The officer was much impressed with these suggestions. He meditated for a while, and then exclaimed:
“If I could only know whether they are still there or not! I’d give ten dollars to know that!”
“You can get the job done for less, Lieutenant,” said Tom, who was always eager for perilous adventure and almost insanely reckless in his pursuit of it. “If you’ll bring the cutter to anchor somewhere around here and let me go ashore, I’ll find out all about it and not charge you a cent either.”
“What’s your plan?”
“It isn’t much of a plan. It is only to go to the smugglers’ den, see if they are there, and then come back and tell you.”
“But—”
“Oh, it’s easy enough. The smugglers can’t see the cutter so long as she’s in this bay, even if they climb to the top of their lookout tree. I’m sure of that, because I’ve tried to see the bay from there and couldn’t, although I knew just where it lay.”
At this point the lieutenant interrupted:
“Pardon me a moment. I’ll bring her to anchor.”
Before he returned to the company a minute or so later, the engines stopped, and as he sat down the boys heard the chains rattle as the anchor was cast overboard.