DIRE THREATS
Snackley, once he had recovered from his first consternation and
surprise, was in high humor.
“Just in time!” he chuckled, rubbing his hands with satisfaction. “Just
in time! If we’d been a few minutes later they’d have been away from us
altogether.”
The Hardy boys were silent. They were sick with disappointment. It had
seemed that escape was certain, and then, in a twinkling, the tables
had been turned and now they were all worse off than they had been
before.
“What will we do with ’em, chief?” asked one of the men.
The voice sounded familiar to the boys and they looked up. Not
altogether to their surprise, they saw that the fellow was none other
than Redhead, whom they had seen at the Polucca place the day Frank
discovered his father’s cap.
“Do with them?” exclaimed Snackley. “That’s quite a problem. We have
three on our hands now, where we had only one. We have to make three
people keep their mouths shut instead of only one. We have three people
to keep guard over now.”
“We ought to do what I wanted to do in the first place,” declared
Redhead doggedly. “As long as Hardy is alive, he’s dangerous.”
“You mean we should get rid of him?”
“Sure, we ought to get rid of him—and get rid of those boys of his,
too.”
“That’s easier said than done,” returned Snackley, but with a sinister
look at the man on the cot.
“I should think you had enough on your conscience already, Snackley!”
exclaimed Fenton Hardy. “But I suppose you’re hardened enough for
anything,” he added bitterly. He was thinking more of his sons and
their possible fate than of himself.
“Don’t you bother about my conscience,” sneered Snackley; but a shadow
crossed his face. “What do you know about me, anyhow?” he demanded
roughly.
“I know all about what happened to Felix Polucca. He had a big treasure
hidden in that house on the cliff and you got it, and then you started
to use the place for your smuggling operations.”
“O, shut up!” Snackley snapped. “I’m going to fix you, and those kids
of yours, too! Just wait and see!”
Four of the smugglers had been whispering among themselves at the
back of the room during this talk between the chief smuggler and the
detective, and now one of these men stepped forward.
“Got a word to say to you, chief,” he began, addressing Snackley.
“What is it now?” The chief smuggler’s voice was surly.
“It’s about what’s to be done with these three, now we have ’em
prisoners,” returned the man hesitatingly. “Of course, your business
is your own and we’re not asking any questions about what happened to
Felix Polucca, but we’re in this game of smuggling, see? We don’t stand
for anything that’s too red-handed.”
“That’s the truth!” put in another of the men.
“Kind of chicken-hearted,” sneered Snackley. “You look out or I’ll fire
the lot of you!”
“No, you won’t, chief,” replied the first man who had addressed him.
“We’ve helped in this smuggling, and we’re going to have our full share
of what’s coming to us.”
“We’ve got another plan about those three prisoners,” put in a fellow
who had not yet spoken. “I think it would work out grand.”
“What plan?” questioned the chief smuggler briefly.
“We’ve been talking about Li Chang.”
“What about him?”
“Turn ’em over to Li Chang. He’s sailing back to China in the morning.
Have ’em put on board his ship.”
Snackley scratched his head for a moment. Evidently the idea caught his
fancy.
“Not bad,” he muttered. “I hadn’t thought of Li Chang. Yes, he’d be
able to look after them. He’d see to it that they never returned,” and
he grinned grimly.
“He’d probably dump ’em overboard before they got to China at all,”
declared Redhead smugly. “Li Chang doesn’t like to feed passengers if
they can be got rid of.”
“So much the better. We won’t be responsible.”
“Leave it to Li Chang. The old villain would just like to have three
white men in his power. He’ll attend to them.”
Snackley reached over and picked up the document from the floor, where
it had fallen in the struggle. He glanced at it and then tore it into
pieces.
“We won’t need this. You’ve lost your chance, Hardy. If you had signed
it you would have been free by now. But you’ll never be free—not with
three of you knowing our secret. It’s too risky. You’ll all be turned
over to Li Chang. He brought in a little cargo this week and his ship
is to sail in the morning. You will go with him.”
Fenton Hardy was silent. He had resolved not to plead for his own
safety.
“Well,” said Snackley, “haven’t you anything to say?”
“Nothing. Do as you wish with me. But let the boys go.”
“We’ll stick with you, dad,” said Frank quickly.
“We sure will!” added Joe.
“You certainly will,” declared Snackley. “I’m not going to let one of
you have the chance of getting back to Bayport with your story.”
The chief of the smugglers stood in the center of the room for a while,
contemplating his captives with a bitter smile. Then he turned suddenly
on his heel.
“Well, they’re safe enough,” he said to Redhead. “We have that business
with Burke to attend to. You two,” he said, speaking to two of his men,
“had better go down to the cove and take the rowboat out. Signal to
Li Chang that we need the motorboat sent in at once. The rest of you
come and help load Burke’s truck. If any nosey policeman came along and
found it in the lane we’d be done for.”
“How about them?” asked Redhead, indicating the prisoners.
“They’re safe enough. But I guess we’d better leave one guard, anyway.
Malloy, you stay here and keep watch.”
Malloy, a surly and truculent fellow in overalls and a ragged sweater,
nodded and sat down on a box near the door. This arrangement seemed to
satisfy Snackley, and after warning Malloy not to fall asleep on the
job and to see to it that the prisoners did not escape, he left the
room, followed by Redhead and the other smugglers, with the exception
of two who left by the other door. Their footsteps could be heard as
they went down the flight of stairs leading to the bottom of the cliff.
A heavy silence fell over the room after the departure of the
smugglers. Malloy crouched gloomily on the box, gazing blankly at the
floor. The butt of a revolver projected from his hip pocket.
Frank strained against the ropes that bound him to the chair. But the
smugglers had done their task well. He could scarcely budge.
“We’re done for, I guess,” he heard Joe say.
Frank seldom gave up heart, but this time he could see no ray of hope.
“I’m afraid so. Looks as if we’d be with Li Chang by morning.”
“But we don’t want to go to China, Frank!”
“We may never get to China, Joe. Didn’t you hear what they said? For
all we know, that rascally Chinaman, whoever he is, may heave us
overboard when he gets well out in the ocean.”
“You fellows shut up,” growled Malloy. “Shut up, I tell you, or I’ll
make it hot for you,” and he tapped his revolver suggestively.
After that an ominous silence fell between the prisoners. Frank and Joe
were downhearted. It looked as if their fate were sealed.