came back. The boys may have been trapped.'
'I'll order the cutter at once,' Lieutenant Parker said.
'Thanks,' Frank replied. 'If we don't see the Napoli by the time Chief Collig gets here, we'd better move fast!'
Nervously the boy paced about the pier with his eyes fixed on the harbor mouth. Still no Napoli.
Frank heard a siren wail and a black police car sped up to the Coast Guard station.
'Joe hasn't come yet,' he told the chief. 'I'm afraid something went wrong out at the island.'
'Then we'd better get there fast!' Collig snapped.
The powerful engines of a Coast Guard cutter were rumbling impatiently beside the pier. Frank, Chief Collig, and the two policemen he had brought along hurried aboard. Already a squad of
seamen armed with rifles had taken their places. At a signal from Lieutenant Parker the cutter growled out into the bay.
On Hermit Island the two robbers had hauled Joe and Jerry along the path toward the cave.
When they reached the entrance, they noted that the radio inside was still playing.
Stark's face tightened with anger. 'Hold them here with your gun, Nick,' he ordered, and disappeared into the cavern. The music stopped suddenly, and Stark came out a few moments
later, pushing a heavy, bald-headed man, who blinked in the late-afternoon sunlight.
'It's the fellow we saw with Ben Stark in the Black Cat!' Joe thought.
He also noted that the man was wearing the same clothing the fake hermit had had on the day
before. But this man was clean shaven and in his thirties! 'He must have been wearing a false beard yesterday,' Joe decided.
Fritz Stark glowered at the bald man. 'Listen, Pops,' he demanded, 'how did these kids get on the island? You're supposed to be keeping people away-not sleeping!'
'Pops!' said Joe to himself. 'This is the fellow Alf told us about who beat up Sutton!'
The bald man answered Stark lamely. 'I guess I was in the cave and didn't hear them. I figured nobody would be nosing around during the storm.'
'You fool!' Stark returned harshly. 'These kids found three of our jackets-I saw them in their boat. What if they had made it to the police?'
'Well, we've got 'em now,' Pops said.
'No thanks to you!' Nick put in angrily. 'You're no good for anything but drinking soda and getting into fights!'
'Give him credit for buying postcards in Northport,' Stark said sarcastically.
Pops bristled. 'I did my share! We wouldn't have stolen the crate of Yokohama radios so easy, if I hadn't first made the deal with Sutton.'
'We'd have been better off without that hothead,' Nick declared.
'He knew the docks,' Pops retorted. 'Thanks to him we had inside help. If you guys hadn't been so slow we could've taken more crates.'
'Oh, he was helpful,' Stark sneered. 'He wasn't satisfied with our bank loot. He brought the Hardys and the police down on our necks by planting a stolen radio on that big stevedore and
making the whole bunch hot.'
'And fighting with you over his cut every night in Shantytown. Did that help?' Nick asked sourly.
'You were all pretty careless,' Joe egged them on. 'We heard that an envelope from the Yokohama radio distributors was found in the Starks' hotel room.'
Pops snorted in triumph. 'You left that, Fritz!' he accused. 'It was you who wrote pretending to be a purchasing agent to find out where their Super-X radio shipments came in.'
'But Pops left his broken soda bottle in the Sleuth' Joe prodded.
'That's enough!' the bald man ordered. Roughly he shoved the captives toward the gaping cavern.
'Hold it!' Stark rasped. 'First I have a bone to pick with this nosy kid.' Then he cuffed Joe on the ear and laughed wickedly.
'What was that for?' Joe complained, trying to draw the man out more.
'You'd like to know, wouldn't you?' Stark sneered and pushed Joe so hard that he fell to the ground.
'Cut it out!' Jerry protested, and lunged forward to help his friend. Nick seized the boy and held him fast.
Stark yanked Joe up by the shoulders and yelled at him, 'You and your pesky brother-always interfering with our plans! I had things all worked out!'
'I'll bet you did,' Joe retorted. 'Who stole the car in Northport?'
'Nick did,' Stark replied, 'while Ben and Pops took the Black Cat for a spin. Ben found out where your boat was kept, and later Pops took it.'
'He broke into our boathouse while the rest of your gang was robbing the bank,' Joe egged him on.
'That's right, smart boy.' Fritz Stark sneered. 'Ben was with us. Pops had the Sleuth waiting.
We were going to head straight for Hermit Island.'
Despite their predicament, Joe and Jerry could not help but gloat. 'Instead, you landed high and dry miles up the coast,' Joe said.
Stark's face darkened. 'Yeah. Well, that didn't stop us. We hotfooted it back to Shantytown, picked up Ben's car there, and drove around looking for another fast boat. We found one and
'borrowed' it.'
'Ben ran the boat up the coast to Shantytown while I drove back. I'd heard over the radio your father was working on the bank robbery case. Soon as Ben got back to Shantytown, I told him
about it and that I'd seen you Hardys in the costume store.'
'So,' Nick broke in, 'Ben got the idea of kidnaping you two to make your old man drop the case.'
'We told him what costume your brother was wearing,' Fritz went on.
'And he sent two bunglers to do the job,' Nick interrupted resentfully. 'Moran and Duke! They drove to French's place and made him tell where the party was. Then they nabbed the wrong
boys!'
'Where are they now?' Joe demanded. For answer their captors merely laughed.
'When did you discover who they were?' Joe asked. 'After you took them to Shantytown?'
Stark shot him a hard look. 'You know that, too?'
'Whoever tried to burn the costumes and hid the robbery masks didn't do a very good job,' the young sleuth commented. 'They were found.'
'Duke's carelessness again,' Pops muttered.
Nick cut in. 'You fellows won't ever find your two friends. And nobody will find you!'
The boys learned the crooks had spotted the Sleuth and pretended to ram her to find out her
full power.
'We needed a fast boat for our getaway,' Stark said, 'and we knew yours would do.'
Joe now said, 'We saw you leaving the island during the storm. Why?'
Stark smiled briefly. 'Nick and I had urgent business to check on in Bayport and no time to lose!
We've got one more job to do tonight and then we're clearing out.'
'And we need a fast boat to pull it,' Pops said.
'You mean you'll leave your own brother in jail!' Joe taunted Stark. 'You're a real pal!'
The man's face twitched with rage. 'Listen, kid, I don't leave my brother in the lurch.' He turned to Pops and snarled, 'Get these guys in the cave! We'll take care of 'em later!'
The thug reinforced the belt which held Joe's hands with stout Manila rope. He tied Joe's ankles too, and then moved on to bind Jerry. All the while Joe thought over what he had learned.
'Stark says they're doing one more job, and he won't abandon his brother. That must mean
they went to Bayport to plan a jail break, which they're going to pull tonight. Then they'll all flee together!'
'All right-inside!' Pops ordered gruffly.
