The "Dock Rats" of New York Part 36

It was late in the afternoon when our hero and his friend, Taylor, stood on the sh.o.r.e of another one of the several famous bays that indent Long Island's sea sh.o.r.e; and, what seems still more startling, about half a mile off sh.o.r.e lay the yacht "Nancy."

Our hero and his companion were at the point when the taut little smuggler ran down from the inlet, and came to an anchor oft the sh.o.r.e.

At the time the place had not become as great a resort as at present, and the hordes of pleasure-seekers, who now, during certain seasons of the year dwell on the coast, little dream of the wild scenes, and wilder orgies that occurred thereabouts a few years back.

Taylor and the detective had crossed the bay to the island and were hidden in the brush that fringed the bluff overlooking the sh.o.r.e, when the "Nancy" ran down as described and came to an anchor.

"There's the smuggler!" exclaimed Taylor as he first caught sight of the yacht.

"Yes, there's the 'Nancy' as sure as you are born," returned the detective.

"Ah, you know her?"

"I reckon I do."

"There's a bad lot on that boat."

"There is a bad lot; they are a crew of murderer and bandits."

"They do great harm to our legitimate business, and good honest men are constantly annoyed by the cutters who hail and search them almost daily."

"We will soon put that crew out of harm's way," remarked the detective.

"She's loaded," said Taylor.

"How loaded?"

"She's got contraband cargo beneath her decks."

"How do you know?"

"She never runs in here only when she comes to put her goods ash.o.r.e."

"Don't the people over on the mainland know of her business?"

"Well, a few may suspect, but I don't believe they know; you see she will put in a load of produce, take a regular cargo from here, and the most of the people think she's an honest coaster. I've known her to get freight from a regular s.h.i.+pping company in New York, and deliver an a.s.sorted cargo, simply as a blind."

"How is it you chanced to run her down to her real business, and get all the points so dead on the crew?"

"My first discovery was accidental, and since then I just investigated a little for my own satisfaction."

"How long has she been engaged in this traffic?"

"About two years; previous to that the business was broken up and nothing was done for a long time; but about two years ago, the 'Nancy' was manned and put under the charge of Denman, who is an old smuggler, and I believe that man could be worth thousands upon thousands, but they say he goes to New York and gambles and sports all his money away; but he must handle a good pile in the course of a year."

"I see his crew is made up of all nationalities?"

"Yes; but they are mostly West Indians, not natives, but fellows raised down among the Islands."

"When will she run her cargo ash.o.r.e?"

"To-night, and she will do it so quickly that you'd hardly know her crew had been at work."

"It's a wonder they have never been discovered."

"I reckon they have been, but Denman practices the old Captain Kidd maxim: 'Dead men tell no tales.'"

"Has he dared to kill anybody?"

"Well, men have been missing around here, and later on, they have been found floating in the bay, and the people have always concluded they were cases of drowning while drunk; and I always thought so myself, until about two months ago, when I fell to a suspicion."

"Did you never tell your suspicion?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I was waiting a chance to verify it."

"You think it would cost a man his life to be caught by those fellows?"

"That's my idea."

The detective had made some important discoveries, and, among others, he had "piped" down to the fact that the crew of the "Nancy" were as desperate and blood-thirsty a set of scoundrels as ever ran in and out of Long Island even with that famous buccaneer, Captain Kidd.

"About how many men have been missing at different time?"

asked our hero.

"It's hard to tell; but the crew of the 'Nancy' could tell some fearful tales if they were to open their mouths."

The detective was destined to go to the bottom of the mystery.

The place selected by the men for their work was one of the most lonely and desolate on the whole coast at that time.

Taylor informed our hero that they would not unload from where they were anch.o.r.ed; he said:

"They will run down around the point yonder, put their cargo ash.o.r.e, and then sail back and reanchor where you see them now. I tell you they make quick work of it."

"But cannot see how they escape detection."

"Oh, they have plenty of confederates; the gang is not composed alone of the men who sail in the 'Nancy'."

"Then we must lay low until night falls"

"Yes."

The detective encountered some thrilling adventures ere another sunrise.