminished until, when they looked up in surprise and gazed around to see what was occurring, the boys found the Nark practically at a standstill while a cable’s length away rode an ancient schooner, lumbering along under all sail, to take advantage of the light airs.
“By the ring-tailed caterpillar,” exclaimed Frank, employing a quaint expression current the last term at Harrington Hall, “where did that caravel of Columbus come from? Why, she’s so old you might expect the Ancient Mariner to peer over her rail. Yes, and there he is.”
He pointed at the figure of a whiskered skipper, wearing a dingy derby, who peered over the rail at this moment in response to a hail from the Nark.
There was some foundation, in truth, for Frank’s suggestion. The old schooner whose name they now discerned in faded gilt as “Molly M,” seemed like a ghost of other days. Her outthrust bow, her up-cocked stern and the figurehead of a simpering woman that might have been mermaid originally but was now so worn as to make it almost impossible to tell the original intent, was, indeed, suggestive of galleons of ancient days. This figurehead jutted out beneath the bowsprit.
“Heh. Heh.”203
As the skipper of the ancient craft thus responded to the hail from the Nark, he put a hand to his ear as if hard of hearing.
“Lay to. U. S. patrol boat,” returned Lieutenant Summers, impatiently.
“Evidently our friend believes we have come up with a liquor smuggler,” said Captain Folsom, in an aside, to the boys.
But the old skipper, whose craft was drawing away while the Nark rocked idly in the swell, with her engines barely turning over, merely repeated his gesture of putting a hand to his ear, and once more called:
“Heh. Heh.”
Suddenly the deck beneath the feet of the boys quivered slightly, there was the report of a three-pounder, and a shot fell across the bow of the old schooner, kicking up a feather of spray. The Ancient Mariner, as Frank had dubbed him, came to life. He danced up and down on his deck, where two or three other figures of seamen now appeared. He shook his fist at the Nark.
“I’m outside the three-mile limit,” he screamed. “I’ll have the law on ye.”
“He means,” explained Captain Folsom to the boys, “that he is beyond the jurisdiction of United States waters and on the open sea.”204
Nevertheless, the old skipper barked out an order, sailors sprang to obey, sails came down, and the schooner lay hove to. Then the Nark approached until only a boat’s length away. On the deck of the schooner, only the skipper stood. The seamen had gone below, their tasks completed.
“Look here, my man,” said Lieutenant Summers, “you may be outside the three-mile limit, but you are drawing the line pretty fine. What are your papers?”
The old skipper looked at him shrewdly, quizzically, from out his ambush of whiskers. A slow grin broke over his features.
“Ye know well as I we’m outside the three-mile limit,” he said. “So I don’t mind tellin’ ye. I got liquor aboard. But my papers is all clear, an’ ye can’t touch me. I’m from Nassau in the Bahamas for St. John. Two British possessions. An’ I’m on my course.”
Lieutenant Summers’s face grew red. Captain Folsom’s eyes twinkled, and the boys saw one of the Nark’s crew, an old salt, put up a big palm to hide a smile.
“The old shellback has our skipper,” whispered Captain Folsom to the boys. “He has him on the hip. We are outside the three-mile limit, undoubtedly. To think of the old Yankee’s spunk in telling us he has liquor aboard. His papers will be as he says,205too, but just the same that liquor will never reach St. John. It is destined for a landing on our own coast.”
Lieutenant Summers also was of the opinion apparently that he had been foiled. And little as he relished the fact that the old skipper was laughing at him up his sleeve, there was naught he could do about it. However, he decided to pay a visit to the “Molly M,” for he called:
“Stand by to receive a boat. I am coming aboard.”
Presently, the boys saw the little boat dancing over the waves, then Lieutenant Summers climbed to the deck of the schooner, and he and the old skipper disappeared together down the companionway.
Awaiting his return, Captain Folsom enlightened the boys about the difficulties of preventing liquor from being smuggled into the country.
