Spencer Vance, however, was fully satisfied in his own mind
that his brother officers had been murdered. He knew too well
that tragic events are of constant occurrence which never come
to light; tragedies so terrible that were the details to be
known, a thrill of horror would go throughout the whole land.
There are horrors enough that do become public, but there are
as many more that never come to the surface.
The men, as stated, gathered at Rigby's; they had just
returned from a search for Spencer Vance.
There was no doubt in their minds as to the truth of the
report that he was a spy in their midst. The fact that he had
declined to go out on the yacht that night was to them proof
as clear as "Holy Writ" that he was a Government officer.
It was important to catch him and put him out of the way as
soon as possible, as there were several very valuable
shipments on the way to New York, and chances favored the men
for making quite large sums of money.
Our readers must not understand that the vessel engaged in the
smuggling business carried no other freight; the goods
intended to be smuggled in was but a small part of their
cargo, but amounted on each vessel to enough to yield enormous
profits to the capitalists as well as to the actual smuggler
crews.
One of the men, as he drunk off a glass of grog, remarked:
"Boys, it's a cold day for us that the fellow should have
received a warning; it's money out of our pockets!"
There was a one-eyed, ugly visaged fellow sitting off in a
corner of the room, who remarked:
"You lads will see colder days yet; you may say the business
is all up, and we'd better take the 'Nancy' over to the
mackerel banks and work for a few honest pennies.
Pages:
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76