"We lost them," Joe cried in frustration. "They probably went back to the island to pick up their hostages.
I bet we went right by those creeps on our way here."
"Ships pa.s.sing in the night," Frank reflected, searching the water below them with his eyes.
"Hey, look!" Joe said suddenly. He pointed at the horizon, where a light flashed dimly in the distance.
"Signals from Chapel Island again. Maybe that"s where they are!"
"You could be right," Frank said, growing excited, "Arthur Rutlidge might be part of this thing after all.
Also, those signals mean at least someone is still over here to communicate with."
The brothers all at once sensed that they might not be alone on the bluff. They drew away from the cliff"s edge to some bushes on the other side of the road, listening intently.
The light repeated its signal at short intervals, as if expecting responding flashes. The boys kept their eyes open for an answer from their side of the bay. But the signal continued with no response.
Frank nudged his younger brother. "Doesn"t it look like Morse code, three short flashes and one long one?"
Familiar with the old method used to send messages by telegraph, Joe watched as the signal repeated itself. "Yes," he said at last with a nod. "In Morse code it would stand for the letter "V." Do you think that could have something to do with the "V" we saw on the face of the bluff?"
"Not just that," the older boy answered. "Remember what Dad said? The terrorists" organization is called Vici. That could be their pickup signal, and the "V" on the bluff could be the pickup point."
"I"ve got an idea," Joe said after a short pause. "Come on, hurry!"
The two sleuths returned to Werner"s bungalow. In less than a minute, Joe had the geologists" truck hot-wired, and they drove it out of the driveway onto the bluff road. Stopping on the promontory where Roget had signaled with his headlights, Joe flashed out the letter "V" in Morse code. They could see an answer in the distance and noticed that the signal became increasingly brighter and clearer, as if the source was getting closer.
"Wait a second," breathed Joe. "Those flashes are coming from a boat, not Chapel Island. Someone out there thinks we"re the gang, and is about to pick us up!"
Frank looked at his brother. "That"s great, but what do you plan to do when they get here?"
"I don"t know," Joe answered. "I just hope Dad brings help soon."
The sleuths watched as the boat drew closer. Their father and the federal agents would not arrive for a while, so they climbed down the cliff to the beach, hoping the darkness would somehow make it possible for them to take advantage of the situation. But they were still without a plan.
Suddenly, a voice spoke up behind them. "What are you doing here?"
The boys wheeled around. Dr. Werner stepped out of the shadows, glaring at them. "How many times do I have to tell you to stay, out of this?" he cried out. "You have no idea what danger you are causing for yourselves and others."
"Your daughter Katerina is safe, sir," Frank told him quickly.
The geologist"s jaw dropped and his eyes grew wide. "My-my daughter? What are you talking about?"
"Your daughter was being held captive on Mosquito Island with our father and our friend," Frank continued. "We rescued her and she"s now with our dad at the power plant to warn them of the upcoming nuclear explosion. Do you still want us to stay out of this?"
Overcome with relief, Werner nearly fainted. In a moment, "however, he composed himself and thanked the boys. "What can I do to show you my grat.i.tude?" he asked.
"You can help us capture the men who put you up to this," Joe told him. "A boat should be arriving here soon and we"ll need your help to get aboard."
"Yes, I know. I will gladly help," the German geologist replied.
Just then the boat, which had been giving the "V" signal, appeared out of the night, coming toward the beach at a rapid pace.
"It"s Jensen"s yacht!" Joe cried, recognizing the sixty-foot cabin cruiser.
Werner waved as the large boat"s spotlight scanned the beach. Frank and Joe ducked behind a log lying in the sand. The spotlight beam rested on the geologist, and the yacht slowed as it eased its way into the landing spot at the beach. A boarding ladder was thrown from the bow by a deckhand. Werner started up the ladder and reached out for the sailor to pull him aboard.
Then, with a quick yank, he grabbed the man"s hand and pulled him over the side. At the same moment, the two young sleuths jumped from behind the log. Before the deckhand could yell for help, they knocked him out. Then Frank and Joe boarded the yacht behind Werner. They quickly overcame a second man on their way to the cabin. When they threw open the door, they found a startled Wayne Jensen at the yacht"s controls.
Jensen shot an acid glance at Frank and Joe, then stared at the geologist. "So you decided to double-cross us, eh, Werner?" he said maliciously. "You know what will happen to your daughter if you don"t cooperate."
Werner"s eyes became slits. "Tie him up," he said to the Hardys, then pushed Jensen aside and took control of the yacht himself.
Finding spare rope in a storage compartment, the sleuths bound the struggling oilman"s hands and feet.
