Charlie snickered and Tom growled, but both sounds gave Ann to understand very clearly that Tom and Charlie knew things about that boat that would be forever hidden from Mr. Bailey.
“It wasn’t strange you didn’t find them,” said Bain, “if our government inspectors couldn’t find where the men had tucked away whole cargoes.”
“Well, God was good to the whole of us, that is all I have to say.” And Mr. Bailey gripped his rifle tighter as he looked at the two captives. Sailors they were not; they were just two criminals who had gone to sea for a time.
“So that was why you felt as if some one was there!” exclaimed Ben. “They were peeking at you, and you didn’t know it!”
Tom must have been on the boat the day she and Jo so strongly felt that impression of eyes upon them, thought Ann, and shivered as she thought it. Anything might have happened if Tom had chosen to come out and frighten them. Her mother had been right, after all, when she had worried about their playing on the wreck.
“And we peeked at you, Mr. Bain, when you didn’t know it,” Ben went on. “Will you tell us, please, what you meant when you said, ‘Stay there, babies, and wait for me.’”
“Yes!” cried Ann. “What was in the closet? We couldn’t find anything there.”
Warren Bain looked at Ann and Jo with a wide smile. “You kids were on the job all right, weren’t you! So you saw me at that! Well, I’ll show you something pretty.”
Tom had wrenched the closet door from its hinges and now Bain took it in his hands. “This panel looks exactly like the others, but it actually is a sliding panel that goes back like this.” Under Bain’s fingers the thin board slid back and revealed a space filled with papers closely covered with writing. “These are Jim’s bills of lading; I tell you, he knew how to hide his stuff.” Bain put the door down and looked at Tom and Charlie. “Even after he was dead you couldn’t beat him. You were foolish to try.”
Charlie nodded his head miserably, but Tom did not deign to acknowledge that he had heard.