Thereupon Tom set out, and Jack returned to the conference. On his re-entry, he learned the two officers had decided to remove the liquor in the cellar to the beach and thence by boat to the Nark, as the easiest method for getting it to New York and the government warehouses for the storage of confiscated contraband. A sailor appointed to inspect the premises had reported finding a large truck and a narrow but sufficiently wide road through the woods to the beach. Evidently, it was by this method that liquor had been brought from the beach to the house on occasion.
This would be a long process, but it was considered better than to attempt to remove the liquor by truck to New York. Only one truck was available, in the first place, and that would not carry more than the smallest portion of the big store of liquor.
Before the two officers departed to issue the necessary orders for the carrying out of their plans, Jack for the first time since he had had that one brief glimpse of them at the beginning of their adventure, remembered the torpedo-shaped metal objects on the beach and spoke about them.
"I am quite sure they must be great containers controlled by radio,"
he said. "Probably they were launched from a liquor ship well out to sea, and then brought to sh.o.r.e by radio. I suppose Higginbotham directed the current, although it might have been that thug with him whom you first attacked, Bob. That fellow who said it was he had damaged the airplane. Remember?"
"By George, yes," said Bob, starting up, a vengeful expression on his face. "And that reminds me. Where is that particular ruffian, I"d like to know. He isn"t among the prisoners."
"Maybe, he"s among the wounded," suggested Jack. "A half dozen have been gathered up, none seriously wounded, and are out in the kitchen where that apprentice surgeon is fixing them up."
He referred to one of the sailors, a medical student who because of ill health had enlisted in the "Dry Navy" in order to obtain an outdoor life. Lieutenant Summers earlier had a.s.signed him to look after the injured. Despite all the shooting that had taken place, none of the sailors had been wounded, and the boys, Captain Folsom and Tom represented, with their injuries from blows, the sole casualties in the government forces. Of the half dozen smugglers injured, moreover, none had been shot other than in the arms or legs. As Lieutenant Summers had explained to the boys, even in pitched battle a good deal of powder and shot was spent often without anybody being injured.
Bob made hasty examination of the kitchen and returned to report the man he sought could not be located. He found Jack and Frank awaiting him, the officers having departed to see about preparations for moving the liquor.
"Believe me, if I could find that fellow," grunted Bob, and he did not finish the sentence.
"Well," said Jack, looking out of the window, "it"s daylight now.
Let"s go down and have a look at those torpedo things on the beach.
Then we can take a plunge and go home. I"m beginning to feel let down now, and I could sleep the clock around."
The others agreed, and pa.s.sing through the living room made their way outdoors and headed for the beach. Frank stopped suddenly, and emitted an exclamation of disgust.
"We"re a fine crowd," he said. "Why hasn"t one of us thought of that radio-controlled airplane before? What"s become of it?"
"Oh, I guess it"s somewhere along sh.o.r.e in Starfish Cove," said Jack.
"We"ll soon see."
But arrival at the beach failed to disclose the tiny speedster of the sky. Only the great metal objects lay outstretched above the tide, like so many seal basking in the sun. The disappearance of the plane was temporarily forgotten, while they investigated. As they had surmised, these objects proved to be liquor containers, from several of which the cases of bottled liquor in the holds had not yet been removed. They were replicas of each other. At the rounded end was a propeller driven by an electric motor. A rudder governed by an electric compa.s.s imparted direction. A wire trailing overside and a spiral aerial coiled upright about a mast completed the mechanism.
"Mighty ingenious," declared Jack, inspecting one of the contrivances.
"And it must have cost a pretty sum to build it, too. These liquor smugglers certainly must have money behind them. Until we became involved in this business, I had no idea except in a general way that all this was going on, certainly no idea that it was organized as it is."
While Jack and Bob bent above the radio boats, absorbed in examination of them, Frank pursued further search for the missing radio-controlled airplane. Presently he rejoined his comrades with the information that it was to be found nowhere along the sh.o.r.e and that apparently it had not drifted away, as at first he had suspected might have been the case, because the sun had risen now and except for the Nark and her two boats drawn upon sh.o.r.e, there was nothing in sight.
Suddenly, as he concluded his report, another idea came to Frank and he laughed aloud.
"What"s the joke?" demanded Bob. "Have you done----"
"No, sir," Frank interrupted, "I"ve not gone crazy, at least not any more than the rest of you. It just occurred to me that the reason why we couldn"t find Higginbotham links up with the reason why his airplane is missing. Higginbotham flew away in it, while that plugugly who damaged our airplane and whom Bob couldn"t locate worked the radio for him."
