“So John informs us, Sandborn,” Holmes said. “Now, we just found you by accident. We’d been planning to drop in along here later but made it to-night due to the emergency, and you chose the same cove!”
“Want us to get out?”
“No. You stay right here. We’ll shove off towards dawn and hide further down, to the west. What were your plans in anchoring here?”
Stanley explained that they were intending to go ashore, hiding the tender, find out what they could in the darkness, and, at daybreak, take pictures from cover and try for fingerprints.
“The idea is fine, boys, so go ahead. We’ll be round here till dawn; that is, the man on watch will be. The rest of us are going to do some sleuthing on our own to-night! If anything happens, remember to head for this cove! By the way, you heard about the boner Dago pulled the other night, didn’t you?”
“No; what was it?” Stan asked, mystified.
“He and some other men were out apparently hunting for some one in one of the gray boats and they overtook and boarded a New York yacht off Porpoise Island! The owner thought them modern pirates and blasted away with an automatic!”
Laughter rang in the cabin as the other men joined in with Holmes’ amused roar.
“He was luckily a bum shot and hurt no one, but Dago pushed off in a big hurry, leaving a gun behind on the yacht’s deck! The thing got in the papers of course, though the yacht owner naturally didn’t realize who had boarded him, and I got to him and to the police and got possession of the gun, upon which I found some very excellent imprints of the honorable Mr. Dago’s fingers!”
“Didn’t the police search for the gray boat?”