Part 3 (1/2)

Gave them the ha, ha! Azalia. Can't get anything on her. How about Colon? French Islands? Sure, they're just about crazy. No, no fear of that. Good stuff. No, no rough stuff. Expect her at same place about the tenth. No, don't hang around. Cleared the third. Fifteen seconds west.

I'll tell him. Good bottom. Good luck! Don't worry, we'll see to that.

No risk. So long!”

As the conversation ceased Tom jumped up. ”Gee!” he exclaimed. ”That's the most we've heard yet. I wonder if Henry got it.”

Hurrying to the telephone, he was about to call Henry when the bell tinkled. ”h.e.l.lo!”-came the greeting in Henry's voice as Tom took down the receiver. ”This is Henry. Say, did you get it?”

”You bet we did!” Tom a.s.sured him gleefully. ”What did you make out? No, guess you'd better not tell over the phone. We'll be down there right away.”

”He's east of here,” declared Henry, when Tom and Frank reached his home.

”Golly, he must be in Brooklyn or out on the river!” exclaimed Tom.

”What did you make out that he said?”

Henry showed them the message as he had jotted it down and which, with the exception of one or two words, was identical with what they had heard.

”I couldn't catch some of the words,” explained Henry. ”There was a funny sort of noise-like some one talking through a comb with paper on it,-the way we used to do when we were little kids-say, what's it all about anyway?”

”We don't know,” replied Frank. ”Did you hear any one else talking or anything?”

”And, Henry, were the sounds weak or faint to you?” put in Tom.

”Only that queer sound I told you about. The words were fine and strong here.”

”Then he's nearer here than he is to us,” announced Tom. ”But I would like to know who the other fellow was and what he said and why the d.i.c.kens we can't hear him when we hear this chap. Couldn't you make out any of the words that the fellow said-those that sounded like talking through a comb, I mean?”

”No, they were just a sort of buzzy mumble,” replied Henry.

”Well if he's east of here it ought to be easy to locate him,” remarked Frank. ”Do you know any fellows around here who have sets, Henry?”

”Sure there are lots of 'em,” Henry a.s.sured him. ”Tom Fleming over at Bellevue has a dandy set and there's 'Pink' Bradley down on 19th St., and Billy Fletcher up on Lexington Ave., and a whole crowd I don't know.”

”Well, let's try it out at Fleming's place next, then,” cried Frank. ”Do you s'pose you can see him to-morrow and tell him the scheme? And say, ask him if he's heard the same talk.”

”I can phone over to him now-I guess he's home,” said Henry, ”but what's back of all this? You fellows aren't so keen just because you want to locate this fellow that's been talking, I'll bet.”

Tom hesitated, but in a moment his mind was made up.

”I suppose we might just as well tell you,” he said at last. ”But it's a secret and you'll have to promise not to tell any one else.”

Henry readily agreed and Tom and Frank told him all they knew and what they suspected.

”Whew!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Henry. ”I shouldn't be surprised if you're right. I couldn't see any sense to all that talk about boats and the West Indies and numbers, but I can now. I'll bet those numbers were places out at sea-fifteen seconds west-and 'Azalia' may be the name of the s.h.i.+p. Say, won't it be bully if we can find out something-radio detectives-Gee, that's great!”

”Well, go on and call up Fleming,” said Frank. ”Tell him to come over here.”

”He's on the way now,” Henry announced when he returned to the room.

”Are you fellows going to let him in on the bootlegger stuff?”

”Better not,” advised Tom. ”If he's heard the fellow talking we can tell him we're just anxious to locate him. We can make a mystery out of not hearing the person that was talking back, you know.”