“Okay. I’m going to open this right under your nose,” the officer continued. “If it’s booby-trapped, you’ll get the full force of the blast. Now’s your last chance to talk.”
Still Whaley said nothing. The officer waved the others back, then cautiously removed the cover of the box. Inside was a clockwork mechanism containing a switch which was connected in series to a set of dry cells and a blasting cap fastened to sticks of explosives.
“It’s a time bomb,” the officer stated. “Set to go off at nine-thirty.” He allowed the others a quick
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glance, then hurled the box far out into the water.
“Whew!” Bud muttered. “Tom, you and I and the girls might have been blown to bits!”
“I might’ve got blown up myself before I got off!” Moose growled. Turning on Whaley, he exploded with sudden rage. “You sneakin’ rat, you didn’t care what happened to me, did you?”
“Aw, shut up, you double-crosser!” Whaley snarled back, “If you hadn’t blabbed to these cops, I never would’ve walked into this trap!”
The police officers let the two argue for a few moments-thinking Whaley might make some damaging statements. Tom studied the handcuffed prisoner closely. With his slant eyes and dark complexion, Whaley needed little in the way of disguise to pass himself off as a Chinese, as he had done at the Mandarin Gardens restaurant. Realizing he had been caught red-handed, the offender soon broke down and talked freely.
“What were you after on our ketch?” Tom pressed.
“Those two machines your father installed. I saw him take them aboard and figured they must be valuable.”