“As you can see from this instance,” he said, “the traffic is carried on openly, or under only a thin coating of camouflage. That boat fully intends, no doubt, to land its cargo along our coast somewhere. But her papers are all in order and as long as she stays outside the three-mile limit we can do nothing about it. Of course, we can hang to her heels and prevent her from landing. But while we are doing that, other smugglers slip ashore somewhere else. It’s a weary business to try and enforce such a law206at first. And, what makes it harder,” he concluded, his brow clouding, “is that every now and then some member of the enforcement service sells out to the liquor ring, and then the rest of us who are doing our work honestly and as best we can are given a black eye, for everybody says: ‘Ah, yes, they’re all crooks. I thought so.’
“But here,” he said, “is Lieutenant Summers returning. Now we shall see what he found out.”
The old skipper and the naval officer appeared on the schooner’s deck, Lieutenant Summers went overside, and the boat returned with him. Once more the schooner put on sail, and began to draw away. When he reached the deck, Lieutenant Summers sent a sailor to summon Captain Folsom and the boys below. They joined him in the cabin.
“I have news for you boys,” said Lieutenant Summers, at once. “Captain Woolley of the ‘Molly M’ proved to be a pretty smooth article,” and he smiled wryly, “but from a member of his crew, one of my men learned that a speed boat answering the description of your stolen craft had been seen alongside a sub chaser manned by a crew in naval uniform off Atlantic Highlands on the Jersey coast.”
“Hurray,” cried Frank, “one of your fleet must have recaptured it.”
Lieutenant Summers shook his head.207
“That’s the puzzling thing,” he said. “If one of our boats had found your craft adrift or captured it with the fugitive smugglers aboard, I would have been notified by radio. You see, the schooner sighted the sub chaser and motor boat yesterday. This sailor, a talkative chap apparently, told my man they thought the chaser was a ship of the ‘Dry Navy’ and crowded on all canvas to edge away from dangerous company. Then, he said, they could see these uniformed men aboard the chaser leaning on the rail and holding their sides from laughing at the schooner. What it all meant, he didn’t know, but at any rate the chaser made no attempt to pursue.”
“And you haven’t heard from any of your fleet that our boat was recovered?” asked Jack, in surprise.
“From none,” said Lieutenant Summers. “However, I shall order ‘Sparks’ at once to query all the ships.”
208CHAPTER XXIIIIN STARFISH COVE AGAIN
“Sparks” as the radio operator aboard the sub chaser was known, sat down to his key at once and sent out a wireless call for all members of the “Dry Navy,” requesting information as to whether any had recovered the stolen speed boat belonging to the boys.
One by one, from their various stations along the coast, the boats responded, giving negative replies. Several hours elapsed before all had been heard from. Meantime the Nark crisscrossed and quartered the sea off Montauk Point, in search of the rumored “fleet” of liquor runners, but without success. Numerous sail were sighted as well as steamers, but the latter were all so large as to preclude in the opinion of the revenue men the possibility of their being liquor carriers, and the former never stood close enough to be examined. Nor did any assemblage of vessels sufficiently large to warrant the designation “fleet” appear.209
Late in the day, when the low descending sun warned of the approach of nightfall, and the boys’ watches showed 7 o’clock, Lieutenant Summers again consulted with Captain Folsom, who presently rejoined the boys with word that they were going to turn back and cruise offshore and that the boys in an hour or two could be landed, not at Starfish Cove, but at their own boathouse, thus involving only a short trip afoot home for Bob.
Hardly had the boat’s course been altered, however, when “Sparks” appeared from the radio room in a state of high excitement, addressed Lieutenant Summers who was on the little bridge, and the two returned together. The wireless room originally had been the chart house. It was equipped for the employment, both sending and receiving, of wireless telegraphy and telephony.
“I wonder what is up,” said Captain Folsom to the boys, with whom he was talking in the bow. “Something has come by radio that has excited ‘Sparks.’ Excuse me, boys, a moment, while I go to inquire.”
