it was just a quarter to nine when they turned off the main road into the woods road. it was very rough and captain jim had to drive very carefully. he followed the road for about a quarter of a mile and then turned off between two big trees and ran the car into a thick clump of small pines.
“there, i don’t believe anybody will be apt to see her there,” he declared.
they had to wait about forty minutes before the other car arrived.
“everything all right?” the captain asked after the second car was well hidden.
“slick as grease,” the man who had driven the car assured him. “we only passed two cars all the way up after leaving the city.”
the packs had already been made up and they lost no time in getting off.
“sure you can find your way from here, bob?” the captain asked as they started off side by side, the others bringing up the rear.
“i think so.”
“well, if you can you’re a good one at it.”
at this point the forest was very dense and the going rough. bob had nothing but his sense of direction to guide him, and it must be confessed, he was a little worried for fear he might go astray.
twice he stopped and climbed a tall tree to make sure that he was on the right track.
“sure you’re right?” the captain asked as he jumped to the ground the last time.
“pretty sure, sir. i think we’ll hit the border line in about a half a mile and then it’ll be clear sailing so far as getting lost is concerned.”
“we’re all right now,” he declared a little later. “here’s the place where we saw, or thought we saw, that cabin.”
“it don’t look as though there had ever been a cabin here,” the captain said as he glanced around.
“i know it and that’s the queer part of it.”
a little farther on they stopped for dinner and while one of the men was getting the meal ready, bob, at the captain’s request, told the others all about the vanishing cabins.
“any of you fellows ever hear anything of the kind?” the captain asked as soon as he had finished.
none of them had and bob fancied that he saw one of them wink at another.
“can’t blame them for not believing it,” he told himself as he felt the hot blood rising to his face.
they pushed on during the afternoon making as good time as possible for the captain was anxious to reach their destination as early the following day as they could.
“we might just miss them and have to wait nearly or quite a week before they’d make another trip,” he explained.
they made camp that night not far from where bob had been caught in the trap and he told the captain that they ought to get to the end of the journey not much later than noon the next day.
“that’ll be fine. several hours earlier than i expected.”
“we have made good time,” bob agreed.
after the supper dishes had been cleaned up the captain asked bob to again describe the small man whom he believed to be the leader of the gang of smugglers.
“any of you place him?” he asked after bob had finished.
“did you notice whether or not he was bald?” one of the men asked.
“no, he had his hat on every time i saw him,” bob replied.
“well, i’m not sartin’ but that description fits hi stone pretty well,” the man said.
“who’s hi stone?” the captain asked.
“lives about two miles this side of the forks. don’t know much about him. he’s only been in these parts about a year or a year and a half.”
“any reason for thinking he might be in the business?”
“only that he always seems to be pretty well supplied with money and never appears to have to work much. i got a cousin lives about a mile the other side of him and he told me about him. i never saw him more than two or three times.”
“then you don’t know anything actually against him?”
“no, not a thing except what i’ve told you.”
“well, i guess we couldn’t jail him for that,” the captain smiled, “but it’s worth knowing.”
“i don’t think it’s much over an hour from here,” bob told the captain when they stopped for lunch the following day.
although they had kept a sharp watch they had neither heard or seen a soul since entering the forest.
but it was a little farther than bob thought and it was nearly two o’clock when he stopped and announced that the big field was just ahead.
“suppose we wait here while you go on and see if there’s anyone in sight,” the captain said.
bob crept silently forward and in a few minutes was once more between the two big rocks. eagerly he parted the bushes and peeped out. not a soul in sight and he noticed that no smoke came from the chimney.
“guess there’s no one at home,” he thought as he drew back his head.
he hurried back to where he had left the rest of the party and made his report to the captain.
“then the thing for us to do is to find a good place to camp where they won’t be likely to find us and wait.”
they searched through the woods for some time before finding a place which suited their needs but at last they decided on a spot about an eighth of a mile from the edge of the field. it was in a thick clump of pines and all agreed that there would be little likelihood of discovery unless someone should stumble upon them by accident.