Werner backed the sixty-foot yacht away from the beach and turned it around.
"Where are the others?" Frank asked the geologist.
"Probably on Mosquito Island," Werner replied. "Jensen was going to pick them up first, then come by and get me. I don"t know why they changed their plan."
Joe explained that they had signaled Jensen from the bluff.
"Very clever," Jensen sneered, struggling with his ropes. "But I"m afraid you"re a little late for the big coup."
Frank looked anxiously from Jensen to Werner, remembering that the bomb was probably soon to go off. "Are we too late?" he asked.
The geologist sighed. "I hope not. I will explain everything, but right now there"s a signal being given to us ahead."
Werner steered the yacht toward a light that flashed the "V" code. It came from the direction of Mosquito Island.
"We"re expecting help at the drilling site soon," Frank said. "If we can get the gang on board and take them there, we"ll be all right."
Werner glanced at the sleuths. "That may not be such an easy trick. When those men find their hostages missing, they will be very angry, and very suspicious, especially the Rabbit." The geologist switched on the yacht"s searchlight. "There they are now, on the oyster boat."
The craft was just off the small island. It carried not only the albino terrorist, but Werner"s entire team.
"Those men aren"t really geologists, are they?" Joe said to Werner.
"No. They"re members of the Vici terrorist gang," Dr. Werner answered bitterly. "I"m the only real geologist among them. The big one, Roget, is their leader."
As the yacht made ready to intercept the oyster boat, the sleuths gagged Jensen. Frank put on the oilman"s captain"s hat and jacket, then took the controls while Werner went forward to a.s.sist the men aboard. Joe crouched in the corner of the cabin, ready to spring if anyone tried to enter.
Soon the two boats met.
"Where"s my Katerina?" Werner said angrily to Roget, pretending to be upset that his daughter was not on the boat. "It is over now and you must return her to me."
Roget stepped up on the yacht"s deck. "We will give her back only after the Rabbit has received his payment," he lied, as if the girl were still in their clutches. "We have hidden her."
Following Roget came the Rabbit. His white hair and pinkish skin appeared ghostlike in the moonlight. "I will receive my payment tonight," he hissed threateningly to Werner. His pink eyes shifted about, focusing only for an instant on the geologist. "If I am not satisfied, your precious daughter will die!"
CHAPTER XIX.
Delicate Cargo "You"ve said enough," Werner interrupted the terrorist. "I will see to it that you are given what you deserve."
The Rabbit mumbled something under his breath as he turned from the geologist, watching the rest of the men climb on deck and file into the yacht"s stateroom. Only a short hallway and a door separated the terrorists from the sleuths in the control cabin.
All was quiet while Frank put the cruiser in gear and headed toward the bluffs, where he hoped Mr.
Hardy would be waiting with the federal agents. The oyster boat was left drifting in the bay.
Suddenly, the door leading from the stateroom to the control cabin opened part way. Dr. Werner"s voice could be heard from the other side.
"He will discuss it with you later," the geologist argued. "Mr. Jensen told me he doesn"t want to be bothered with the subject right now."
"I have no more time to waste with either you or Jensen," the Rabbit grumbled, and the cabin door opened further.
Frank pulled his cap down, hiding his face. Joe pressed himself against the wall to one side of the door. If they could take the Rabbit quickly enough, he wouldn"t have time to cry out an alarm to the others.
"Do you hear me, Mr. Jensen?" the Rabbit challenged. "I must be paid tonight, or n.o.body will go anywhere."
In a frantic gesture, Werner grabbed the terrorist"s arm, pulling him back into the hall before he had a chance to recognize Frank. "You will get nothing until my daughter is given back to me!" the geologist shouted in a display of wild desperation. "You lying cheat! You told me Katerina would be on the oyster boat with you!"
Werner kept yelling as he wrestled the Rabbit down the hall away from the yacht"s control cabin. Several minutes later, he reappeared, his jacket torn and his jaw bruised. "Well, it worked," he told the two sleuths with a grin. "Are we almost there? I don"t know how much longer I can hold these people off."
"We should be arriving soon," Frank replied.
"Dad better be there with help," Joe put in anxiously.
As the huge motor yacht moved through the water, Dr. Werner and the young sleuths watched intently for the bluffs to appear out of the darkness.
"I will now explain to you what happened," the geologist told the boys in a hushed tone. "I did not know at first what the Vici gang was up to, only that they had Katerina and I was to cooperate with them. All they told me was that they were testing something underground, and that I-was to be in charge of boring holes for the tests. It was not until the first earthquake that I began to understand their intentions."
"The earthquake at Bayridge?" Frank asked.