Captain Folsom, however, had not had time to reach the radio room when Lieutenant Summers again appeared on the bridge, and beckoned both him and the boys to approach.
“I’ll explain in a moment,” he said, “as soon as I can give the necessary orders.”210
A number of orders were delivered, and the men on deck leaped to execute them with alacrity. What their purport, was not made known, of course, but the helmsman was given a course direct for Starfish Cove and, in response to signals to the engine room for full speed ahead, the craft seemed fairly to leap through the water.
“Something has happened ashore,” said Frank, to his companions. “I wonder what it is.”
Their curiosity was soon to be satisfied. Lieutenant Summers led the way below to his cabin, and, once all five were gathered inside, he lost no time in coming to the point.
“The mystery of that sub chaser seen by the crew of the ‘Molly M’ with your speed boat in tow is in a fair way to be solved,” he said. “Also, I have high hopes of catching the ringleader of the liquor smugglers whom Captain Folsom and I have been seeking.”
“What? What’s that?” demanded Captain Folsom, excitedly.
Lieutenant Summers nodded.
“You couldn’t imagine in a thousand years where the radio call came from,” he declared, “nor what it was all about. Well, I’ll not attempt to mystify you any further. The call was from one of the guards I left posted at the Brownell place, and he was calling,211not from the Brownell radio station, but from yours, Hampton.”
“From our station?”
Jack was puzzled.
“What’s the matter with his own?” asked Frank.
“Our guards have been captured by raiders dressed in naval uniform who disembarked from a sub chaser,” said Lieutenant Summers, exploding his bombshell. “Only one man escaped. And he made his way to your station, Hampton, found your man, Tom Barnum, there and began calling for me.”
The eyes of the three boys shone, as the implication reached them. The smugglers evidently had obtained possession of a sub chaser and wearing U. S. naval uniforms had carried out a bold coup d’etat, although for what purpose could not be seen at the time. It looked as if there were a fair prospect of action, and all were excited in consequence.
Captain Folsom, however, began hunting at once for causes.
“But why in the world should such a move have been carried out?” he demanded. “Of course, I take it the smugglers have obtained a sub chaser somewhere, together with uniforms. Yet why should they seek to recapture the Brownell place? They could not hope to hold it.”
Lieutenant Summers shook his head.212
“It’s too much for me,” he declared. “It’s a mystery, indeed. But I am not going to puzzle over that phase of the matter now. What I am interested in is in getting on the ground.”
Frank, who had been lost in thought, spoke up unexpectedly.
“Captain Folsom,” he said, “isn’t it pretty certain such a move would not be carried out except by a man high in the councils of the smugglers?”
“I should imagine so.”
“And he would not run the risk of discovery and capture without some very good cause?”
“True.”
“Then,” said Frank, “is it possible his reason for this act is to drive the guards away or take them prisoner in order to obtain temporary possession of the house and remove incriminating papers—perhaps, from some secret repository—which the smugglers failed to take away or destroy when Lieutenant Summers captured the place last week?”
The others were silent a few moments. Then Captain Folsom said:
“Perhaps, you are correct. Certainly, your theory is plausible. And it would account for such a rash step being taken, by the smugglers.”
Further general discussion was abandoned, as Lieutenant Summers felt his services were needed on213deck. The boat was nearing Starfish Cove. Night had fallen. Another half hour would bring them in sight of the strand. Captain Folsom went with the boat’s commander to discuss campaign plans. The boys were left to themselves.
“Who do you think this mysterious man behind the operations of the liquor runners can be?” Frank asked, as they leaned in a group apart on the rail, watching the phosphorescence in the water alongside.
“I haven’t the least idea,” confessed Jack.
“Nor I,” said Bob. “Unless, after all, it is Higginbotham.”
“No,” said Frank, “Captain Folsom declares it cannot be he, that he himself is not a wealthy man, and that he probably is only an agent.”