“suppose you go back and stand the first watch,” the captain proposed to bob, “while we are getting things shipshape. i’ll send a man to relieve you in a couple of hours.”
stretched at full length between the two rocks bob had hard work to keep awake, and was very glad when one of the men crept up and told him that he was to go back to camp.
“haven’t seen anything i suppose,” he said.
“not a thing.”
“well, i hope they show up before long. hanged if i like this waiting game.”
when he got back to camp bob found that they had, by sawing down three or four small pines and sticking the trees up between others, left a circular space about twelve feet across so thickly hemmed in that they would be invisible to anyone on the outside.
“you certainly have made it good and snug,” he told the captain.
“i guess we’ll be fairly safe here,” captain jim replied with a smile.
they had brought no tents with them having decided that it would be too risky. but they were all more or less used to sleeping in the open. the men were busy gathering spruce boughs for beds and in a short time bob had his own ready.
“now i guess there’s nothing to do but wait,” he said to the captain.
“that’s about all i guess. let’s hope it won’t be a long one.”
“it can’t be any too short to suit me,” bob declared.
“well, i have found that there’s a lot of waiting to do in this game,” the captain said.
“how do you think the men would like a mess of trout for supper?” bob asked.
“fine. think you can get some?”
“i’m pretty sure of it. there’s a little brook a short piece back and unless i’m greatly mistaken there’s trout in it.”
“all right. go to it only don’t get lost. i guess though that’s a fool thing to say to you,” the captain added with a laugh.
bob was gone about an hour and when he returned he had twenty fine brook trout averaging about a half a pound.
“bully for you, son,” cried one of the men. “those will go fine for supper.”
after supper they sat around and told stories until the captain declared that it was time for taps. they had decided that it would be useless to keep a watch after dark.
“that machine won’t come in the night even if the others do,” the captain had said and all agreed with him.
for two long days they took turns of two hours watching at the peep hole between the two rocks and nothing had happened.
“this sure is getting monotonous,” the captain complained to bob as he relieved him about four o’clock in the afternoon of the third day. “if they don’t come today or tomorrow i’m afraid the men will begin to get uneasy and want to give it up for a bad job, and i can’t say as i’d blame them much. it sure is beginning to get on my nerves.”
two or three times each day bob had called jack on the pocket phone and they had enjoyed long talks together. the phones were working perfectly and captain brice told jack that he considered it one of the most wonderful inventions he had ever seen.
“i guess you aren’t the only ones who are getting tired of this waiting game,” jack said when bob told him what captain jim had said a few minutes earlier. “mebby you think it’s fun waiting around this old farm with nothing to do from morning till night except eat.”
“well, you have always seemed to enjoy that all right,” bob laughed. “how are they feeding you there?”
“wonderful. best eats i ever had,” jack replied. “but i do wish they would come.”
“and you aren’t the only one who wishes it,” bob laughed as he bade him good-bye.
the following day, some time during the afternoon, bob, who had been on watch since two o’clock and it was nearly time for him to be relieved, peeped out through the bush, he saw a thin whisp of smoke coming from the chimney of the cabin.
“that’s funny,” he thought “i didn’t hear anybody come up the trail. wonder if i’ve been asleep and didn’t know it.”
a moment’s thought, however, convinced him that it was not at all likely, for he had not been at all sleepy.
“they must have come in from the other side,” he concluded as he kept his eyes fixed on the cabin.
in a few minutes he saw the door open and the man whom he knew as big tiny stepped out, followed by pierre. for some moments the two men stood at the door talking earnestly together. bob noticed that not once did they look upward.
“evidently they’re not expecting the flyer today,” he thought.
he watched until the men went back into the house and then hastened to report to the captain.
“good,” the captain declared and all the men were greatly pleased to know that there was the prospect of speedy action.
“how many of them are there?”
“i only saw two but i imagine the rest of them are not far off.”
“now i suppose that airship will show up before long.”
“probably but i hardly think he will come today,” and bob explained his reason for thinking as he did. “when you see them come out of the cabin and look all around every few minutes you can know that they’re expecting him.”
“well, i don’t think there will be any need of keeping a watch all the time now,” the captain said. “you see there’s nothing we can do till he comes and in this clear air i imagine we can hear him about as soon as we could see him.”