"You mean he had the nerve to come back here while we were up at the house? And that his man calmly walked into the radio plant and operated it for him? Oh, say." Bob was contemptuous.
"Why not?" said Frank coolly. "What was to stop him? The airplane makes no noise, and it would be the easiest matter in the world for Higginbotham thus to make his escape."
CHAPTER XIX
WARNED!
Frank"s surmise was communicated to Captain Folsom, and the latter at once sent a radio message to the Custom House at New York, giving a bare outline of the details of the raid and asking that a watch be kept for Higginbotham. Custom House communicated with the New York Police Department, and a guard was set at the bridges and ferries leading from Long Island to Manhattan.
Several days elapsed, however, with Higginbotham still uncaught.
Meanwhile the next day after that eventful night, the radio-controlled plane was found floating in the waters of Great South Bay, so near the sh.o.r.e as to make it practically impossible Higginbotham had been drowned but, on the contrary, to give rise to the belief that he had made his way ash.o.r.e. A fisherman made the discovery.
It was some twenty-five miles as the crow flies from the Brownell place to the point where the airplane came down. That, Jack estimated, when told of the discovery, probably was the limit of the radio plant"s radius of control. Higginbotham, therefore, had not descended until compelled to do so.
All this, however, did not come until later. Meanwhile, after saying farewell to the two officers, the boys returned afoot to their homes with the understanding on Jack"s part that Captain Folsom, the main portion of whose wardrobe still was at his house, would return later.
On arrival, Jack learned that Tom Barnum already had explained the reason for his absence to the housekeeper and, after telling her Captain Folsom should be shown to his room on arrival, turned in and went instantly to sleep.
As for Bob and Frank, only the servants as yet were astir at the Temple home. And the boys, after stating only that they had been routed out by a fire at the airplane hangar, went instantly to bed.
Once Bob was partially awakened by Della, who demanded indignantly if he intended to sleep his young life away and commanded that he awaken Frank in order that she and her guest might have company. Bob merely grunted unintelligibly, and Della retired in a high state of indignation, resolved to give the boys a "piece of her mind" when finally they should arise.
That event, however, did not come to pa.s.s until mid-afternoon. Bob on his sister"s departure the first time had gotten up and locked the doors of his room and that of Frank, which adjoined. Thus, although Della several times came to the door and knocked, she received no reply.
The "piece of her mind," however, went undelivered when once the boys did arise, for in the absorbing story which they had to tell of the night"s occurrences, her sense of injury evaporated speedily. The recital occupied considerable time. At its conclusion, Bob, who had been looking so frequently at Della"s guest, Marjorie Faulkner, as to cause Frank to chuckle to himself, suggested they play tennis. But Della protested.
"That"s all we"ve had to do to-day while you boys slept," she said.
"We"re tired of tennis. Propose something else."
"The airplane"s out of commission, or I"d take you up for a flight,"
said Bob. "Wouldn"t you like that, Miss Faulkner?"
"Oh, wouldn"t I, just," she exclaimed. "I"ve never been up in an airplane, and I"m dying to try it. What is it like? Does it make you sick?"
Bob grinned. Before he could reply, Frank interrupted.
"Say, Bob," he exclaimed, "we ought to telephone the factory over in Long Island City right away, and tell them to send a couple of mechanics over here with new wings and whatever else is needed. First, though, we ought to make a thorough inventory to see what we need."
Bob agreed, and, accompanied by the girls, they repaired to the hangar. After returning to the house, Frank rang up the airplane factory, and gave the necessary orders. He was told the mechanics would arrive the next day with all that was required, but that putting the plane into condition would take three or four days at the least.
"Just when I had it all in good shape for flying," mourned Bob, on his chum"s return. "Oh, what I"d do to that little monkey, Higginbotham, if I had the chance."
He grinned as he uttered the threat, yet it could be seen that he was badly cut up by the damaging of the plane. Frank said nothing, but threw an arm over his shoulder as they walked back to the house, and for the remainder of the journey neither had much to say, leaving it to the girls to carry the burden of conversation.
Arrived at the house, they found Jack with Captain Folsom. The latter was introduced to the girls, whom he had not met on his arrival the night previous.
"I"ve come to say good-bye," he explained to Bob and Frank. "I have to go back to the city, and Hampton is going to motor me to the railway. I can"t thank you fellows enough for your part in this affair. If it hadn"t been for your perspicacity, in the first place, we might not have gotten wind of what was going on. And the way you all fought and acted on your own initiative time and again when we were in trouble was fine, indeed."
"You"ve got to come down again, Captain," said big Bob, on whom the other had made a favorable impression.
"I"d be delighted to do so, sometime," Captain Folsom replied.