“The little scoundrel,” exclaimed Bob. “He’s a smooth one to take in Mr. McKay like that. Dad always speaks of Mr. McKay very highly. Think of Higginbotham playing the perfect secretary to him, yet behind his back carrying on such plots as this.”
The beat of the engines began to slow down. They were stealing along as close to the shore as Lieutenant Summers dared venture with his craft. Not long before, on this same coast, although not this very spot, Eagle Boat 17 had run aground in the shallows214during a fog, between East Hampton and Amagansett. It behooved the Nark to proceed with caution.
The boys were in the bow now, peering ahead. Starfish Cove was very near. Ahead lay the nearer of the two horns enclosing it. Gradually the little bay opened out around the point of land, and a dark blot showed in the water. The moon had not yet risen high, but it was a Summer night and not dark.
Suddenly, from the bridge, the glare of the great searchlight carried by the Nark cut through the darkness like the stab of a sword. Lieutenant Summers directed it be played full upon the dark blot ahead, and instantly the latter stood out fully illumined. It was a sub chaser.
Smoke was coming from her funnel. She had steam up. She was preparing to depart. There were a score of figures on her deck. But what delayed her departure was the fact that she waited for a small boat, dancing across the water toward her from the shore. The latter caught full in the glare of the searchlight contained a pair of men tugging frantically at the oars, and a third seated in the stern, grasping the tiller ropes and urging the rowers to exert themselves to the utmost. He wore a cap pulled far down to obscure his features, and did not look up as did his companions when the light smote them.215
There was excitement among those on deck of the strange sub chaser. Men ran here and there, as if undirected, not knowing what to do.
“He’s running away,” cried Frank, suddenly. “Look. In the small boat.”
He pointed. True enough, the man at the tiller had swung her about for shore, and the rowers were bending their backs as they sent her along on the opposite course. Moreover, a few strokes more would interpose the strange sub chaser between her and the Nark, and whoever was aboard would escape.
It was a time for quick action. Lieutenant Summers was equal to the occasion. Unknown to the boys, he had ordered the three pounder unlimbered, and now sent a shot ricochetting so close to the small boat that the oarsmen were spattered by the spray and the boat rocked violently. Nevertheless, exhorted by their commander, the rowers, who had ceased at first, bent anew to their oars. Another moment, and they were under the stern of the strange vessel and temporarily safe from danger of shot.
Jack, who had been watching developments breathlessly, ran to the bridge, and called:
“May I make a suggestion, sir?”
“What is it?” asked Lieutenant Summers.
“Whoever is in that boat is heading for the other horn of land enclosing the cove,” said Jack, speaking216rapidly. “He will land far out on a narrow peninsula. If we send a boat ashore, on a tangent, we can strike the base of the peninsula in time to cut off his escape by land.”
“Good,” cried Lieutenant Summers. “I’ll order the boat out at once. Do you go in it and point the way.”
217CHAPTER XXIVTHE MAN HIGHER UP
The menace of the shot under her stern, while intended to bring-to the small boat, had the effect of overaweing the strange sub chaser also. As Jack at the tiller, with four men bending to the oars and making the boat sweep through the water at a tremendous rate, passed close astern, he was half fearful a demonstration would be made against them. Nothing of the sort occurred, however, and not even a curious pair of eyes stared at them from the rail.
This was to be accounted for partly by the fact that, immediately after launching and sending away Jack’s boat, Lieutenant Summers dropped another overside from the davits, and, accompanied by Captain Folsom, headed directly for the ladder of the strange sub chaser, which was down. And those aboard had eyes only for him.
At the last minute, just as he was about to enter his boat, he saw Frank and Bob watching him longingly from the rail. He smiled.218
“Want to come along?”
Did they? The two chums tumbled down the ladder and into the boat so quickly that the invitation was barely uttered when they already occupied seats.
“Let us have a pair of oars, sir,” said Bob, “for we can row, and otherwise, if you brought other oarsmen in, we would be in the way.”
“Very well,” consented Lieutenant Summers. However, he detailed two sailors to take the other pair of oars.
