Franklin Dixon - The House on the Cliff

hide-out.

"I'm ready, sir," he told his chief, after a short briefing. He turned to the boys. "All set?"

Chet and Tony nodded. As they turned to follow Bertram, Biff, Phil, and Jerry looked glum.

Noting the expressions on the three boys, Chief Robinson leaned across his desk and said, "I guess you

fellows were hoping to be in on this too. How would you like to go on the Henley with Chief Petty

Officer Brown and watch the fun?"

The eyes of the three boys lighted up and Phil said, "You mean it?"

"Do you want a formal invitation?" Chief Robinson asked with a laugh.

He rang for Chief Petty Officer Brown, and after introducing the boys, he explained what the mission of

the Henley was to be.

"I understand, sir," Brown replied. "We'll leave at once."

The three boys followed him down to the dock and went aboard. They met the other Coast Guard men

and the fast patrol boat set off. It seemed to the boys as if the sixteen miles were covered in an incredibly

short time. The lights of the Marco Polo loomed up in the distance.

"She's moving very slowly, isn't she?" Biff asked their skipper.

"Yes, she's making only about four knots."

"So it would be easy for a small boat to come alongside and take something from her?" Phil suggested.

"Yes, it would." Quickly the officer picked up a telescope and trained it on the large craft. "The galley

hatches are on the left and the tide is coming in," he reported. "Anything thrown overboard will float

toward shore."

He ordered the wheelsman to go past the Marco Polo, come down the other side, and approach within

three hundred yards, then turn off the engine and lights.

When they reached the designated spot, Petty Officer Brown ordered everyone on board the Henley not

to talk or to move around. The Marco Polo's decks, as well as the water some distance from the craft,

was illuminated by light from some of the stateroom portholes. Biff, Phil, and Jerry crowded close to the

chief as he trained his powerful binoculars on the galley hatches, so he could give them a running account

of anything that might happen. The officer reported little activity aboard the Marco Polo and the boys

assumed that the passengers either were asleep or packing their luggage in anticipation of landing the next

morning.

Suddenly Petty Officer Brown saw one of the hatches open. A small man, with a swarthy complexion

and rather longish coal-black hair, appeared in the circular opening. He looked out, then raised a large

pail and dumped its contents into the water. Quickly he closed the hatch.

"Ali Singh!" the three boys thought as Brown reported what he had seen.

They watched excitedly to see what would happen now.

Suddenly Biff grabbed Phil's arm and pointed. Vaguely they could see a long pole with a scooping net

fastened to the end of it appear from outside the circle of light and fish among the debris. Petty Officer

Brown reported that apparently the person holding the pole had found what he wanted, for he scooped

something up and the pole vanished from sight.

The boys strained their ears for the sound of a small boat. It did not come and they were puzzled. They

also wondered why Petty Officer Brown seemed to be doing nothing about trying to apprehend the

person.

The tense skipper suddenly handed the binoculars to Phil. Without a word the puzzled boy looked

through them at the spot where Brown had been gazing. To his amazement he could make out the dim

shape of a speedboat with two figures in it. Each held an oar and was rowing the small boat away from

the Marco Polo as fast as possible.

"We've got the smugglers dead to rights!" Petty Officer Brown whispered to the boys.

"Aren't you going to arrest them?" Phil asked.

"Not yet," the officer told him. "I'm afraid we can't do it without some shooting. I don't want to scare the

passengers on the Marco Polo. We'll wait a few minutes."

Suddenly the engine of the smugglers' speedboat was started. Tersely, Brown began issuing orders to his

men. The motors roared into action.

The chase was on!

CHAPTER XIX

The Chase

IN A few minutes the Henley's brilliant searchlight was turned on. It picked up the speedboat which was

racing toward shore at full power. But gradually the Coast Guard boat lessened the distance between

them.

Chief Petty Officer Brown picked up a megaphone and shouted for the fleeing men to stop. They paid no

attention.

"We'll have to show them we mean business," the officer told Biff, Phil, and Jerry. "We'll shoot across

their bow."

He ordered the boys out of the line of fire, in case the smugglers should attempt to retaliate. They

obeyed, and though from their shelter the three could not see the speedboat, they listened intently to what

was going on.

The Henley plowed ahead and presently the boys heard a shot whistle through the air.

"Stop your engine!" Brown commanded. A second later he added, "Drop those guns!"

The smugglers evidently did both, for Skipper Brown said to the boys, "You fellows can come forward

now."

The three scrambled to his side. Biff was just in time to see one of the two captured men half turn and

slyly run his hand into the large pocket of his sports jacket. Biff expected him to pull out a gun and was

about to warn Brown when the smuggler withdrew his hand and dropped something into the water.

"The rare drugs!" Biff thought.

Instantly he began peeling off his clothes, and when the others asked him what he was doing this for, he

merely said, "Got an underwater job to do."

Biff was over the side in a flash and swimming with strong, long strokes to the speedboat. He went

beyond it and around to the far side.

In the meantime, Petty Officer Brown had ordered the smugglers to put their hands over their heads. As

the Henley came alongside, two of the enlisted coastguardmen jumped across and slipped handcuffs on

them. Brown instructed one of the enlisted men to take their prisoners back to Coast Guard headquarters

in the smugglers' boat.

"You got nothin' on us! You ain't got no right to arrest us!" one of the captured men cried out.

At that moment Biff Hooper's head appeared over the side of the speedboat and a moment later he

clambered aboard. He called out, "You've got plenty on these men! Here's the evidence!"

He held up a waterproof bag, tightly sealed. It was transparent and the printing on the contents was easily

read. "I happen to know that what's in here is a rare drug," Biff added. "I heard our doctor mention it just

a few days ago."

This announcement took the bravado out of the smugglers. The two men insisted they were only engaged

to pilot the speedboat and deliver the drugs. But they would not give the name of the person who had

hired them, nor the spot to which they were supposed to go.

"We know both the answers already," Petty Officer Brown told the smugglers. Then he said to his

wheelsman, "Head for the house on the cliff 1 They may need a little more help over there."

Biff was hauled aboard, and as he put his clothes back on, the Henley shot through the water. He

whispered to his pals, "We'll see some more excitement, maybe."

Some time before this, Chet and Tony had reached the area where the secret tunnel was. The patrol boat

which had been following them turned on its great searchlight to pick out the exact spot.

"Look!" Chet cried out.

A speedboat with two men in it had just entered the choppy, rocky waters in front of the tunnel.

"Halt!" Skipper Bertram of the Alice ordered.