"Nope."
"Any craft been fitting out to sail to-night or first thing in the morning?"
"Nope."
"Gracious, but this is a dead place," laughed Jack. "Must be a lot of shacks for rent around here?"
"There was one place," stated the storekeeper, "but a dude feller hired it last week. Said some sort o" fishing club"d be down this way to fish, once in a while. That kinder minds me," went on the storekeeper.
"I guess maybe some o" that crowd are down, "cause I saw a light up there at the house, jest come dark."
"If there"s a fishing club down here, that ought to make business good for you," suggested Captain Jack.
"Dunno. They can start tradin" as soon as they like. I"m ready."
"Which house has the fishing club hired?" was Jack"s next question.
"Why, I guess you can make it out from the door," replied the storekeeper, coming out from behind the counter and going to the front of his establishment. "There, if yer eyes are good, you can jest make out a building over there on the point. See it? Well, there"s a little boat wharf in front that ye can"t see until you get closer."
Jack had found out just what he wanted to know. He had the very information for which he had been fishing, nor did he believe the storekeeper suspected him of undue curiosity.
"Well, I"ve got to be moving along, now I"m fed," announced young Benson.
"The yacht I belong to is some distance from here. Good night!"
Nor did Captain Jack linger in the village. Had anyone stood still in that street and stared after Benson, he would have seen the boy vanish in the darkness.
Captain Jack, however, had not disappeared from the scene. He was merely shifting to the part of it that interested him most. Cautiously he stole out along the further side of a ridge of land, toward the rickety old house on the point.
"Not a sign of a light, now," breathed the submarine boy. "If Millard was really there, I hope he hasn"t had time to get away for good."
All was silent and dark about the old house, as Captain Jack stole closer. At nearer range he made the circuit of the house, only to find every window shuttered, and the place as dismal as the grave.
"I"m afraid the game has escaped," muttered Benson, with a sinking feeling at his heart. "Yet he didn"t escape, by sea or land, while we were watching outside the village. And it was just at dark that the storekeeper saw a light here. I wonder if it would be easy to--"
Right there Jack Benson"s train of thought broke off. From the opposite side of the house came a sound exactly like that of the opening and closing of a door.
"Can that be our man coming out?" wondered Skipper Jack.
He started cautiously around the house, but soon drew back around the corner of the building. Dropping to the ground, and lying flat, the submarine boy allowed only the top of his head to show as he peeped.
Glory! Jack knew, well enough, that tall figure striding off into the gloom. It was Millard, and under his left arm the fellow carried a large package that might be a bulky portfolio well wrapped.
"He has his drawings--his maps of American fortifications and fortified harbors--the very stuff that we want to get!" throbbed the boy. "And now--we"re going to get them!"
Keeping Millard"s receding figure zealously in sight, Jack, crouching low, started after the long-legged one as soon as the distance between seemed sufficient to keep Millard from guessing at pursuit.
"Oh, how I wish Hal and Eph were here!" muttered Captain Jack, in keen disappointment.
"I need help on this!"
Within two minutes Millard had struck into a well-beaten path that led northward over succeeding ridges of laud. In a way, it was easier following here, for there were occasional trees and clumps of bushes behind which the young shadow could drop at need.
Two minutes in this path, and Jack Benson"s heart gave another quick leap. Some one else was coming stealthily behind him. Jack dodged around a clump of bushes and waited.
"Hal!" breathed Jack, almost wild with joy, as the two chums clasped hands fervently for one brief instant. Then:
"See here, Hal, I"ve got to dart forward again, or Millard will be out of sight. But I"ll tell you what--while I trail Millard, you concern yourself only with following me."
"Good enough," whispered Hastings, nodding. "Now, you start again!"
For just an instant Millard had disappeared. However, by moving forward quickly, Benson was soon able to make out the quarry through the darkness.
For some five minutes more the chase continued. Then, his long body rather sharply defined against the sky, Millard began the ascent of a low hill that ended in a cliff overlooking the broad ocean.
As Millard"s course forward could end only in the sea, Jack now crouched low, stealing along a parallel course behind a low ridge of rock.
Then Millard suddenly stepped into a clump of tall bushes. Though his game was now out of sight, Jack did not lose his nerve, for he could hear the fellow.
Spink! spank! clank! The noise came from a shovel, vigorously used.
"Not a hard one to guess," throbbed Captain Jack Benson, exultantly.
"He has brought his maps and his stolen records with him, and is burying them in this lonely spot until some other time when he"ll feel safe about coming back for them. Talk about luck! Why, Hal and I can pounce on this fellow, when he comes out over yonder, and, after we get him, we can next dig up whatever it is that this foreign agent thinks is worth burying!"
Then, with a shade of curiosity, Benson added to himself:
"I don"t know, yet, how it happened that Hal was on my trail. There wasn"t time for him to tell me."
Clank! clank! But after a while the noise of the shovel ceased for a while. Captain Jack craned his neck eagerly, trying to pierce the darkness of the night. He could make out nothing, though he heard some one still moving inside the clump of bushes.
Then again the noise of the shovel on the dirt was heard.
"He"s filling in, now, beyond a doubt," thought Captain Jack. "He is burying--what? The maps and records? Hiding them here that he may dig them up at some later date?"
Benson chuckled noiselessly.
"If that"s Millard"s game I reckon some one else will do some digging over yonder before he pays this place a second visit!"
Ah, the noise had stopped, at last. Now, Millard came out of the thicket.
"He hasn"t that bundle he brought up here!" throbbed Jack Benson. "And he isn"t bringing a shovel out, either, so it must be hidden right handy.
Great!"
Mr. Millard could depart, now, if he wanted. Jack trusted to his chum, prowling somewhere about, to have the good judgment to follow the long-legged fellow away. As for Benson, he didn"t mean to do another thing until he had found the shovel, and had determined just what had been so carefully buried on this dark night!
So Jack watched, rather indifferently, as Millard slunk off into the darkness. After three minutes or so had pa.s.sed, Jack rose and ran straight for the thicket.
There it was--new ground, that had just been turned over with a shovel.
There was no mound, but the fresh earth showed just where to dig.
"Oh, this is as easy as making change for a blind man!" chuckled the young submarine skipper, rubbing his hands ecstatically.