The boat bearing the boarding party drew up at the floating stage and quickly Lieutenant Summers bounded over the rail, followed by Captain Folsom, Bob and Frank, and the two sailors. The boys drew up in rank with the latter, while the two leaders advanced a few steps. Nearly a score in number, the crew of the strange sub chaser were grouped at the foot of the bridge. None coming forward, Lieutenant Summers said sharply:
“Lieutenant Summers, U. S. N., come aboard. Who commands here?”
There was no response. Instead, a struggle seemed to be going on within the group, as if one of its members were trying to escape and the others were restraining him. At a sign from Lieutenant Summers, the sailors loosed the automatics swinging in219holsters about their waists, and prepared for trouble.
“We’d stand a fine chance of getting shot without being able to talk back,” whispered Frank to Bob. “Neither of us armed.”
“Huh,” Bob replied, out of the side of his mouth. “I’d grab me somebody’s gun.”
The flurry, however, was short-lived. Suddenly, a shrinking figure was expelled from the group of men, as if shot from a cannon’s mouth. The searchlight from the Nark was playing full upon the scene.
“There’s your man,” cried a voice, from the group. “Tryin’ to hide, he was.”
The man looked up, fear and defiance in his features. He was Higginbotham.
“Ah,” cried Captain Folsom, sharply, taking a step forward, “so it is you.”
Higginbotham looked about desperately, as if seeking a way of escape. But he was cut off at the rail by the guard from the Nark and the boys, while the others had swung about him in a half-circle, barring the way. Seeing an attempt to flee would be futile, he pulled himself together, not without dignity, and faced Captain Folsom and Lieutenant Summers. It was to the former that he addressed himself.
“You’ve caught me,” he said. “The game is up.”220
He folded his arms.
“What does this mean?” demanded Lieutenant Summers, taking a hand in the proceedings. “Captain, who is this man?”
“That fellow Higginbotham, about whom I told you,” said Captain Folsom in an aside. “The man who escaped from the Brownell place.”
“Ah.” Lieutenant Summers saw the light. He addressed Higginbotham sternly:
“You and your men, masquerading in the uniforms of officers and sailors of the U. S. N.,” he said. “You will pay heavily for this, my man. Such masquerade is severely punished by the government.”
Higginbotham started to reply, but Frank had an idea. Not waiting to hear what the other had to say, he impulsively stepped forward and plucked Captain Folsom’s sleeve.
“That man is trying to delay us, Captain,” he whispered. “I am sure of it. He wants the men in the small boat to escape. I’ll bet, sir,” he said excitedly, “that whoever is in that boat is the Man Higher Up whom you are so anxious to capture.”
Captain Folsom was struck by the cogency of Frank’s reasoning. Signing to him to fall back, he whispered to Lieutenant Summers. The latter listened, then nodded. He stood silent a moment, thinking.221
“I have it,” he said. “We’ll call another boat from the Nark to go to the assistance of young Hampton.”
Placing a whistle to his lips, he blew a shrill blast. A hail came from Jackson, second in command of the Nark, at once. Lieutenant Summers ordered his assistant to come aboard with four men. Waiting the arrival of the other boat, Frank and Bob grew fidgetty and spoke in whispers, while the two officers questioned Higginbotham in low voices.
“All right,” said Frank to Bob, “I’ll ask him.”
Approaching the officers, he stood where Captain Folsom’s eyes fell upon him, and the latter, seeing he wanted a word with him, stepped aside.
“Captain,” said Frank, eagerly, “Bob and I feel that we have got to go to help Jack. Can’t you persuade Lieutenant Summers to let us accompany the party?”
The other smiled slightly, then once more whispered to Lieutenant Summers. The latter looked at Frank, and nodded. Frank fell back to Bob’s side, content.
They had not long to wait, before the boat bearing Jackson and four men from the Nark nosed up to their own craft at the landing stage, and Jackson reported to his commander on deck.
