Then followed the other, and he was sitting on the sill. Leaning out, he let his body fall towards the limb, caught it, and swung clear of the window.
In a trice he had thrown his leg up over the tree, his practice in the gymnasium making this an easy feat. Crawling carefully along the limb, he worked his way to the trunk, and then the descent to the ground was accomplished without trouble. Without bothering to put on his shoepacks, he sped away from the house.
Finally he reached the road, and here he slipped the heavy shoepacks on, and in a few moments had rejoined his companions where they were nervously waiting under the big elm.
They hailed his coming with delight, pounding him on the back and shaking hands gleefully.
"What luck, old topper?" was d.i.c.k"s first question.
"All the luck in the world, boys. Tonight our quest was crowned with success!"
CHAPTER XVIII.
FERNALD COMES.
"Tell us all about it," demanded Phil.
"All in good time," responded Garry. "First thing to do now is to put a bit of distance between us and that house. Don"t want any of that gang to come and find us snooping around. Everything has gone as slick as a whistle so far, and we don"t want any foolish oversight to queer it. I move we make a break for town and hive in somewhere and wait for daylight. Of course we can go to Everett"s house, but we shouldn"t bust in on him in the middle of the night. He"s a sick man, you know."
"Wonder where we can go and talk things over," asked d.i.c.k. "I suppose we could go and duck in the woods a ways and build a bit of a fire, for it seems a bit chilly."
"There"s one place we can go and never be bothered. That"s down to the station. It never opens till six o"clock. I inquired of the agent when we arrived; didn"t know but what the information might come in useful some time. Besides, there"s a bench in front where we can sit and gas away without anyone hearing us. Then just before six we can hike to Everett"s house, so that he won"t be raising a rescue party."
All this conversation took place as the boys were walking. In a short time they had arrived at the station. The fitful gleam of an oil lamp on a bracket over the bench was the only light, although in a short time, now, the first light of early dawn would begin to break.
The weary boys threw themselves on the bench, while Garry proceeded to give an account of his night"s venture. The chums listened with breathless interest as he told of the developments, and held their breath as Garry told of the dangerous business of getting out of the room with the man there on the bed.
"Gosh," said d.i.c.k, "I"d have given a good bit to be in on that. Strikes me that you and Phil have had all the fun out of this proposition."
"Sure we"ve had some fun out of it, but it"s only evening things up a bit. Remember that it was you who had the honor of finding the hermit that time we were in search of him, and Phil had to stay behind without getting a chance, although he got into a pickle afterward," said Garry consolingly.
"Guess we can"t have everything in this world," answered d.i.c.k. "Next thing to do now is to plan our new campaign. Of course we won"t bother with them tomorrow night, for that is small potatoes compared to the jewel plot. Isn"t that LeBlanc a cold blooded specimen of a human being?
He"d double cross his own father. I doubt if he would have the slightest hesitation about putting the Russians out of the way if he couldn"t achieve his ends in any other way."
"Dare say you"re right, d.i.c.k. At any rate, we must now put our heads together and dope out just what to do in this smuggling case. What must be done is to capture them just as they get over the border. Then the gems will be found in their possession, and they will be caught dead to rights. If they are allowed to reach Green"s house, there are any number of ways they can squirm out of the mess provided they have a clever lawyer. I don"t know but what the best plan is to tell this whole business to Mr. Everett and see what he suggests. I imagine that his advice will be to get help from the Customs house up the line, and then lay in wait for them. There"ll probably be a hot time taking them, so you"ll come in for a share of the excitement after all, d.i.c.k."
This having been settled, there was nothing more to do except to chat away the time till morning. As they talked, the first faint flush of dawn appeared in the east, giving promise of a fine day despite the fact that the moonless night had hinted of rain.
Finally Garry looked at his watch.
"Just five o"clock," he announced. "In another few minutes we start for the Everett home. By the way, that Miss Ruth is a brick."
