The Radio Boys with the Revenue Guards Part 24

"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. But Bob 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.

"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 ash.o.r.e with a change of guards to relieve those on duty. They would be at 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 were struck 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 b.u.m 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.

CHAPTER XXII

WORD 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 n.o.body else could be found who could give any information of Higginbotham's haunts. It was learned he led a bachelor existence and had rooms at 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 doc.u.ments 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 princ.i.p.als 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 c.o.c.kpit. It was well-thumbed, and showed the trip must have been made many times of late."

"But, if you do catch the princ.i.p.al, won't that merely 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 pa.s.s 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, however, 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-c.o.c.ked 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."

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.