Turning in the direction of the new sound of powerful marine motors, they were met with a bright searchlight beam, which swept from them to the burning sloop and back again. For the first time since their adventure had started, Sandy felt a genuine feeling of relief, as the Coast Guard cutter reversed its engines and came to a neat stop alongside.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Another Discovery
With the arrival of the Coast Guard, the problem of finding Jones solved itself. He quickly realized the hopelessness of his position and swam in from the darkness toward the cutter and the sloop, tamely giving himself up.
It was only after he and Turk had both been taken on board the Coast Guard vessel and placed under guard that the captain of the cutter, Lieutenant Ames, started to ask the necessary questions.
He listened, absorbed in the story, until Sandy had finished talking. Then he sighed. “That’s quite a yarn, boys. It sounds pretty wild. For your sakes, I hope that you can show some evidence to back it up. Otherwise, all we have is your word. Now, your word may be good enough for me—” he held up a hand to forestall Sandy’s objections—“but it’s going to take more than that to make a charge of counterfeiting stick in a court of law.”
“We’ve got more than that!” Sandy said angrily. “We can show you the island, and unless I miss my guess, we’ll find Jones’s counterfeiting presses there!”
“I hope so,” Lieutenant Ames said. “Meanwhile, since you’ve made charges against these men, I’ll hold them in custody until we get ashore. Then I’ll turn them and the whole case over to the FBI, where it belongs.”
His official statement done, Lieutenant Ames relaxed into a boyish grin. “You can get those scowls off your faces now,” he said. “I just wanted you to realize that we’ve got to have good, solid proof before this business is over with. As for me, I believe your story, and I think the FBI will, too.”
“I’m not too worried about proving our story about Jones and Turk,” Sandy said. “But what worries me is how we’re going to get the freighter, now that it’s out of U.S. coastal waters.”
“The Navy will take care of them,” Lieutenant Ames said. “But that reminds me, you didn’t tell me the name of the freighter, and we’ll need to radio that to the Navy right away.”