“Yes, he’s an old fraud,” laughed Dick Sherman, “but I’m going to see that he gets out of this little scrape and leads a decent life. He’ll be all right if he only quits the booze act.”
“I’ve quit now!” insisted Terry. “I’ve limited myself to two pint bottles a day!”
“Well,” Mr. Havens said, “so far as I can see, the case is closed. The man who abducted Colleton is dead. Two of the men who assisted in his abduction are under arrest, and the proof which points to the Kuro mail-order company as the principal in the crime is complete. All that remains for us to do is to see that the prisoners get to Washington and that the proof is placed before the grand jury. That will close the case so far as we are concerned.”
“Then,” said Jimmie with a sly grin, “I move we stay in the mountains a couple of weeks and have a little fun before we go to Washington.”
“That would please me!” replied Dick Sherman, “but I’ve got to get busy getting this whiskey out, and looking up proof against the smugglers now under arrest.”
All the others returned to the old camp, from which the prisoners were taken that night by the officer, and a great feast was spread in honor of the victory which had been gained.
The boys hunted game, fished in the clear mountain streams, and sailed over valley and mountain in their aeroplanes for two glorious weeks and then returned to New York.
When they reached the big city, the Colleton case was entirely disposed of. Howell and Chubby had pleaded guilty and received long sentences, and the members of the fraudulent mail-order company had been convicted and sentenced to ten years each.
The large reward which had been offered for the discovery of Colleton and the arrest of the perpetrators of the outrage was paid to Mr. Havens, according to his previous bargain with the secret service department. In time, of course, the most of the cash found its way into the hands of the three boys.
When Colleton came to relate the story of his abduction it was discovered that Ben and Jimmie had actually reasoned out the events practically as they had taken place. The inspector had been drugged in his office by a cigar, disguised there, forced to open the safe and desk and bring out the papers, and had been taken across the continent in a Pullman stateroom as stated. He remembered little or nothing after opening the safe in his own office in Washington until he found himself in the smugglers’ cavern, having been kept under the influence of opiates during all that time. To this day Colleton occasionally asks Jimmie if every one of the excerpts from his “dream-book” come true.