“The murder brought the clue,” Ned replied. “From the first the clue led here. And then the key without a stem, the smudge on Emory’s finger, the typewritten sheets, the machine in the mountains—oh, it was all easy enough after the discovery that this man Emory did not know where Albert Lemon kept his duplicate key to that desk!
“The case is ended,” Ned continued, “and all the parties wanted by the law are under arrest, so, if you don’t mind, gentlemen, I’ll go to bed!”
Jack, Pat, Ernest and Liu now advanced into the room and looked smilingly at their leader.
“You can’t lose us,” Jack said. “If you don’t mind, we’ll take you back to the Rocky Mountains for a little fun with the aeroplane. I guess there won’t be any bold bad smugglers up there to distract our attention for a few weeks.”
“And then,” Jimmie cut in, “I hope you’ll all go back to little old New York. I’m hungry and thirsty, and sleepy for a walk down the good old Bowery and the wise old White Way!”
The case against Felix Emory was so complete that he pleaded guilty on being arraigned in court and was sentenced to the gallows. Chang received a long sentence for his connection with the murder, and the smugglers and firebugs were sent to prison for ten years each.
The clean-up was so complete that Ned was requested to visit Washington and confer with the Secret Service chief regarding other cases.
“But, after all,” he said, on leaving Jimmie and the other boys, including Ernest and Liu, in New York, “I don’t think I want any more fighting forest fires assignments in the Secret Service. We’ll go back some day and look over the ground, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get some of those rides in the air out of my mind.”
THE END.