“Jackson,” Lieutenant Summers said to his young petty officer, “I want you to take command here with222your four men. Disarm these fellows. I do not believe they will show trouble, but it will be well to let them know right at the start that the Nark has them under her guns. I am going to young Hampton’s assistance.”
Jackson saluted, and called his men aboard. Without more ado, Lieutenant Summers, who was in haste to be off, turned to descend to the boat when once more Frank halted him:
“We are unarmed, Lieutenant,” he said.
“Ah. Just a moment. Jackson!”
“Yes, sir.”
“I shall order these men to give up their weapons. Stand ready, and keep them covered. Now, my men,” he added, addressing the crew; “I am going to place you under arrest. I want you to advance one at a time and submit to being searched and disarmed. I warn you to submit without resistance, for if you do not, the Nark yonder has orders to open fire, and you cannot escape. Now, one at a time.”
Sullenly, unwillingly, but overawed, the men advanced. While the sailors from the Nark kept their automatics in their hands, ready for action, Jackson searched each man in businesslike fashion. The weapons thus taken away—regulation automatics, as well as a miscellaneous assortment of brass knuckles and a few wicked daggers, all marking the men as city223toughs—were placed in a heap. Before the work had been completed, Lieutenant Summers, anxious to depart, signed to the boys to arm themselves. They complied.
“Now, let us go,” said he.
The boys and their two young sailor companions tumbled into the outside boat, while Captain Folsom and Lieutenant Summers delayed for another word with Jackson. Then, they, too, descended. The oars dipped, and the boat sped away.
All this had taken only a very short space of time. However, the boat bearing the fugitives no longer could be seen, although that carrying Jack—or, at least, what they took to be his boat—was still offshore, though close to it. It looked like a little dark blot some distance ahead, nearing the landward base of the peninsula. On that horn of land, all felt assured, the fugitives had landed, and along it were making their way to shore.
Jack’s boat now reached the shore. Lieutenant Summers, gazing through the nightglass, spied Jack and his quartette leap to land. Then he searched the spit of land through the glass. An exclamation broke from him.
“Young Hampton is just in time,” he said. “I can see three figures running along the peninsula224towards him. Pull your hardest, lads, and we shall soon be up with them.”
The two sailors and Bob and Frank bent to the oars with a will, and the boat fairly leaped through the water. Their backs were towards the land and they could not see the development of events, but Lieutenant Summers, realizing, perhaps, the anxiety of the chums for their comrade, gave them occasional bulletins. Jack and his party had taken cover, apparently, for they could no longer be seen. Lieutenant Summers was of the opinion, however, that their presence was known to the enemy. It could not well have been otherwise, as the latter must have seen Jack’s manœuvre to cut them off.
Suddenly a half dozen shots rang out.
“Pull your best lads. Almost there,” cried Lieutenant Summers, who was in the bow. “Now. One more big pull and we’ll be up on the sand.”
There was a soft jar. The boat’s nose tilted upwards. Then, disregarding footgear, all leaped overside into the shallow water, and six pairs of hands ran the boat well up on the sand.
“This way,” cried Lieutenant Summers, dashing ahead.
The others followed on the run. No further shots had been fired. But the sounds of panting men engaged body to body in the brush came to them.225As he ran, Lieutenant Summers cast the rays of a powerful hand light ahead. Right at the edge of the trees the two parties were engaged. But the fugitives were outnumbered, five to three, and, as the reinforcements against them arrived, the struggle came abruptly to an end.
The first upon whom Lieutenant Summer’s light fell was Jack, astride a form. Then the light fell on the fallen man’s features and a cry broke from Bob’s lips.
“Why, it’s Mr. McKay.”
226CHAPTER XXVMCKAY’S STORY
After all, the Mystery Was Easily Explained; The Mystery as to the identity of the man behind the operations of the liquor-smugglers. The explanation of the whole situation was unfolded by Captain Folsom several nights later at the Temple home. He had come from New York City at the invitation of Mr. Temple, whose curiosity was aroused by the tales of the boys, and who wanted to hear a connected account of events. In this matter, Captain Folsom was willing to oblige, more especially by reason of the aid given the government forces by the boys.
