The three smugglers were taken out of the boat and handcuffed, then escorted up the stairs, while the burly man, who was the chief of a squad of federal agents undertaking a drive against the smugglers on that part of the coast, remained with the motorboat.
Within a short time Darst returned with three more officers. He reported that a clean sweep had been made at the house.
“They have ’em all handcuffed and sittin’ in the kitchen,” he said. “Mr. Hardy got Snackley—”
“Snackley?” exclaimed the federal man. “Is it his gang?”
“Yes, sir. He got Snackley in the cellar. One of his sons tackled Redhead Blount, one of Snackley’s sidekicks, and held him down until the police came in. When we brought our three in, that finished the roundup.”
“It does, so far. We’re going out and grab Li Chang from that ship and that’ll clean everything up.”
The officers got into the motorboat and Joe clambered in beside Tony Prito, who was at the wheel. The craft backed out of the channel into the deeper water of the cove, then sped out into Barmet Bay.
“Once we get out of the bay we should see her lights,” said the federal officer. “Li Chang probably has his ship anchored just off the coast.”
This proved to be the case. The lights of the vessel were soon descried and the motorboat sped toward it through the night.
When the boat drew alongside, the federal man roared out:
“Ahoy, there!”
A voice answered in Chinese.
“Speak English!” roared the officer. “Throw over a ladder or we’ll open fire on you.”
“Who there?”
“The police.”
Jabbering voices and running footsteps suddenly created a commotion. One of the troopers fired his revolver into the air and very promptly a ladder was lowered over the side of the vessel.
“That’s better!” said the federal man, as he clambered up over the rail, revolver in hand. “I’ll just talk to your skipper for a minute.”
The capture of Li Chang was without incident. When he was told that Snackley and the gang were captured, the Chinaman, who was a small, wizened little fellow with a villainous countenance, blandly submitted to arrest and consented to be taken ashore. There were only two or three members of the crew aboard, the others having shore leave; so two of the federal men were left in charge of the ship until relief could be sent from Bayport, and the motorboat made its way back to the cove.
The roundup was complete. Snackley’s smuggling gang had been completely broken up.
XXV
The Mystery Explained
The Hardy boys were the heroes of Bayport when the news of the capture of Snackley and his men spread throughout the city next day. As for Tony Prito, he was the envy of all the chums of the two lads.
“Tony had all the luck,” bemoaned Chet Morton, as the boys were all sitting in the barn back of the Hardy home next afternoon. This barn, which had been fitted up as a gymnasium, was a meeting place for the lads on occasions of importance.
“We had to have a motorboat,” said Frank. “Believe me, I was wishing more than once that the whole crowd was along.”
“And you’ll get the reward for capturing Snackley?” asked Phil Cohen.
“Not all of it. Dad gets half. Joe and I split the rest.”
“You haven’t any kick coming. What’s going to happen to Snackley?”
“He’ll probably go to the electric chair,” answered Frank soberly.
“Why?”
“He murdered Felix Polucca, the miser.”
“Murdered him?”
“Yes. Dad found that out in his investigations. Dad suspected all along that there was some connection between Snackley and the house on the cliff, especially when he found that Snackley and Polucca had been related. He went out to find out what he could, but the smugglers saw him and captured him.”
“What about that fellow they had imprisoned in the cellar?” questioned Biff Hooper. “Didn’t you say Snackley was just going to kill him when your father saved him?”
“That was the young fellow we saved in the bay that day. The young chap who told us his name was Jones. It wasn’t his real name, at all. His name is Yates and he was one of the smugglers.”
“Why was Snackley chasing him that day?” asked Perry Robinson.
“It seems that Yates got angry because he didn’t get his full share of the money from the last smuggling trip, so he threatened to tell the police on Snackley. The smugglers locked him up, but he got away in one of the motorboats, so they chased him and ran him down. They thought to have killed him in the explosion or else drown him, but Joe and I managed to bring him ashore. We left him at the Kane farmhouse, but the smugglers came along next day and kidnapped him. They kept him prisoner in the cellar of the Polucca place after that.”
“I still can’t understand about those yells and shrieks we heard the first day we were out at the farmhouse,” put in Phil Cohen.
“That was just to frighten us away. One of the men in the gang is a sort of half-wit and they had him posted there to frighten people off by yelling and shrieking whenever anyone showed up around the place. He was the chap who stole our tools from the motorcycles,” explained Frank.
“But after our visit there,” added Joe, “they thought it was too dangerous and that there might be an investigation, so they put Redhead and his wife and one of their men there to pose as renters of the place.”
“So there weren’t any ghosts after all,” exclaimed Jerry Gilroy.
“Nary a ghost,” laughed Frank, “Snackley explained everything this morning in a confession. The whole gang is locked up, even to Li Chang. Yates, the young fellow they had kept prisoner so long, told the whole story first. He turned state’s evidence and told how long the smuggling had been going on, how Snackley had made use of the house on the cliff after killing Polucca, how he fixed up the
