The Bradys and the Girl Smuggler Part 3

"Why didn't you find these things?"

"Didn't know they had 'em," sheepishly replied Gibson.

"We ain't half through yet," said Harry at this juncture.

"What else have you discovered?" demanded the Collector, curiously.

"Several hundred yards of fine point lace."

"Where is it?"

"In a false bottom under Miss Daisy Linden's trunk. See--there she stands--that handsome big actress there. Do you think she's as fat as she looks? Well, just notice how big around her body is, and how thin her arms and neck are. If you'll get one of the lady inspectors to examine her privately, you'll find she's got several valuable oil paintings wrapped around her body, under her clothes."

The woman made a great fuss when they insisted upon rummaging in her trunk a second time and reluctantly opened it again.

Harry threw everything out and the woman shrieked, scolded and protested.

But when the boy opened the false bottom of the trunk and withdrew the lace he mentioned, she fainted.

When the actress came to, she found that a lady inspector had disrobed her in a stateroom on the steamer and taken five very costly paintings away, which she was smuggling under her clothes.

By the time the Bradys finished, they had nine smugglers exposed, and fully quarter of a million dollars' worth of valuables were seized.

The Collector had been watching these proceedings with deep interest.

When his own men reached him, he said to them:

"I'm ashamed of you. Here you let two absolutely green men step in and do the work you've been at for years, much better than you do it yourselves."

"Well," grimly admitted Gibson, "they've kept their boast and beaten us badly, I'm sorry to say. I don't need to wish them luck for they've got either a large amount of it, or else they had some inside information."

"Your latter surmise is the correct one," said Harry. "We sent a man down the bay to meet the steamer. People who are going to smuggle anything rarely take pains to conceal their contraband goods till they are nearing port. We know something about the matter, you see. Moreover, we know would-be smugglers who don't make a profession of it are very careless, talkative about what they are going to smuggle, and apt to give themselves away. By sending a good, smart spotter ahead we learned all about the people we've exposed."

"That game may work very nicely with amateurs. But it would not go with a professional smuggler by any means."

"I quite agree with you," a.s.sented Harry.

"Well," said the Collector, "I'm quite satisfied with your performance, Mr.

Brady, and am convinced that you are the very men to run down the big smuggler I am so anxious to see arrested."

"We'll do our best," said Old King Brady.

The Collector and the inspectors then went away.

As they were leaving the pier, the quick, keen eyes of Harry observed a young girl on the steamer acting in a mysterious manner.

She was standing in the gangway, peering out one of the port holes and sharply watching the departing officials.

Every time one of them chanced to glance back, she suddenly dodged down behind the bulwark out of sight.

She was a beautiful girl of about sixteen, handsomely clad in a short dress and zouave waist of fine silk, while a stylish big Gainsborough hat with black ostrich plumes crowned her short, yellow, curly hair.

Her skin was as white as milk and she had a pair of big brown eyes, a pretty little Grecian nose and rosebud lips.

Young King Brady was charmed with her beauty, yet his suspicions of her actions were aroused to the fever point.

He touched his partner on the arm and pointed at her.

"See there!" he exclaimed. "What can she be up to?"

"We'd better keep an eye on her, Harry," returned the old detective, after a careful survey. "It looks to me as if she were up to some trick. She wouldn't be watching those inspectors' departure that way unless it was of vital importance to her."

"But surely she can't be so silly as to think there are no officers left here. Everyone knows that a couple remain constantly on the watch in their office at the entrance to the dock."

"Ha! What's that? She's waving her handkerchief to that man who is coming out on the pier from West street."

Young King Brady gazed keenly at the person in question and suddenly recognizing him he exclaimed in excited tones:

"Why, it's Paul La Croix, the diamond smuggler!"

"So it is, by thunder!"

"And this beautiful girl must be his daughter, for she greatly resembles him."

"Harry, I believe that pair are up to some crooked work!"

"We can find out by watching them."

La Croix now went aboard the steamer and joined the girl in the gangway.

CHAPTER III.

CAUGHT IN AN ELEVATOR.

The Bradys felt convinced that the smuggler and his daughter were working some scheme to take some valuables ash.o.r.e, duty free.

Closely watching the pair they saw them enter the cabin.

Following them in, the Bradys observed the pair gliding swiftly down a pa.s.sage, out on which opened the doors of several staterooms.

La Croix and his daughter entered one of these rooms.

Rus.h.i.+ng forward, the Bradys listened outside the part.i.tion and heard the man ask:

"Did you geet eet, Clara?"