Jill put her mouth to the crack of the hatch and called down. “You made me and Mary feel sick with your horrid sleeping-medicine. It’s your turn now! You won’t come up here!”
“I should think not!” said Andy, and swung the tiller round as the boat entered the channel between the long, wicked rows of sharp black rocks. “Do they really think we’d let them come up hereto overpower us, and whisk us back to Smuggler’s Rock? What a hope!”
Plainly Bandy and Stumpy didn’t feel there was much hope for it, for they said no more. The children forgot about them as they raced along. They revelled in the speed of their boat, and loved the way she seemed to gallop over the white-topped waves. Andy looked the picture of happiness as he sat at the tiller, his brown face glowing and his deep-blue eyes reflecting the sea.
“Dear old Andy!” thought Jill, looking at him. “He’s got back his boat, and he’s happy again. It’s true that it’s our boat toobut he’s the real skipper!”
For a long time the boat swept on over the waves, and they made very good time indeed. “We’ll be home about eleven, at this rate!” shouted Andy, the wind whipping his words away as he called them out.
They swept into their home-waters just after eleven, the red sail making a bright speck on the blue waters. The children eyed the shore eagerly. Would their mother be there? Would Andy’s father be there? Of course notbecause they didn’t know the children were coming home at that very moment!
But they were there, all the same! Someone had sighted the Andy as she turned into the harbour and the word was sent round at once. “The Andy is back! There she is! The Andy is come home again! Let’s hope the children are safe and sound!”
The children’s mother was fetched at once and ran down to the jetty, her face bright with hope. She had been very unhappy the last few days. Andy’s father stood there too, his blue eyes watching the incoming boat. Then a shout went up.
“They’re all on board, the whole four of them. They’re safe! Thank God for that!”
Andy’s father turned to the children’s mother. “They’re safe, ma’am,” he said, his eyes bright with joy. “I knew they’d be all right with my Andy. Look at them waving to us. They’re all right, ma’am, they’re all right!”
Many willing hands made the Andy safe as she stopped beside the jetty. The children leapt off and ran to their mother. Andy got a hug from his father, and then he pointed back to the boat.
“We’ve two prisoners there, Dad. Look out for them, they’re pretty dangerous fellows. We’ve got them bolted down.”
Everyone gaped. Andy’s father rapped out a few questions and Andy answered breathlessly. Then three of the listening fishermen, stalwart, sturdy fellows, started grimly towards the Andy. They opened the hatchand up came Bandy and Stumpy, looking very green indeed. They were grasped by rough, strong hands and jerked off the Andys deck to the jetty.
“It’s a case for the police, Dad,” said Andy. “There’s something very queer going on in the Cliff of Birds and Smuggler’s Rock. We found cases upon cases of guns and ammunition.”
The fishermen whistled and looked at one another. One of them went off to fetch the local policeman. It was all very exciting indeed!
“I’m jolly hungry,” said Tom. The girls laughed. It was so like Tom to say that, in the middle of all the excitement. His mother put her arm round them.
“Come along and have a good meal,” she said. “I’m so happy to have you back. You’ve no idea how worried I’ve been. Andy’s father and uncle, and many of the other fishermen all went out hunting for youand there wasn’t a trace of you to be found! I’m longing to hear every single thing.”
Andy’s father and Andy went with them. Bandy and Stumpy were left in charge of the fishermen until the policeman came. Tom wondered what his mother had got for their meal. He felt he really could enjoy one now that all worry and trouble were ended!
Whilst Andy and the others were sitting down to a noisy and exciting meal, many things were happening. The policeman decided that all these curious affairs that the children had reported were quite beyond him, and he had rung up the superintendent in the next big town.
The superintendent, listening carefully, had been filled with amazement. Yes, certainly this was a very big affair indeed. He telephoned in his turn to headquarters and soon dozens of telegraph wires were humming with news and instructions.
Bandy and Stumpy were safely in prison, and, fearful of their own skins, they gave away all the secrets of their Chief. The children knew nothing of this, but laughed and chattered as they told their mother that afternoon all that had happened. They had quite forgotten how afraid they had been, and how worried.
“When things end well, nothing seems to matter,” said Tom. “I do wonder what will happen to all those smugglers, Mother!”
CHAPTER 26.
The End of It All.
THAT evening, when the children had talked themselves out, and really thought they had nothing more to say, a very large and shining car drove up to the cottage.
Out of it stepped a neat and well-dressed little man, whose sharp clever eyes looked in turn at each of the four children.
“You don’t know who I am,” he said, “but I am someone in charge of very high-up affairs, and I want to ask you a few questions. My name is Colonel Knox. I’ve heard most of your story from Andy’s father. Now, can you tell me this: Did any of you ever see the man that Bandy and Stump call the Chief?”
“WellI did see a man once in the store-cave with Stumpy, a man wearing glasses, but dressed like a fisherman,” said Tom. “I don’t know if he was the Chief though.”
“No. That wasn’t the Chief,” said the sharp-eyed man. “Stumpy has told us who that man was. We are hoping to get him tomorrow, with all the others.”
“What are you going to do?” asked Tom, with great interest.
“We’re going to round up all the smugglers and their boats,” said Colonel Knox. “We’re combing out all the passages and tunnels and caves. We’re opening every case and box and crate. We shall cross-examine every man we getand we shall set that great lamp burning you told us of, and watch for the ships that answer the signal. We shall get them too!”
“Why did they smuggle those guns and things in!” said Jill.
“There is a country that is not allowed to import firearms of any kind,” said the Colonel. “Those arms you found were made in a distant land, and have been smuggled here to take across to this other country, where they are forbidden. As you can imagine, very high prices are paid for these forbidden firearms. Men in our country, I regret to say, have been acting as a go-betweenthat is, they smuggle the arms here, and, for a price, take them to the buyers. They make a very pretty fortune out of it.”
“Oh,” said the children, wide-eyed and astonished. Andy considered a moment.
“And the man you’d really like to get hold of is the one they call the Chief?” he said. Colonel Knox nodded.
“Yes. All the other fellows merely obey orders. He’s the Big Brain behind it all. We’ve suspected this affair for a long time, but we couldn’t find out how the forbidden goods were brought here, or where, nor did we know who the brain behind it was.”
“And if you don’t get him, he’ll probably start off again somewhere else?” said Tom. “Well, I wish we could tell you who he is. Don’t Bandy and Stumpy know?”
“Noall they know is that he is a tall fellow, who always wears a mask when visiting them,” said Colonel Knox. “And they think he lives in the nearest big town, so that he can get to the Cliff of Birds without too great a loss of time, when he needs to. But as there are about fifty thousand people living in that town, it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack!”
“Yes. I see,” said Andy. “I do hope you get him, Colonel Knox. I say, wasn’t it a bit of luck we stumbled on their haunt? It was quite an accident.”
“A very happy accident for us!” said the Colonel. “We don’t want our country mixed up in any affair of this sort. It was a clever ideato have a hide-out of motor-boats in such a hidden coveand a lamp to signal out to sea, from a place that no one else ever saw at nightand to use the tunnels and caves as store-houses.”