“Oh, a kind of sly look in his eye, and something sly in his voice, too. ‘All light,’ he said. ‘Come ’long.’ I tell you, now that Bob has suggested it, I believe that Chinaman was planning to play the traitor, and lead Ensign Warwick into an ambush.”
For several seconds all three crouched there beside the rocks, thinking. And their thoughts were not of the pleasantest. Their party was split. Inspector Burton with one force was somewhere inland engaged with the smugglers. Perhaps he had encountered a large force, and was hard pressed. Certainly, the sound of firing had grown more and more distant until it could no longer be heard, and that seemed to indicate he was being beaten back.
Then there was Ensign Warwick with the second force. And, if their surmise was correct, the smugglers had been informed by signal from the radio plant that he was coming, and Charley Lung, moreover, was leading the naval force into a trap.
“What could they do? What could they do?”
That was the question in each mind. Instinctively, as always in a crisis, the others turned to Jack.
“First of all,” said Jack, “we have got to find who is in the radio station, and capture him. It won’t do to leave an enemy in our rear.”
“What if there is more than one,” objected Frank.
“Not likely,” said Jack. “One man to spy and give the signal would be sufficient. More would be a waste of men.”
“All right. Let’s go,” said Bob. When action was suggested, he always was ready for it.
Jack considered.