Radio Boys Loyalty Part 15

"-- Atlantic. Lat.i.tude 39 -- -- -- chased her, but -- lost --. The fog was -- -- --. On board, when start -- -- transferred, we think. Headed west. Got a radio from the Government tug Nev -- --. Think it must have been the same. Putting in toward Point Gifford, they said --. Think they have landed by now. Better opportunity to demand ransom from the --.

Italian all right; sure of that. -- The banker will -- -- -- -- --. So you be -- -- -- --."

The voice died away; a few clickings came and then silence. Bill turned to Gus. In matters of jumping at conclusions, he had long learned to depend most on his chum's undoubted talents, just as Gus, in most things mental, played second fiddle to Bill.

"Say, Gus, could it be--?" Bill whispered.

"Sure is! Nothing else. Ransom, banker, Italian."

Gus felt no uncertainty. "They're after them, sure. Mr. Sabaste has had the hunt kept up on land and sea--we know that. And this is just a clue--an attempt to get on the trail again. Point Gifford--Bill, I know that country. Went all along the coast there once with Uncle Bob. You remember when? He was cutting timber down in the coast swamps. I explored--great place for that! Sand dunes, pines, inlets; awfully wild.

Some old cabins here and there."

"They're landing there. Gus, I'll bet they're going to bring--do you think it can be Tony, Gus?"

"Who else? They're trying to make Mr. Sabaste pay a ransom and they're going to be in a place where they can make sure of getting it. What Tony said about the Malatesta bunch being short of money must be true, and I guess that restaurant business made it worse. They're going to try to make a pretty sure thing----"

"But Gus, this radio was intended for somebody on sh.o.r.e who will watch them and maybe nab them."

"No, indeed. They're not likely to nab them. They have already landed, you see, and the detectives will watch the Upper Point, which is the only landing place. But if these chaps are foxy, they will come to the Lower Point, ten miles south, and cut across the inlet and the thoroughfare in a small boat. Then their yacht, or whatever she is, will sail up past the Upper Point, put to sea and the detectives will think she has given up the idea of landing. I rather think I'm on to what their scheme will be. An old oysterman showed me what some smugglers did, and got away with it for a long time. I guess the state police never have got on to this."

"Well, then, Gus, it's up to us to tell----"

"With several thousand dollars to save for Tony's dad? And who would believe a couple of kids, anyway?" demanded Gus.

"But how----?"

"Let them watch the Upper Point, and if they land there, all right. I'm going down to hunt over the Lower Point."

"You, Gus? But these fellows are a bunch of desperate scamps; gunmen, no doubt. There'll be a lot of them, maybe----"

"No; not more than two or three. Luigi Malatesta, his brother, I think from Merritt's description, and an accomplice or two."

"Four, Gus; maybe more. You wouldn't have a chance----"

"Well, not in a stand-up fight, I suppose. But they won't be suspecting a kid in old fisherman's duds, and I can do some bushwhacking, I guess."

"But if you get hurt, Gus?"

"Well, there's a lot more like me everywhere. Another brother at home, too. I'm going to try for it, Bill. I'm not going to tote a pistol, but take Dad's hammerless, double-barreled shotgun. He has quit hunting, and he said I could have it. They'll think I'm just a native."

"But where are you going to hang out? Your Uncle Bob isn't there any more."

"With old Dan, the oysterman. He'll be tickled, I think, and I'll pay my way."

"Don't get hurt, old fellow. I wish I could go with you."

"You bet I wish you could, Bill. But you pick up what you can and maybe you'll have a chance to get it to me in some way."

"Oh, Gus, I know a scheme: That portable set we made Tompkins--it's in his room. He would be tickled, for he liked Tony, and he has gone to Saranac Lake. They've got one up there, so he didn't take this. We'll get in his room and get it for you to take along. Then I'll stay here, glue my ear to the phones and radio you everything I know, for they are all away, and I can use their transmitter."

"Portable idea is fine, Bill, but all the rest is bunk. What, really, can you do here?"

"Well, then, I know: We'll swipe the keys, unhook the school transmitting set and I'll go with you and set it up at Oysterman Dan's.

Then we can work together."

"Fine! But how about the license?"

"Got one. Merely change of locality, and my own license will let me operate anywhere. Let's get busy."

CHAPTER XXII

AT OYSTERMAN DAN'S

It was a good cause, yet the boys were up against a doubtful procedure.

The janitor of the school was a good-natured, but stubborn chap. He liked Bill and Gus, but they knew he would never let them take anything from the buildings without special consent. And while there was no time to get this permission, Bill and Gus knew that all concerned would be in favor of their motive. If they injured anything they knew they would more than make it good; or that Mr. Sabaste would make it good. Even Mr.

Hooper would, if called on.

So they wrote a note to Mr. Hooper, explaining fully what they intended doing and requesting that he reimburse the school for any loss or injury to the broadcasting instrument in case anything happened to both of them. Then they placed this letter where it would be found in their room, with a request to the finder to deliver it.

The janitor, they knew, was a bug on fis.h.i.+ng. Bill coaxed him to take a day off while they watched the place. He did this, and while Mrs. Royce was strenuously engaged with her housework, the boys got the keys to the radio room. The rest was easy, even to fixing up camouflaged parts that would befool Mr. Royce, if he should enter the room. They got the apparatus in parts to their own room, where they packed it up, and Gus climbed into Tompkins' room through the transom, handed out the portable set and got out the way he got in.

The next day, again sending for Mr. Merritt and his taxi, they were on their way to the station at Guilford, and from there by train to the sh.o.r.e, Gus debouching at a convenient junction for a two-hour trip home, while Bill patiently waited. When Gus got back to the junction he had the shotgun and some old clothes for both, though Bill might have no need to disguise.

Reaching the terminus of the railroad, the boys hired a rather dilapidated team of mules drawing a farm wagon, with youthful driver to match, and made a long, slow journey, especially tiresome to these eager, expectant lads, that landed them by the most direct route at Oysterman Dan's little cottage.

The old fellow came out and was so delighted to see Gus that he gave him and Bill a real welcome. He was a bachelor who lived alone, but lived well. He kept to himself and yet was not averse to having a little company of his own choosing. Apparently he would not have wanted more entertaining fellows than Bill and Gus, or better listeners, for he liked to spin yarns. When he found the boys insisted upon paying him for board and lodging and certain privileges he was further pleased. Let them put up "one o' them thar wirelesses?" He sure would and welcome. It would be a "heap o' fun," and when they told him of the purpose of it he was elated.

Nothing could have been more characteristic of the imagination and optimism of youth than the making of all these extensive preparations on the merest guesswork, and after the boys had arrived on the scene, not half a mile from Lower Gifford's Point, doubts began to a.s.sail Bill with much force.

"By jingo, Gus! Here we are, at considerable expense and a deal of trouble, taking it for granted that we're going to do wonderful things, and we even don't know that the theory we are working on is worth a blamed thing."

"Oh, yes; we do," said the intuitive Gus, who, looking like a woebegone swamp dweller, had just come in from the dunes. "And soon we'll know a whole lot more. I just saw two gunners in the woods above the point, and if they aren't Italians I don't know one."

The boys were a long day putting up their transmitting instrument, with its extensive aerial stretched between tall pines near the cottage.

They would depend on the portable receiver.

And then, leaving Bill listening, poring over books, or chatting with old Dan, when the latter was off the water, Gus got into his ragged togs again, took his gun and started out prowling. And he prowled wisely and well.

CHAPTER XXIII

GUS