“Got ’em just as they were going to barricade the cave. Nabbed ’em without a shot being fired, and got possession of a lot of plunder too.”
“Is the stuff from my father’s store there?” asked Ned.
“Yes, and from half a dozen other stores,” replied the detective. “It’s the biggest round-up of thieves in a good while, and you boys deserve credit for your part.”
“Where’s Noddy?” asked Bob.
“Well, he and Bill Berry got away,” said Chief Dalton. “But we don’t mind. We got the principal ones. Noddy was not mixed up in the thefts. He only helped the men, and I guess they bled him for money. Bill Berry we’d like to have, but we’ll get him later. Now for home.”
The captives were taken aboard the police boat. Some of the more valuable of the plunder was placed on the Dartaway, and the rest was left in charge of one of the detectives.
There was a sensation that lasted for several days when the motor boys got back to Cresville and the affair became known. There were stories in the newspapers, not only in the town where they lived, but in the New York journals. The boys were complimented on all sides for the parts they had played.
Mr. Slade recovered nearly all of his stuff and the money taken was found buried in the cave. He divided the reward among the boys and the police. Several other store proprietors in nearby towns, and in New York, received goods that had been stolen from them. The schooner, it developed, had often made the voyage between New York and Cresville.
The thieves were tried and convicted, being sentenced to long terms in prison.