“The mystery, then, is a mystery no longer,” said Truem.
“I see you are thinking of the same thing as I,” said Chot. “The smugglers have a rendezvous on the island to the north, and that is where they are holding Bert captive.”
“Yes,” said Truem, “and those are the voices I heard the other night, and it was the smugglers’ boat, very likely, which capsized my skiff.”
“And it is evident from the conversation Chot heard that our friend, Mr. Lawrence, is the leader of the band,” said Tom. “That I think, is to me the most surprising of all.”
“Yet, it is no doubt true,” said Chot. “You will remember reading in the papers some time ago how different articles were mysteriously brought across the Canadian border, and how the revenue officers were perplexed and had failed to apprehend the smugglers. Well, the officers have simply not had the opportunities for investigation that we have had, that’s all.”
“Then the launch we heard the other night was taking smuggled articles to the other island?” said Pod.
“No,” said Chot; “the launch was either bringing smuggled articles from the other island to the lodge, or taking them from the lodge to some point in the United States. There’s very little stuff taken from the United States into Canada, strange to say. The contraband stuff all comes the other way.”
“There’s one thing we haven’t found out yet,” said Fleet. “How do they get the stuff into the lodge?”
“By some secret tunnel surely. There must be a compartment to the basement of which we are still in ignorance, as Truem said a while ago, in spite of the fact that we believe we have been over every inch of space.”
“Then the best thing to do, seems to me,” said Tom, “is to search for an opening of some sort on the north side of this island.”