J. B. McKay was the Man Higher Up. Higginbotham was his agent. This man, one of the wealthiest realty operators in New York, was a born gambler. He could never resist the impulse to engage in a venture that would bring him big returns on his investment. In his realty operations, this227quality had earned him the name of “Take a Chance” McKay.
When the Eighteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution was adopted—the prohibition amendment—he watched developments. He felt certain that liquor smuggling would spring up. In this he was not mistaken. New York became a vast center of the traffic.
And as he beheld the great sums made by the men bringing liquor into the country in defiance of the law, the thought came to McKay of how these individual operators might be united by a strong and ruthless man, their methods improved, and a vast fortune made by the man in control. Thereupon he set about obtaining this control.
It was McKay, said Captain Folsom, who organized the motor truck caravan which brought liquor across the Canadian border into Northern New York to a distributing center, a night’s run to the South, whence it was sent across the land by express as china and glassware from a china and glassware manufactory. This factory was mere camouflage. A plant did exist, but it was nothing more than a storage warehouse at which the motor trucks unloaded their cargoes.
Police protection was needed, of course, and police protection McKay obtained. The factory so-called228was in the open country, on the outskirts of a tiny village. The local authorities were bribed. All along the route from Canada, money was liberally spent in order to prevent interference from police. Big cities en route were avoided. The Highway of Grease (“grease” meaning bribery) led around all such, for in them usually the police were incorruptible.
It was McKay, too, who organized the airplane carriage of liquor from Canada to points outside New York City and to Stamford, Conn. One of his planes only recently, explained Captain Folsom, had fallen in a field near Croton-on-Hudson, with a valuable cargo of liquor aboard after a night’s flight from Canada.
But it was in organizing the importation of liquor from the Bahamas that McKay reached his heights. He had assembled a fleet of old schooners, many of which had seen better days and lacked business, commanded by skippers who were in desperate need of money, and he had taken advantage of their necessity by making what to them were tempting offers. Some boats he had purchased outright, others chartered for long periods.
These boats would work their way up the Atlantic coast to specified points on the Jersey and Long Island coastlines. Then they would discharge their229cargoes, and men waiting alongshore with trucks would carry the liquor to distributing points.
More recently, Captain Folsom added, McKay had begun to utilize radio. To avoid the employment of more than a minimum force of men, was his primary object. In the first place, big crews made a steady drain in wages. Likewise, there was an added danger of mutiny when large crews were employed. The men were bound to realize that, inasmuch as he was violating the law, he could not appeal for legal retaliation in case they should seize a vessel and dispose of it and its contents. Therefore, he decided to depend on trusty skippers, whom he paid well, and skeleton crews whom the skippers and mates could control.
Thus the radio-controlled boats, which were really not boats at all, came into existence. And for their control, the station on Long Island was established and two others, in isolated spots on the Jersey coast, were in process of construction when the end came. At the time of Higginbotham’s discovery by the boys and their interference in McKay’s schemes, McKay was absent in New Jersey, personally superintending the construction of the plants.
Higginbotham, in fleeing from the Brownell place, had neglected some damaging correspondence which would have betrayed McKay’s identity as the controlling230power in the liquor smuggling ring. He had fled to his employer, and told him of the danger.
At the time, McKay had standing offshore an Eagle boat, built for submarine chasing during the World War, but which two years earlier the United States government had sold during a period of reduction of expenses. This boat he had kept in the Bahamas, but recently had brought North. He intended to use it to protect liquor runners as escort, the assumption being that, thinking it one of themselves, other boats of the “Dry Navy” would leave the vessels alone.
How he had obtained possession of the naval uniforms for his men Captain Folsom did not know. However, the doughty captain assumed McKay probably had bought discarded uniforms in some manner, or else had had them made on order.