Werner nodded. "Yes. The gang had developed a small nuclear bomb in the shape of core cylinders. Its explosion caused a minor earthquake." He paused for a moment, then went on. "At that point, I became very suspicious of their plan, so I tried to listen to what was being said behind my back. It turned out they had been hired by someone to sabotage nuclear power plants and make it appear as if natural earthquakes caused the damage."
"We figured that," Frank said. "The Bayridge plant almost had a serious problem."
"We were at the facility when the quake hit," Joe added.
"Then you know what I am talking about," Werner whispered. "But that was only a test for the real show down here. The bomb that the Rabbit planted at the foot of the bluffs is three times more powerful than the one in Bayridge!"
Frank shot an accusing glance at the geologist. "And you were willing to go along with risking the lives of perhaps thousands of people to save your daughter?"
"I wanted to thwart their scheme," Werner replied solemnly. "I thought up a plan of my own. That"s why I tried to prevent you boys from interfering."
Seeing the embarra.s.sment on the youths" faces, Werner quickly added that if it had not been for them, the plan to save his daughter would not have worked.
"But the bomb has already been set," Joe said in alarm.
"It will go off," Werner told them. "But I studied the geological formation of the earth very carefully before we chose a drilling site. I misled the terrorists into believing the spot I picked would cause a severe quake. In fact, however, I selected a particularly poor place to set the bomb. The earth should absorb nearly all of the explosive"s power without affecting the surface to any great extent."
"Are you sure of your calculations?" Frank asked.
"Yes and no," the geologist replied tensely. "The bomb will definitely not be as strong as Vici had planned. But exactly what its effect will be is impossible to know. It is set to go off at midnight, so we"ll find out shortly."
Frank glanced at his watch. It was just past eleven o"clock. The bomb would explode in less than an hour. "How did Vici expect to fool everyone with the" earthquakes?" the dark-haired sleuth queried.
"Geologists would soon learn that they were caused by the bombs, wouldn"t they?"
"I expect they would," Werner shrugged. "But the terrorists were hoping that the mysterious quakes would take a while to investigate, giving them time to cause a number of such incidents before being found out."
"There are the bluffs!" Joe said suddenly, turning their attention. Out of the night, the yellow cliffs rose up rapidly in front of them. A cl.u.s.ter of figures were visible on the beach. "It must be Dad and the federal agents!" The blond-haired youth"s voice cracked with excitement.
Frank headed the craft toward sh.o.r.e. "We"ll have to act fast," he said, taking command. "I"m going to ram her up against the beach."
The yacht slackened speed only a little as it neared the dock. Frank wanted to hit the beach with enough impact to temporarily panic the gang members. Werner went to the bow, where he would be able to shout a warning to those waiting below the cliffs.
With a crunch, the yacht smacked the piling. The terrorists, unprepared for the sudden stop, flew against the walls of the stateroom. By the time they recovered, Dr. Werner had already hopped off the boat to alert the federal agents to take cover.
"Let"s get them!" Frank exclaimed, abandoning the yacht"s controls. The boys ran onto the deck and, with swift blows, greeted the dazed terrorists as they filed out of the stateroom. Soon, the brothers were joined by several federal agents. The fighting on deck became heavy. Both sides were evenly matched at first, but as more agents climbed aboard, they managed to subdue the gang members.
From the corner of his eye, Frank saw one of the men creep noiselessly over the side. Almost invisible, he moved quickly across the beach and began to scale the bluff. "The Rabbit"s getting away!" the older Hardy called to his brother, who was helping to handcuff one of the oyster boat operators.
Both boys took off after the albino terrorist. By the time they reached the bottom of the bluff, however, the Rabbit had already made it to the top.
"We can"t lose him," Joe cried, scrambling upward as fast as he could.
Once on the yellow clay road, the sleuths raced in the direction of Werner"s bungalow. They feared the Rabbit would make his escape in the gray sedan, and expected that at any second the vehicle would come speeding toward them from around a bend. But when they arrived at the house, they found themselves witness to a peculiar scene.
Fritz and Werner"s Doberman had the terrorist cornered in the driveway. The boy held the dog by its leash, preventing the angry beast from pouncing upon the Rabbit.
"Makes a good rabbit dog, don"t you think?" the amba.s.sador"s son told Frank and Joe with a restrained chuckle.
The Rabbit"s eyes, in fact, had the wild look of a cornered animal. He glanced from Fritz to the Hardy brothers, and a fiendish grin spread over his face. "I"ve been waiting for you punks to show up," he sneered, then drew an object from his jacket pocket. "Now that I have all of you together, I have a little present for you."
"It"s a bomb!" Joe cried.