“but don’t you think there might be a chance of learning something by keeping watch?” bob asked and then, realizing that the captain might think he was criticising his action, he apologized.
“i didn’t mean to interfere,” he said.
“interfere nothing, you know i’m always glad of a suggestion from you and this time i think you are right and i wrong. we ought not to overlook a single chance that might help.”
but, although he kept a man on watch until dark, nothing happened except that they learned that there were five men in the cabin.
“my, what a man that big fellow is,” captain jim said to bob as he returned shortly before supper time from standing his watch. “what did you say his name is?”
“i don’t know his right name but they call him big tiny.”
“big tiny. what a contradiction of terms. but it’s just like some of these fellows up in this part of the world to give him a name like that.”
“yes, a very fat man is pretty sure to be called ‘slim’ and a slim man ‘fatty’,” bob agreed.
“i’d sure hate to run up against him in a rough and tumble. i’ll bet he could more than hold his own with three ordinary men,” and the captain shook his head as he turned away.
“and, believe me, that fellow pierre is no slouch,” bob declared.
before supper bob called jack and told him that the men arrived and that he might expect word to start most any time the following day.
“are all five of them there?” jack asked.
“yes, there’re all here.”
“good, we’ll nab the whole bunch.”
“here’s hoping.”
as soon as it was too dark for the man on duty to see the cabin he returned and reported all quiet.
“we’ll all turn in early to-night because we must be up as soon as it is light. he’s apt to come any time and we don’t want to miss a trick,” the captain ordered, and the men all readily agreed that it was the best plan.
“i’d like to creep up close to that cabin and see if i can hear what they are saying,” bob said to the captain a few minutes later. “i might find out something that would help.”
“and then again you might get caught. no, you’ve taken all the risk you’re going to on this job,” and the captain shook his head.
“but, captain—”
“no buts about it,” captain jim smiled. “i know you are not afraid but i am and anyhow i don’t think the chances of you learning anything are worth the risk. you see if they should spot you even if you got away it would put them on their guard and spill the beans so far as our catching them is concerned. they probably have some way of warning that fellow if the coast is not clear and we’d have our trouble for nothing. you understand we haven’t really got a thing on them yet.”
“but we saw—”
“yes, i know you saw them load something into that plane but you couldn’t go into court and swear that it was whiskey, could you?”
“i suppose not,” bob said slowly. “but—”
“oh, of course there’s not a bit of doubt as to what it was, but when it comes to evidence, well, you’ve got to get ’em with the goods on them, that’s all.”
“of course you’re right, i only thought—”
“you thought you could do something more. i know but believe me you and that brother of yours have done enough on this job.”
“all right, i’ll give it up.”
“talking about evidence,” the captain began, “i remember a case only last fall at the bangor fair. i saw a fellow hand another a flask about half full of what looked like whiskey. the man drained it and passed the empty flask back together with a bill.
“then i stepped up and arrested the two of them. the fellow who had sold the whiskey was a bit too quick for me and before i could stop him he threw the bottle over a fence near by. oh, yes, i got the pieces later and they smelled of whiskey but do you think that did any good? not so you’d notice it. when they were brought into court they both swore that the bottle had contained nothing but cold tea and of course i couldn’t swear that it didn’t. so the judge had to let them go.”
“but the bits of the flask that you picked up, didn’t—”
“no, they didn’t,” the captain laughed “you see i couldn’t identify them as pieces of the same flask which i had seen him hand over so it was no good. no, evidence is evidence and of course rightly so or a good many innocent people would suffer.”
“i guess you’re right about that.”
“and that’s why i want to get that flyer on american soil with the goods actually in his possession.”
it was a long time before bob got to sleep that night. as he told jack afterwards he just itched to creep up to the cabin and hear what they were talking about. if he could only learn where they were to send the stuff it would make it so much easier. but he was a good soldier and his commanding officer had ordered not to do it so that settled it.
“i believe he’s making a mistake though,” he thought as he finally drifted off to sleep.
breakfast was over the next morning almost before the sun was fairly up and then there was nothing to do but wait.
but this time the waiting was of short duration for shortly before eight o’clock bob’s quick ears caught the sound of the motor.