When Higginbotham reached him with the news, after working his way through Brooklyn and New York in disguise, having lain hidden several days in order to avoid the first heat of the search which he knew would be made for him, McKay had decided to go to the Brownell place in the sub chaser. He figured its appearance would disarm the suspicions of the guards left by Lieutenant Summers, and that his men in uniform would get close enough before their identities were discovered to carry the place231without force. Their superior numbers would compel surrender on the part of a handful of guards.
Such proved to be the case. One of the guards, however, escaped and, making his way to the Hampton radio station, had sent out the call which brought the Nark to the scene just as McKay was making his escape.
232CHAPTER XXVICONCLUSION
The boys received great praise for their part in breaking up the plot, and bringing the perpetrators to book. For them, the balance of the summer went quietly. The escaping thieves who had stolen their speed boat had made their way to McKay’s retreat in New Jersey, and there later the boat was recovered. In it, all spent many pleasant hours.
The budding romance between Marjorie Faulkner and big Bob developed considerably during the balance of her stay at the Temple home, which lasted for several more weeks. They were together much of the time, walking, swimming, boating, flying. For the damaged airplane was repaired and Bob took the young girl frequently aloft.
All five young people took part jointly in many affairs, but Bob got Marjorie to himself as much as possible. The others chaffed them a good deal, but as the banter was all good-natured, it was not resented.233
Della and Frank, too, drew more closely together that summer. They had lived in the same house for years, and had grown up together. Now as they stood on the verge of young manhood and young womanhood, a subtle change in their relations of comradeship came to pass. They were still good pals, but there was something deeper in their feelings for each other.
Jack sighed one night, as he and his chums sat alone on the beach, after a late plunge. The girls had gone visiting with Mrs. Temple.
“Here’s Frank,” he said, “getting thicker every day with Della. Here’s old Bob, who has lost his head over Marjorie. I’m left out in the cold.”
“Well, why don’t you go back to capture Senorita Rafaela?” asked Bob, slyly. “When we flew away from her ranch that day, you said you were going to come back for her, you know.”
Bob’s reference was to the daughter of Don Fernandez y Calomares, an aristocrat of pure Castilian blood living in a palace in the Sonora mountains in Old Mexico. The previous summer, the Don as leader of a faction of Mexican rebels had kidnapped Jack’s father, mining engineer in charge of oil properties in New Mexico, and carried him prisoner to his retreat. Thereby, the Don had hoped to embroil the United States with President Obregon of Mexico,234perhaps to bring about American intervention, all of which would be of benefit to the rebel cause. Mr. Temple, however, had decided the kidnapping of his friend and business associate should be kept secret, in order to prevent American intervention which he considered would be harmful to both countries. The boys had gone into Old Mexico and, through a series of exciting adventures as related in “The Radio Boys on the Mexican Border,” had effected Mr. Hampton’s rescue. Jack had fallen victim to the charms of the Don’s daughter.
Now, at Bob’s words, Jack said nothing, but looked away over the moonlit water.
Well, his thoughts often when he was alone were concerned with the fascinating Spanish girl. Even the passage of a year’s time had not served to efface her image from his memory. Someday––
“Come on,” said he, jumping up, and pushing his two companions over into the sand. “Beat you home.”
He darted away, and they tore after him.
At the end of the summer, all three boys went away to Yale at New Haven, Conn. Jack was in his second year, a Sophomore. Bob and Frank entered as Freshmen.
During their college year, all three kept alive their interest in radio, and followed every new development.235Jack even went further, inventing a revolutionary device for the application of radio. Of that, there is no space to speak now. But in an account of their further adventures it will be properly introduced.
The following vacation period, Mr. Hampton went to Peru in connection with the development of rich mining properties in a new region, and took Jack with him. Frank and Bob pleaded so hard for permission to accompany the Hamptons that Mr. Temple gave his consent.
There, an amazing series of adventures befell them. But they will be duly recorded in “The Radio Boys Search for the Incas’ Treasure.”
The End