“How did the Chief get the goods out of the Cliff of Birds and Smuggler’s Rock?” asked Andy, puzzled.
“We’re not quite sure yet,” said Colonel Knox. “But we think there is another way out of the Cliff of Birds, leading to a flat piece of ground at the backa good place for aeroplanes to land. It is likely that the Chief took off loads of firearms in his ‘planes.”
“My word!” said Tom. “What a dangerous plot we found! I wonder the men didn’t guard us more carefully than they did!”
“Ahthey didn’t know what wily birds you were!” said the Colonel, with a laugh. “But they quite meant to use the two girls as hostages, if you got home and reported their doings. That would have been very unpleasant for Jill and Maryand I’m afraid we would have had to let the miscreants free rather than risk anything happening to the girls.”
“It’s a good thing we captured Bandy and Stumpy,” said Andy.
“A very good thing,” said Colonel Knox. “We got out of them a tremendous amount of valuable information. Enough to capture all the rest of the gang, and round up their hiding-places, and stop all their plans. It’s just the Chief we can’t seem to lay our hands on.”
“It’s a pity we never saw him,” said Tom.
“A great pity,” agreed Colonel Knox. “Well, I’m proud to have met you childrenyou’re a fine brave adventurous four! I must go nowbut I want you to come over to the big town where I live, and have lunch with me tomorrow for a treat. Will you do that?”
“Oh, yes!” cried the four.
“But how can we get there?” asked Jill. “There is only one train.”
“I’ll send my car for you,” said Colonel Knox, and got up to go. The children took him to his sleek black car. They liked him very much.
“He’s clever and kind and goes straight to the point in everything,” said Tom. “I only wish we could tell him who the Chief of the smugglers is. But we can’t.”
The next day the car was sent to fetch the four children. They climbed into it proudly, and were soon whisked away to the nearest big town. They stopped at the grandest hotel in the place, and were met in style by Colonel Knox at the door.
They felt most important walking in with himand when Tom read the menu for the lunch he looked at his host in awe.
“Can we have all these things?” he said. “Oh, it will be the best meal we’ve ever had. Look, it says ‘Mixed ice-creams’ at the bottom. Can we have vanilla, strawberry and chocolate all mixed?”
“Yesand coffee ice-cream as well, I believe,” said Colonel Knox. laughing. “Well, sit down. Now, who wants ginger-beer to drink, and who wants lemonade, or orange?”
Soon the children were in the middle of a most glorious meal. Tom looked blissfully happy. He thought this was a wonderful reward for all the adventures they had been through.
When he was in the middle of his mixed ice-cream, he looked up and saw a man seating himself at a nearby table. He was a tall, burly fellow, with deep-set eyes and black wavy hair. He nodded to Colonel Knox.
“Who’s that?” asked Tom in a low voice. The Colonel looked surprised.
“Ohjust one of the inhabitants of this town,” he said. “One of our very richest, though you wouldn’t think it to look at him.”
Tom was staring at the man curiously. He certainly didn’t look rich, for he wore his clothes carelessly and the sleeve of his coat wanted mending. His red shirt was open at the neck, and lacked a button halfway down.
Tom suddenly went as red as a beetroot with excitement. He began to burrow deep into first one pocket and then another. “Whatever’s the matter?” said Andy. “Why do you look like that, Tom?”
Tom brought something out from his pocket. He pushed it across to Colonel Knox, who looked at it in the greatest surprise, thinking that Tom had suddenly gone mad.
“Sir,” said Tom in a whisper, “I found that red pearl button in a cave in the Cliff of Birds. It must have belonged to one of the men there, though I never saw one with a red shirt on. But look at that man over there. He’s got on a red shirtand it has red pearl buttons exactly like thisand one is missing!”
Colonel Knox’s eyes flashed from Tom’s button to the man’s shirt. He slipped the button into his pocket.
“Say no more now,” he commanded. “Don’t even look at the fellow. Understand?”
There was something in those commanding tones that made the children feel a little frightened. They obeyed, eating their ices, and keeping their eyes carefully away from the man at the other table. Colonel Knox scribbled a note on a piece of paper, beckoned to a waiter and told him to deliver it somewhere. Then the Colonel became his own charming, joking self again, and apparently took no notice at all of the man in the red shirt nearby.
“I’ll let you know if your button has solved our problem,” he said to Tom, when the man got up and went. “It may have! It may have! He’s the one man we never even suspected. Good for you, Tom! My word, this is a great affair, and no mistake!”
So it was! Before long the whole of the motor-boats in the cove had been taken, all the crews too, and every smuggler found in the caves. The smuggled goods had been confiscated, ships that helped in the smuggling were captured, and the whole plot exposed.
And the man in the red shirt was the leader, the Chief of the whole gang! It was too good to be true that Tom should have found the button that led to his capture. Colonel Knox was very pleased about it indeed.
“You shall certainly have a fine new camera for your help with the button!” he said to Tom. “Without you we should never have known who the Chief wasno one even suspected him! He ran the whole business very cleverly indeed, and not even the men themselves ever saw him face to face. He has made a fortune out of his smugglingbut he won’t make any more money for many, many years to come!”
“What a lot has happened in a week or so!” said Jill, as they all sat on the jetty that night, waiting for the fishing-boat to come back with Andy and his father. “Look, there she goes! Leading all the rest of the boats as usual. Ahoy, Andy, ahoy! We’re waiting for you!”
Their mother came up to see the fishing-boats come in. As Andy stepped off on to the jetty, Tom turned eagerly to his mother.
“Mother! Can we go out with Andy in his boat next weekwhen he has a day off? I know a lovely place I’d like to go to.”
“Certainly not!” said his mother. “What, lose you again for days on end, and not know where you are! My dears, I shall never, never let you go out alone with Andy again!”
All the same, I expect she will. After all, they are the Adventurous Four, and there may be plenty more adventures waiting for them yet!