One adventure had led forward to another, and again to
another, until the detective was well on his road toward the
point where he could make a "closing in" attack.
He knew it would be a grand thing for him to run the gang
clear down to their bottom methods.
The detective had been keeping tireless vigils, and sleep was
what he most needed, and two good hours of undisturbed sleep
was as much to him as seven or eight to an ordinary person.
He was aroused by Taylor, and upon awaking and looking out, he
saw that it was broad daylight, and indeed a bright and
beautiful morning.
Taylor had been up some time; he had been to his boat, and had
brought back the necessary articles for a good breakfast, and
our hero was summoned to as solid a morning meal as he had
ever enjoyed.
After breakfast the two men went to where Taylor's boat lay, a
large and stanch little mainsail and jib boat, rough in
appearance, but a good sea boat and a fast sailer.
The captain of the little craft steered her through the
channel, and was soon running across the famous Great South
Bay, and later on our hero found himself in one of those many
famous Long Island sea-coast towns, where summer boarders made
merry the passing hours of the July and August months.
Taylor took our hero to his own home, and introduced him to a
cleanly and interesting family.
"When do we start?" demanded Vance, after indulging in a good,
and really substantial dinner.
"We will take the two o'clock train," was the reply.
Our readers will observe that we do not name localities, and
we have a good reason. Within the last few months smuggling
has been resumed, and the government is adopting measures once
more to suppress the traffic, and we have decided that the
interest of our narrative does not demand more specific
details.
To those of our readers who are acquainted with the Long
Island coast, it is not necessary to name the several
localities; as, from passing hints, they will be able to
locate the several points; and readers who live afar would be
no wiser were we to name towns, and designate exact
localities.
It was late in the afternoon when our hero and his friend,
Taylor, stood on the shore of another one of the several
famous bays that indent Long Island's sea shore; and, what
seems still more startling, about half a mile off shore lay
the yacht "Nancy."
Our hero and his companion were at the point when the taut
little smuggler ran down from the inlet, and came to an anchor
oft the shore.
At the time the place had not become as great a resort as at
present, and the hordes of pleasure-seekers, who now, during
certain seasons of the year dwell on the coast, little dream
of the wild scenes, and wilder orgies that occurred
thereabouts a few years back.
Taylor and the detective had crossed the bay to the island and
were hidden in the brush that fringed the bluff overlooking
the shore, when the "Nancy" ran down as described and came to
an anchor.
"There's the smuggler!" exclaimed Taylor as he first caught
sight of the yacht.
"Yes, there's the 'Nancy' as sure as you are born," returned
the detective.
"Ah, you know her?"
"I reckon I do."
"There's a bad lot on that boat."
"There is a bad lot; they are a crew of murderer and bandits."
"They do great harm to our legitimate business, and good
honest men are constantly annoyed by the cutters who hail and
search them almost daily."
"We will soon put that crew out of harm's way," remarked the
detective.
"She's loaded," said Taylor.
"How loaded?"
"She's got contraband cargo beneath her decks."
"How do you know?"
"She never runs in here only when she comes to put her goods
ashore."
"Don't the people over on the mainland know of her business?"
"Well, a few may suspect, but I don't believe they know; you
see she will put in a load of produce, take a regular cargo
from here, and the most of the people think she's an honest
coaster. I've known her to get freight from a regular
shipping company in New York, and deliver an assorted cargo,
simply as a blind."
"How is it you chanced to run her down to her real business,
and get all the points so dead on the crew?"
"My first discovery was accidental, and since then I just
investigated a little for my own satisfaction."
"How long has she been engaged in this traffic?"
"About two years; previous to that the business was broken up
and nothing was done for a long time; but about two years ago,
the 'Nancy' was manned and put under the charge of Denman, who
is an old smuggler, and I believe that man could be worth
thousands upon thousands, but they say he goes to New York and
gambles and sports all his money away; but he must handle a
good pile in the course of a year."
"I see his crew is made up of all nationalities?"
"Yes; but they are mostly West Indians, not natives, but
fellows raised down among the Islands."
"When will she run her cargo ashore?"
"To-night, and she will do it so quickly that you'd hardly
know her crew had been at work."
"It's a wonder they have never been discovered."
"I reckon they have been, but Denman practices the old Captain
Kidd maxim: 'Dead men tell no tales.'"
"Has he dared to kill anybody?"
"Well, men have been missing around here, and later on, they
have been found floating in the bay, and the people have
always concluded they were cases of drowning while drunk; and
I always thought so myself, until about two months ago, when I
fell to a suspicion."
"Did you never tell your suspicion?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I was waiting a chance to verify it."
"You think it would cost a man his life to be caught by those
fellows?"
"That's my idea."
The detective had made some important discoveries, and, among
others, he had "piped" down to the fact that the crew of the
"Nancy" were as desperate and blood-thirsty a set of
scoundrels as ever ran in and out of Long Island even with
that famous buccaneer, Captain Kidd.
"About how many men have been missing at different time?"
asked our hero.
"It's hard to tell; but the crew of the 'Nancy' could tell
some fearful tales if they were to open their mouths."
The detective was destined to go to the bottom of the mystery.
The place selected by the men for their work was one of the
most lonely and desolate on the whole coast at that time.
Taylor informed our hero that they would not unload from where
they were anchored; he said:
"They will run down around the point yonder, put their cargo
ashore, and then sail back and reanchor where you see them
now. I tell you they make quick work of it."
"But I cannot see how they escape detection."
"Oh, they have plenty of confederates; the gang is not
composed alone of the men who sail in the 'Nancy'."
"Then we must lay low until night falls."
"Yes."
The detective encountered some thrilling adventures ere
another sunrise.