“Somebody with a lantern is coming this way!” exclaimed the boy.
Advancing through the darkness was a single bright disc of light. It was swinging violently, as if whoever was carrying it was walking fast.
“Quick, get in here behind this hut,” ordered the chief inspector.
“Why not arrest them now?” asked Ralph.
“’Twould never do. We want to get the diamonds and other stones. You can depend upon it, that if we were premature they would find some way to destroy that evidence.”
From their place of hiding the party watched the approach of the men with the lantern.
There were four of them. Two were recognized as Malvin and La Rue. Another, a big, beefy man with a flaring red face and a pair of huge black moustaches, was identified by the inspectors as Rawson; and the fourth was a slight, delicate-looking little fellow, undersized and narrow-chested.
“Slim Shiner,” whispered the chief inspector, “the cleverest gem smuggler at large! It was he who secured the gems in Europe and saw to it that they reached the gang over here safely. Then Malvin and the rest disposed of them across the line. Malvin was of invaluable use to the gang, for he worked from your father’s boat, which, of course, was not once suspected till we learned of the Artful Dodger being seen off Dexter Island.”
“Well, everything’s cleaned out,” La Rue was saying, “and now for a clear getaway. A lucky thing that the water was shallow when I jumped from that blamed River Swallow, or I wouldn’t have been along to-night.”
“No, nor the gems, neither,” growled Rawson. “We think a heap more of them than we do of your bones, La Rue.”