“listen,” he said to the captain who was sitting beside him.
“i don’t hear a thing.”
“you will in a minute.”
“now i hear it,” the captain declared a few moments later.
bob immediately called jack and told him that the plane was coming.
“good.” jack’s voice was full of eagerness. “i’ll tell captain brice. he just went out to the plane to get it warmed up and we’ll be all ready when you give the word.”
“good. you’ll probably get it in about an hour unless he stops for his breakfast.”
the humming of the motor was plainly audible now and all the men were showing their eagerness.
“let’s you and i get up to the peep hole,” the captain proposed. “the rest of you stay here and be ready for instant action,” he ordered.
“they’re sending up the smoke signal so i guess they don’t suspect anything,” bob announced a few minutes later as he peeped out.
“good.”
“now we’d better get down in the bushes until he lands,” bob cautioned. “he comes down right over us and he might see us.”
they had hardly concealed themselves when he swooped down barely missing the two rocks.
“are you sure that they’ll come this way after he gets off?”
“they did the other time but of course that don’t make it sure that they will this time,” bob replied. “they must have come from the other direction yesterday and they may go away the same way.”
“then i think we’d better get back as quickly as we can and all make a detour round to the other end of the field where we can get pretty close to the cabin so as to be sure to nab them after he leaves.”
“aren’t you afraid we’ll miss seeing them load?”
“we might but from the fact that they haven’t started yet i fancy they are going to eat breakfast before they get to work and i think we’ll have time.”
they hastened back with all possible speed and the captain explained the situation to his men and, with no other delay they set out. the traveling was not bad and they arrived at the other end of the field just as the door of the cabin opened and the man came out. that end of the field was fringed with a heavy growth of bushes and, by lying flat on their stomachs they were able to crawl up until they had a fair view of the smugglers not more than thirty feet away.
“that’s hi stone all right,” one of the men whispered to the captain.
“mebby he is now but he wasn’t the last time i saw him about two years ago,” the captain whispered back.
bob, who was lying close to the other side of captain jim, heard the words and from his tone and manner he was sure that he was greatly excited. but he asked no question knowing that it was best to talk as little as possible.
the loading of the big plane was accomplished in a short time and, after shaking hands with the little man, the aviator gave his propeller a whirl and in another moment he was off.
the five smugglers watched him while he circled the field a couple of times mounting higher and higher. then, as he disappeared in a bank of clouds they turned back toward the cabin.
at that moment captain jim spoke.
“we’ve got every one of you covered. throw up your hands and the first man who moves will get shot.”
as his voice rang out the five men turned quickly and as they saw the rifle barrels peeping out from the bushes every man’s hands shot above his head.
“that’s right. keep them there,” the captain ordered as he stepped out into the open. “now quick. bob, get the word to jack.”
bob did so and was assured by jack that they were all ready to start. then he followed the others out into the open.
“well, well, it’s some time since we met, slippery elm.”
the captain stood in front of the little man while the other officers remained a few feet distant each one with rifle covering one of the prisoners.
“you have the advantage of me, sir,” the little man began with a great show of dignity.
“now isn’t that too bad that you should have forgotten me so soon. and to think that it has hardly been two years since we last met.”
“i tell you you’ve got the wrong man. my name is hiram stone and i am a farmer. i live just this side of the forks as i can easily prove.”
“that may be all right except for the name,” the captain said then turning to his men, “gentlemen, let me introduce to you slippery elm, alias dodging jim, alias jimmie the weasel, and goodness knows how many others. he is the most notorious smuggler in two continents and is wanted by at least three governments.”
“i tell you you’ve got me wrong,” the little man insisted.
“well, we won’t argue the point now. i guess smuggling liquor over the border will be enough to hold you for a time at least.”
“but you’re an american officer and have no authority to arrest us on canadian soil.”
“oui, dat right,” the man known as tiny joined in.
“another point we won’t stop to discuss now,” the captain said. “we’ve got some pretty stiff arguments in the shape of these guns and we’ll thrash out the ethics of the case later when we have more time. you men keep them covered while i put the bracelets on them and don’t hesitate to shoot if there’s any occasion.”