He said it so enthusiastically that d.i.c.k and Phil looked at each other and then burst into a shout of laughter. Both saw a chance to have a little fun at the expense of their leader.
"What do you know about that, Phil," said d.i.c.k, giving Phil a nudge as he spoke. "I believe upon my soul that Garry has been smitten with the charms of the fair lady."
"Looks very much that way," responded Phil, falling into the spirit of the joke.
Garry turned a dark red.
"Of all the confounded foolishness, that is the worst," he sputtered.
"Why, I"ve only seen the girl a couple of times."
"Methinks thou dost protest too much," quoted d.i.c.k.
"And as for me, I"ll have something to tell a certain young lady back home," announced Phil.
Garry again broke into indignant denials.
"By George, Phil, I only said that in joke, but now I think that I hit the nail on the head," declared d.i.c.k. As a matter of fact, both he and Phil were now sure that their joke was more flavored with truth than jest.
Just as they were preparing to leave, they heard a distant rumble.
"There"s a train headed this way. Wonder if it"s a freight or a pa.s.senger," remarked Phil.
"Must be a freight, there are no pa.s.sengers scheduled to pa.s.s here at this time of day," said Garry. "Shall we wait and watch it go by? That seems to be the only thing in the way of excitement that is promised for this morning."
The others being agreeable, they waited a moment. Soon the puffing engine appeared at the curve, and the rumbling grinding cars pa.s.sed them. The boys amused themselves by checking off the various railroad lines that were represented by the markings on the different freight cars. They noted the Grand Trunk and Canadian Pacific predominated, giving rise to the thought that this was bound for the far west via the Canadian Rockies.
As the caboose appeared in sight, the train seemed to slacken speed for a bit, and a man jumped off the back end, waving a goodbye to the train crew as he did.
"Well, talk about luck," shouted Garry, as he saw the features of the man. "There"s Fernald, the Customs agent!"
He was right, and as soon as Fernald saw them, he hailed them, asking in surprise how they knew he was going to arrive at that time, and on a freight instead of a pa.s.senger train.
"To tell you the truth, Mr. Fernald," explained Garry, "you were the last man on earth that we expected to see right this minute. The reason for our being here involves the telling of a long story, and we must keep a six o"clock engagement in order to prevent an armed posse from going in search of us. Perhaps you"d better come along, and then we can tell you the story at the same time we tell Mr. Everett."
"Who"s Everett?" asked Fernald quickly.
"Oh, he"s a fine old chap, used to be collector at the Customs House when it was located here some years ago. We did him a slight favor a little while ago, and he repaid us very handsomely by giving us information that was the means of our getting a clue that means the capture of the gang Sunday night," answered Garry, as they walked along.
They reached the Everett house just on the stroke of six, and were admitted by Ruth even before they rang the bell. Evidently she had been watching for them from the window.
"Oh, I"m glad you are back all safe and sound. I worried so that I hardly slept, and Granddad woke me three or four times to know if you had come back. His orders were to have you go right up the minute you came. But who is this gentleman?"
"Pardon me, Miss Ruth, this is Mr. Fernald, one of the men of the service, and he will take charge from now on. We"re thankful he came, for we were almost up a stump as to how to proceed now," said Garry.
Indeed all three were thankful that Fernald had arrived, for they felt the need for the counsel of an older head than theirs, and one more experienced in the work of capturing a smuggler outfit than were they.
They found Mr. Everett in the act of struggling to tie a tie with one hand, and muttering fiery exclamations at his failure to accomplish the feat speedily. Garry did the job for him, and after Fernald had been introduced, they went over the story again.
Just before he started, old Mr. Everett, looking searchingly at Fernald, said:
"I remember you now. You were connected with that Harworth smuggling case nearly eighteen years ago. I was one of the witnesses then."
"Why, I remember you too, now," said Fernald, his face lighting up. At first he had been a little dubious about the boys having confided so much of their business to a stranger, but this new development cleared away all doubt.