TOM’S SCOUTING SCHEME

During breakfast the talk was, of course, about the smugglers and the chances of capturing them. In the course of it the lieutenant manifested some confusion or uncertainty of mind as to the exact position of the smugglers’ rendezvous and of the approaches to it.

“Won’t you please clear that up a little for me?” he asked Larry, after a vain attempt to clear it up for himself. “I don’t quite understand. Perhaps you can make it plain to my dullness.”

“Cal can do that better than any other member of our party,” Larry answered. “He was all about there three or four years ago, while the rest of us have been there only once. Besides, Cal has a nose for geographical detail, and he observes everything and remembers it. Explain the thing, Cal.”

“After such an introduction,” Cal replied, smiling, “I fear I shall not be able to live up to the character so generously attributed to me. Still, I think I can explain the thing; it is simple enough. May I have paper and a pencil?”

These were promptly furnished, and Cal made a hasty diagram.

“You see, Lieutenant, there is a little creek or estuary here. It is very narrow, especially at the mouth, and it runs inland for only a few miles. I can’t find it on the chart. Probably it is too insignificant to be noted there. You observe that it runs in a tortuous course, ‘slantwise’ to the shore, and keeping always within a comparatively short distance of the broad water, thus forming a sort of tongue of land.

“A little further along the shore of the broader water is another little estuary or cove, only a few hundred yards in its total length, but that length extends toward the creek on the other side, so that only about half a mile or less of swamp and thicket separates the two.

“Right there, about midway between the two, those thieves have their den. They can approach it in their boats from either side, coming up the creek or entering the cove, and in either case landing within less than a quarter of a mile of their thicket-hidden rendezvous. As both the creek and the smaller estuary make a sharp bend near their mouths, a boat slipping into either of them is at once lost to view. I wonder if I have made the geography clear?”

“Perfectly so, and I thank you. Our plan will be to send boats up both the little waterways at once. Can we find their mouths, think you?”

“I can, and Tom knows both of them. He and I will be your pilots.”

“Thank you. But you know you may get shot in the mÊlÉe and you are under no sort of obligation to take that risk.”

“Oh, we want to see the fun,” said Tom. “We’ll be with you, you may depend.”

“Is it your plan,” Larry asked after dinner that day, “to attack by daylight?”

“I think we must make the descent as promptly as possible. So I intend to make it to-day, as soon as we get to that neighborhood.”

Larry made no reply and the officer observed the fact.

“What is it you have on your mind, Larry?” he asked. “Have you any suggestion to offer?”

“No, I would not presume to do that. I was only thinking that in a daylight descent you might miss the game.”

“Go on, please. Tell me all you had in mind.”

“Well, for one thing, those rascals have a lookout tree from which they can see for miles in every direction. We used it for purposes of observation when we were there. It is true that they seem to visit it very seldom, but they might happen to climb it just in time to see this cutter hovering around. In that case they would probably go into hiding somewhere. If not, they would at least keep a sharp lookout for your boats. If you kept entirely away from there until night you would probably take them by surprise. But of course you know best.”

“I’m not so sure of that. What you suggest is a matter to be considered. But I’m afraid to wait until night lest in the meantime the rascals leave the place.”

“That is possible,” said Cal, joining in the conversation for the first time, “but it seems to me exceedingly unlikely.”

“Why so, Cal?”

“Well, we’ve pretty closely observed those gentry, and they seem to me of that variety that does most of its comings and goings under cover of darkness. If they were in their camp this morning they are pretty sure to remain there until to-night. There is another point that Larry didn’t suggest. If you attack the camp in daylight the ruffians can easily save themselves by scattering and making their escape through the well-nigh impenetrable swamp. They would have the advantage over your men in that, as of course they know every little blind trail and could avoid tangles in which your men would become hopelessly involved.”

“But wouldn’t they be at still greater advantage in a night attack?”

“I think not. They will probably get blind drunk by night, for one thing. They’re apt to sleep profoundly. We can land without being seen, and once ashore, we can creep clear up to their lair without alarming them. Then we’ll be on them with our boot heels as it were.”

“Why do you think they won’t be on the alert at night, with pickets out and all that?”

“Because we’ve experimented,” answered Cal. “We’ve crept up to the very edge of their camp and watched them there by the hour. Tom here even entered one of the hovels where they bestow the smuggled goods.”

The officer was much impressed with these suggestions. He meditated for a while, and then exclaimed:

“If I could only know whether they are still there or not! I’d give ten dollars to know that!”

“You can get the job done for less, Lieutenant,” said Tom, who was always eager for perilous adventure and almost insanely reckless in his pursuit of it. “If you’ll bring the cutter to anchor somewhere around here and let me go ashore, I’ll find out all about it and not charge you a cent either.”

“What’s your plan?”

“It isn’t much of a plan. It is only to go to the smugglers’ den, see if they are there, and then come back and tell you.”

“But—”

“Oh, it’s easy enough. The smugglers can’t see the cutter so long as she’s in this bay, even if they climb to the top of their lookout tree. I’m sure of that, because I’ve tried to see the bay from there and couldn’t, although I knew just where it lay.”

At this point the lieutenant interrupted:

“Pardon me a moment. I’ll bring her to anchor.”

Before he returned to the company a minute or so later, the engines stopped, and as he sat down the boys heard the chains rattle as the anchor was cast overboard.

“Now go ahead, please, and tell me all about your plan,” the officer said with eager interest.

“Well, it isn’t more than three or four miles, I should say, from this point to the mouth of our creek, and the tide is with me all the way. If you’ll set our dory in the water and Cal will go with me to help row—”

“We’ll all four go, of course,” said Larry.

“In that case, we can put ourselves back at our old camp in about an hour with such a tide as this to help us. When we land there I’ll go at once to the lookout tree, climb to the very top of it and see what is going on. Then, if there’s anything more to be found out, I’ll creep down to the neighborhood of the rascals’ place and take a closer look. When the dory gets back here I can tell you all you want to know.”

“Excellent!” exclaimed the officer. “Only, instead of having you boys row the dory all that way, I’ll have you taken to the place you want to reach in a ship’s boat.”

“They might see that,” objected Tom, “and take the alarm, while if they see the dory returning to her old anchorage they’ll think nothing about it. Besides, we don’t mind a little rowing. The tide’s with us going, and if necessary, we can stay up there in the creek till it turns and is ready to help us come back.”

“There won’t be any waiting,” said Cal. “It’ll turn just about the time we get there—or even before that if we don’t get away from here pretty quick.”

“Very well,” said the lieutenant. “The plan is yours, Tom, and you shall have your own way in carrying it out.”

A hurried order from the commanding officer, a little well-directed scurrying on the part of the seamen, and the Hunkydory lay alongside, ready for her crew to drop from a rope ladder into her.

They nimbly did so, and as they bent to their oars they passed around a point and out of sight of the cutter.