The Missing Chums Part 14

"What'll we do with him and his friend?"

"Load 'em in the boat. We'll take 'em to the cave."

"We haven't much time," Nick warned him.

"Don't worry," Stark said in a hard voice. "We're going to make quick work of 'em!"

CHAPTER XIX.

Rocky Prison FEAR showed in Jerry's eyes and his face paled. Joe stoically hid his emotions at Stark's ominous threat.

The same thought raced wildly through the boys' minds. What would these men do to them?

While the two men forced Joe and Jerry into the brown boat, Frank was sending the Sleuth full speed toward Bayport harbor. Looking behind him, he frowned, puzzled.

"Where's the Napoli, Tony?" he asked. "Can you see it?"

Tony turned his head for a look. "No," he answered.

"They shouldn't be so far behind us," Frank said.

From time to time he glanced back uneasily, and as they sped across the bay toward the Coast Guard station, he spoke up worriedly, "The Napoli isn't that much slower than the Sleuth, Maybe the boat had motor trouble."

"Don't think so," Tony said, tight-lipped. "Just had her checked."

Frank throttled down his engine as the Sleuth slid in beside the pier. Making a line fast to a pile, he leaped onto the ladder and climbed up.

"Take it easy, Tony. I'll get help," he said, and sprinted along the wharf to the Coast Guard headquarters.

"I have a fellow in my boat with an injured ankle," he told Lieutenant Parker breathlessly.

A few moments later four Coast Guardmen, two with a stretcher between them, were running with Frank to the end of the pier. Expertly, the rescue team carried Tony up the ladder and laid him on the stretcher.

"Okay, Tony?" Frank inquired.

"Sure," came the plucky reply. "You'd better forget me, Frank, and think about Joe and Jerry. Something must have happened to them!"

"We must get Tony to a doctor," Frank told Lieutenant Parker, as both hurried along beside the stretcher.

"Our men will take him," the young officer said. "We have an emergency vehicle ready at all times. But what was he talking about, Frank? Is something else wrong?"

"I'll tell you in a minute," the boy replied.

"We might need a cutter and some men soon. May I use your phone?"

Frank went into the Coast Guard station and called police headquarters.

"Chief Collig?" he began urgently. "This is Frank Hardy. I'm at the Coast Guard pier. Just got back from Hermit Island. We've found the jackets the bank robbers were wearing. I have two of them. Joe ought to be here with the others any minute."

"What!" Collig cried in amazement. "Stay there. I'll be right down," he said.

After hanging up, Frank dashed out of the station and ran to the end of the pier again. Frowning, he scanned the waters of the bay. He could not see the Napoli, and he returned to the station.

"Our men have taken Tony to a doctor," Lieutenant Parker told him. "Have you found some new clue to the bank robbers or your missing chums, Frank? If there's going to be trouble, we want to help."

Frank quickly gave details and ended with, "I'm worried about Joe and Jerry."

"What do you think happened to them?"

"I don't know. There was one member of the gang on the island when Tony and I left. Maybe more of them 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, pus.h.i.+ng 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 n.o.body 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 s.h.i.+pments 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 n.o.body 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.

Stumbling in the gloom, Joe and Jerry were dragged far back into the cave. The place smelled musty and damp.

Stark threw them to the ground and walked away.

The boys waited in silence until their eyes became more accustomed to the darkness. Then Joe felt a chill up and down his spine as he discerned the shape of someone lying beside him! Could it be Chet or Biff?

Wriggling over, Joe nudged the unknown prisoner. He moaned, as though dazed, and turned his face upward.

"Jumping catfis.h.!.+" Joe whispered hoa.r.s.ely. "It's Mr. French!"

CHAPTER XX.

Ambus.h.i.+ng the Enemy "MR. FRENCH, what happened?" Joe asked in amazement.