"But you"re safe!" cried Allen, who had both Betty"s hands. Whether or not it had been a continuous performance I cannot say. Probably it had.
Betty was a very nice girl.
"Oh, yes, we"re safe," she said, trying to control her voice.
"But those awful men; that--that horrid woman!" gasped Amy.
"You needn"t worry about them any more," Allen a.s.sured her. "We"ll see that they get what"s coming to them."
Whether or not he would have been able to put this into operation is a question. But unexpected help arrived. It would not have been easy for the little force in the motor boat to cope with the larger crew of men on the schooner. Besides, there were three girls to be considered, and, though they were equal to most emergencies, both Betty and Amy were now rather unnerved.
There was a sharp whistle outside--a boat signal, evidently.
"What"s that?" asked Allen, who, with Henry, Roy and the girls, was in the cabin, so recently a prison.
"It"s a revenue cutter," bawled Tin-Back down the hatchway. "They want to know if we need help."
"We"ll take it, anyhow," chuckled Allen. He felt like laughing now. "But how in the world did they come, and in the nick of time?"
"Maybe Will sent them," suggested Mollie. "They may be down here after the smugglers."
And so it proved when Allen went up on deck and held a short talk with an officer aboard the trim cutter, which had come to a stop alongside the motor boat and drifting schooner.
Will, left behind at the cottage with Mrs. Nelson and Grace, had suddenly thought to send the cutter _Minoa_ to follow up the _Pocohontas_. The government vessel had come down to Ocean View in view of certain facts Will had given his chief in the Secret Service, but Will had not expected to use the _Minoa_ in the chase. When he recalled that she was but a short distance off sh.o.r.e, awaiting wireless instructions, he rushed in Percy"s auto to the telegraph office in town, and got into communication with his chief, who was awaiting word from him.
It was but the matter of a few minutes to relay the instructions to the cutter by wireless from Boston, and she started out to look for a small motor boat chasing a suspicious schooner. She found both in the nick of time.
Explanations made, men from the revenue vessel boarded the sailing craft and made her captain and crew prisoners, the old crone being among those captured. She had tried to make off in the rowboat trailing at the schooner"s stern, but had been caught by Tin-Back.
"No, you don"t!" he cried. "We want you!" and the old lobsterman held to her despite her struggles.
There were more explanations, and then, as the storm showed signs of breaking, the rescued girls and their friends set out for Ocean View in the motor boat. The revenue officers remained in charge of the captured schooner, and said they would see Will in the morning to complete the case.
"But what in the world did they want to capture you girls for?" asked Roy, when they were all safe again in Edgemere. The rain was beating against the windows, for they arrived just as the downpour began.
"They thought to get the secret of the diamonds," declared Will. "I can tell you that much. Though how they expected to do it I can"t say."
"But were those men who had us--and that horrid old woman--the smugglers?" asked Amy.
"No, only their tools," Will said. "In brief, the game was this: The box of diamonds you found was smuggled from France. But before those interested in bringing them over could make good they received word that the customs officers in Boston were waiting for them. The government agents abroad had sent word here to be on the lookout.
"So the smugglers adopted a bold plan. They sent a message in cipher, by the ship"s wireless, when two or three days outside of Boston, to their confederates, to have a boat waiting for them off this coast. That was done, and one dark night the smugglers tossed overboard the box with the diamonds concealed in the false bottom. It was fixed in a cork arrangement, so it would float. This box was picked up, but before the confederates could make away with it something happened. There was a quarrel among the smugglers, I believe, and one gang hurried off and buried the box here in the sand.
"You girls came along just as that had been done, and though some of the men wished to come back and take away the booty, others would not permit this, thinking no chance comer would find it."
"Those were the men we saw leaving in the boat," said Mollie.
"Yes," a.s.sented Will.
"And we did find the diamonds!" cried Grace.
"Yes, and that made all the trouble--for the smugglers," went on Will.
"Of course they soon learned that the box was gone, and they guessed you girls had taken it. Then they tried to get it back."
"Those men in the cellar?" asked Betty.
"Were part of the gang," declared Will. "And I learned that they found the diamonds were in the cellar because a tramp hanging around for food overheard us taking about them. He wasn"t in with the smugglers then, but later he joined them, giving this information.
"But the plan to get the diamonds from the cellar failed, and they had to do something else. That old woman and her fisherman husband were delegated to capture one or more of you girls, and force you either to tell where the diamonds were, or else they were going to hold you as a ransom for them."
"How terrible!" cried Grace.
"But it"s all over now," her brother said. "Now we have the diamonds, we have the poor dupes of tools the smugglers bribed--the fisherman and the men of the schooner--and it only remains to get the criminals themselves. We"ll do it, too."
"Did they treat you badly?" asked Grace of Betty and Amy.
"Badly enough," the Little Captain replied. "They would not tell us why we were made prisoners. But after they had taken the gags from our mouths, they put them on again, just before you came."
"That was because they saw the motor boat after them and knew they couldn"t get away because of no wind," suggested Will.
"We thought perhaps there was a pursuit," Amy said. "And then Betty grew desperate and managed to attack the old woman."
"But you helped," said Betty.
"Oh, don"t let"s talk about it," exclaimed Grace. "All"s well that ends well."
"But it isn"t all ended yet," Will remarked, significantly.
Working on the fears of their prisoners the government men learned where the real smugglers were hiding, waiting for the success of their plot, and they were arrested. In due time they were tried, found guilty and sentenced to pay heavy fines on the charge of trying to defraud Uncle Sam. On the charge of kidnapping the two girls the heavier punishment of imprisonment was meted out to those involved.
It developed that the smugglers, however, had protected themselves from the graver charge. They had instructed the fishermen to get information from the girls about the diamonds, in any way the ignorant men thought best, and the kidnapping scheme was the product of the brains of the old woman and her husband. They laid the plot to capture the girls, and secured the help of several friends, hiring the schooner for their purpose. When the schooner sailed away with Betty and Amy the old woman and her husband expected to pick up the smugglers and let them force the truth from the girls. But their plan was spoiled.
The diamonds, of course, became the property of the government, and were sold at auction, and on such favorable terms that each of the girls was able to obtain one for herself. Will helped bring this about, for the government was under obligation to him and his friends for recovering the jewels and capturing the smugglers. The reward was evenly divided.
"And I received a fine letter of thanks from my chief," said Will. "For my first case he said it was a--corker!"
"Oh, Will!" objected his sister.
"Well, he meant that, if he didn"t say it," was the answer. "And I"m going to have a vacation which I"m going to spend down here if Betty will let me."
"Of course I will," she said. "We"ll have jolly times!"
And then began glorious days at Ocean View, days in which there was no worriment about the packet of diamonds. Allen was allowed to keep the mysterious box and the original of the cipher, but he was never able to discover the meaning of it, nor who the enigmatical "B. B. B." was.
It was practically certain, however, that "B. B. B." was the real head of the smugglers, he who furnished the money and most of the brains. But his confederates never betrayed him. The value of the diamonds was several thousand dollars above Mr. Nelson"s estimate.
There followed vacation days of boating and bathing, with more picnics, and Grace had all the chocolates she wanted--or at least all that were good for her. Tin-Back came in for a share of the reward, and bought himself, among other things, a new fish net.
And, while the outdoor girls are enjoying life at beautiful Ocean View, we will take leave of them.