IN AT THE DEATH
"So there you are, Inspector. That's what the Bender sound detector
discovered. Human ingenuity could do no more."
Inspector Burton with difficulty repressed a smile at the inventor's
childlike vanity. Mr. Temple experienced similar difficulty. Ensign
Warwick grew red in the face, and the boys made occasion to bow their
heads. In reality, however, nobody need have attempted to hide his
feelings, for the inventor was so constituted that he paid his auditors
no attention. He was like many geniuses--a supreme egotist.
Those mentioned were seated in Mr. Temple's suite. Doctor Marley alone
of the party was not present, having been left aboard the Sub Chaser.
The inventor had spent a considerable space of time relating what had
been learned through the medium of the sound detector. From San
Francisco he had gone directly to Ventura and, after placing a sound
detector in the government radio station at that point, had turned back
to the station on top of the Santa Ynez mountain range behind Santa
Barbara. For two days he had been listening vainly in the attempt to
catch code messages which might be interpreted as coming from the secret
radio station of the smugglers.
Success had come that morning, just after the storm. The heavy fog at
sea had not reached to the mountains. It had been sunshiny and bright,
and he had taken his listening post at an early hour.
Then, as he tuned his sound detector to varying wave lengths, had come a
message in code--a code unlike any of the commercial codes registered
with the government and of which he had obtained copies at San Francisco
through the offices of Inspector Burton.
He listened. A conversation was being carried on between a ship at sea
and a fixed land station. The ship, he now realized must have been the
trawler; the station, the secret radio of the smugglers.
It seemed to him the sound detector located the fixed land station
south-southeast of Santa Barbara, which would place it somewhere in the
group of Channel Islands. This coincided with a bearing communicated
from the San Francisco station, which also had picked up the code
messages, and had radioed him at once the line along which they had
come. Ventura had not, for some freakish reason, been able to pick up
the messages at all.
It was then he had radioed Inspector Burton aboard the Bear, and caused
the latter to return.
Later, however, and very recently, in fact, he had gotten information
more definite. For, since Inspector Burton had telephoned him to descend
from the mountains and confer at the hotel, he had picked up another
message in code in which, moreover, occurred the words "Santa Cruz"
several times.
"So there you are, Inspector," he said. "That's what the Bender sound
detector discovered. Human ingenuity could do no more."
"You certainly have done wonders, Mr. Bender. It is your opinion, then,
that the smugglers' radio plant is on Santa Cruz Island?"
"It seems so to me," said the inventor, nodding with vigor.
Inspector Burton was thoughtful. The others remained silent, waiting for
him to speak.
"I believe you are correct," he said at length. "Ensign Warwick, what do
you say?"
"It certainly looks as if Santa Cruz is the smugglers' hangout."
"And you, Mr. Temple?"
The latter smiled and shook his head.
"I have no opinion one way or the other," he said.
Then Inspector Burton turned to the boys.
"Well, lads," he said. "I have a proposition to make to you. I really
believe we have located the smugglers' hangout; that it is on Santa Cruz
Island. And, while it is a big island, yet the smugglers' headquarters
undoubtedly must be on the seaward side, as I earlier explained, and
there are not many places on that rocky shore where a landing could be
made.
"I was fortunate on arrival yesterday to get in touch with an old
Mexicano, a native of this country, who at one time many years ago
tended cattle on Santa Cruz Island when an early-day rancher attempted
to maintain a cattle ranch there. He found the grazing too poor to make
the venture profitable and gave up his project. This old fellow, whom I
located down in the Mexican quarter of the town, gave me much valuable
information.
"For one thing, I questioned him closely as to the possibilities for
making a landing on the seaward side of Santa Cruz. He said there was
only one place really practical, and that was the mouth of a creek near
the western extremity of the island. At other places, he said, cliffs
descended abruptly to the sea, and the waves always were high. Boats
could not safely land.
"Now, if the smugglers are on Santa Cruz Island that must be their
location--up that creek. The ships can stand off shore, while small boats
ply back and forth between the ship and the creek, landing the smuggled
Chinese coolies. Probably, somewhere up the creek, the smugglers have a
number of rude barracks, providing temporary shelter for the Chinese
until they can be dispersed to the mainland. Also their radio plant must
be up there."
He paused, and Frank eagerly asked the question trembling on the lips of
all three chums.
"You said you had a proposition to make us, Inspector?"
The Secret Service man smiled.
"Yes, I have a proposition," he said. "Briefly, would you care to
accompany us tonight on an expedition to Santa Cruz?"
"Would we?"
All three expelled the exclamation simultaneously.
Inspector Burton turned to Mr. Temple.
"These boys have shown such ingenuity so far," he said, "and have been
of such aid, that I feel I owe it to them to take them along. Of course,
they must have your consent. And I would be delighted to have you with
me, too, if you would care to come."
"Not I, thank you," said Mr. Temple, with emphasis. "And I don't know
about consenting to your request in regard to the boys. It is very kind
of you, and I can see you sympathize with their adventurous
inclinations. But, won't it be dangerous? Won't the smugglers put up a
stiff fight?"
"There is that possibility, of course," said Inspector Burton. "I
believe, however, that when they see the uniforms of Uncle Sam's
fighters, and discover an armed vessel of the navy off shore, they will
surrender without resistance. Most folks, you know, have a great horror
of running foul of the government and its armed forces. Police they
might resist, but Uncle Sam's sailors and soldiers overawe them."
"Yes, I believe that is true," said Mr. Temple. "Still----"
"However, Mr. Temple," said the Secret Service man, hastily, "I can
sympathize with your anxiety, and if you object I withdraw my invitation
to the boys."
"Dad, you have got to let us go," pleaded big Bob. "Why, as Inspector
Burton says, there will be little danger. Besides, we aren't babies. We
have taken care of ourselves pretty capably under trying circumstances
this summer, haven't we? Now, haven't we?"
He stood above his father as he spoke, having leaped to his feet in his
anxiety.
"Yes, you have, Bob," said his father. He put up his hands before him as
if for protection, and bent away in mock terror from his big son. "Don't
strike. I surrender."
The three chums shouted with delight.
"But, remember," Mr. Temple warned. "I want you to go on this
expedition, bearing the same advice the mother gave her daughter. You
may 'hang your clothes on a hickory limb, but don't go near the water.'
In other words, if there is any fighting, stay out of it. Unless, of
course, you are personally attacked, or your side is hard pressed."
"Righto, Dad. We'll remember," said Bob.
"And now, boys," said Inspector Burton, "I have my arrangements to make.
So, if you will meet me at the pier--or, better, aboard the Sub Chaser--at
seven o'clock tonight, I'll excuse myself."
He arose, asking Ensign Warwick to accompany him.
"As for me," said Mr. Temple, when the two officers had left the room,
followed by Inventor Bender, "I'm worn out, and am going to take a nap.
You boys have two or three hours of spare time. It would do you all
good, in view of your trip tonight, to try to snatch a few hours' sleep.
But I suppose it would be impossible for you to compose yourselves?"
"Couldn't be done, Dad," agreed Bob. "We'll go out and look at the town
for an hour or so. We can be back around five-thirty, get a bit of
dinner, with you, and then go to the boat."