Chet Morton whistled. “Oh, ho! I catch on. The Tower business. If that’s it, we’ll make sure the six-o’clock plane leaves here without that nutty detective.” Chet had a special dislike for Smuff, because the man had once reported him for swimming in the bay after hours.
“So our problem,” said Phil solemnly, “is to keep Smuff here and keep out of trouble ourselves.”
“Right.”
“Well,” Jerry Gilroy said, “let’s put our heads together, fellows, and work out a plan.”
A dozen ideas were put forth, each wilder than the one before. Biff Hooper, with a wide grin, went so far as to propose kidnaping Smuff, binding him hand and foot, and setting him adrift in the bay in an open boat.
“We could rescue him later,” he said. The proposal was so ridiculous that the others howled with laughter.
Phil Cohen suggested setting the detective’s watch back an hour. That plan, as Frank observed, was a good one except for the minor difficulty of laying hands on the watch.
“We might send him a warning not to take a plane before seven o’clock,” Tony Prito said, “and sign it with a skull and crossbones.”
“That’s a keen ideal” Chet cried enthusiastically. “Let’s do it!”
“Wait a minute, fellows,” Frank spoke up. “If Smuff ever found out who wrote it, we’d be up to our necks in trouble. We could all be arrested!”