"It may be yet. There are lady smugglers, you know!"
"Oh, nonsense!"
"Will Ford!"
"Is it really true?"
"I think he"s just teasing us!"
Thus cried the girls in turn, Betty appealing to Allen in an aside to know whether Will really had been appointed to a government position.
"Oh, yes, its true enough," Allen said, smiling indulgently.
And finally, after a little gale of laughter had subsided, Will managed to make the girls, his sister included, understand, and believe that he really was telling the truth. Then they inspected his badge, looked at a sort of identifying card he carried in an inner pocket, and were satisfied.
"But what does it all mean?" asked Grace. "I didn"t know you were going in for that sort of thing, Will! How did it happen? And are there any smugglers around here?"
"Hist! Not a word! Sush! Take care!" hissed her brother, stepping about with elaborate precautions on tiptoes, glancing rapidly from side to side, while he flashed a pretended dark lantern, and Allen imitated the low, shivery music of a Chinese orchestra.
"They may be here any minute!" chanted Will in dramatic tones. "Quick!
We must hide those diamonds. And then, gal, at the peril of your life, you must give me those papers!" and he hissed after the manner of some stage villains.
"Oh, quit your fooling and tell us!" demanded Grace. "Then we"ll go for a ride in your boat, and you can stop at the Point and get me some chocolates, Will."
"Oh, I can, eh? Awfully kind, I"m sure."
"Do tell us about it," begged Amy.
"Ah, at least _you_ are sincere!" exclaimed Will, with a look that made gentle Amy blush.
"Go on," urged Roy. "Then we"ll get out on the water again. This weather is too good to miss."
"It was this way," explained Will. "I told dad I wanted a little longer vacation before I started in for college, after my experiences in that turpentine camp, and he agreed that I could have it. I don"t know whether I told you or not, but when I ran away from Uncle Isaac"s down South, I fell in with a Government Secret Service man. I guess he rather suspected I was up to some game, but he was real decent about it, and didn"t give me away.
"I happened to do him a favor--helped him trail a certain man he was looking for, and he was good enough to compliment me on my memory for faces. He said it was the beginning of a successful detective"s career.
"Well, I had no notion of being a detective, but it made me stop and think. I _am_ pretty good at remembering faces and voices, you know, even if I do say it myself."
"That"s right!" chimed in Allen. "I wish I had that faculty. It is the hardest thing for me to remember the faces and names of those I meet.
But go on, Will."
"Well, the upshot of it was that this government man said if I ever wanted a lift he"d be glad to help me. He gave me his card, and, after all my troubles were over, thanks to your efforts, girls," and he included them all in his bow, "I decided to go in for Secret Service work.
"It wasn"t as easy as I had expected, but at last I got the promise of a chance, and I began studying up, and taking the examinations. I pa.s.sed successfully, and received my commission."
"So that"s what you were doing all those days you were away so much?"
asked Grace.
"That was it, Sis. And now I am a full fledged Secret Service agent, though I haven"t arrested anyone yet."
"And are you really going to?" asked Betty.
"That all depends," replied Will. "If I see any law violations I"ll have to."
"But are you looking for anyone in particular, up here?" asked Amy. "Any smugglers, pirates, or--or anything like that?"
"Bless her heart! She shall see a pirate arrested the first chance I have!" laughed Will.
"Oh, be serious, can"t you?" asked Grace, with just the hint of a snap in her voice.
"Beg your pardon, Amy," apologized Will. "You see it"s this way. I"m in the Boston district, and that takes in a good part of the New England coast. I haven"t really been a.s.signed to any particular locality yet.
I"m supposed to keep my eyes open wherever I am, though."
"Around here?" Mollie wanted to know.
"Yes, here as well as anywhere else. But I"m on a leave of absence now.
I"m spending a few days cruising with the boys. I"ll soon have to go back to Boston."
"Well, then busy yourself and buy me those chocolates!" demanded Grace.
"You don"t need to act in your official capacity for that."
"Do you really think there may be pirates or smugglers around here?"
asked Amy, who seemed strangely interested in the matter.
"Well, there might be. You never can tell," said Will, with a look around the horizon as though to discover some mysterious and suspicious vessel in the offing.
After Will"s explanations he had to answer a hail of questions from the girls. The boys already knew all he could tell them. Then his sister and her chums wished him all kinds of good luck.
"And I hope we see you arrest your first smuggler!" exclaimed Mollie, with a quick gesture of her expressive hands and shoulders.
"Oh, I don"t!" cried Amy, with a nervous look behind her.
"Well, if we"re going to take the girls for a ride let"s do it,"
suggested Allen.
"How does the boat run?" asked Betty, as she turned her attention to it.
"Fine and dandy!" he exclaimed with enthusiasm.
A little later the merry party of young people were out on the wide, blue waters of the bay.
Several gladsome days followed. The boys were welcomed at Edgemere, and, as the cottage was a large one, Mrs. Nelson insisted on Will and his chums remaining there, though they said they wanted to camp out, or sleep aboard the _Pocohontas_. But the quarters there were rather cramped.
One day, when the boys were coming back in the boat with the girls, the engine suddenly stopped while they were still a short distance from the dock.
"h.e.l.lo! What"s up? Trouble?" asked Roy.
"Yes, it"s that magneto again," decided Allen. "I think I"d better tie her up and get a new one. It will be giving us trouble all summer if I don"t."