He climbed back into the G-boat and it shortly hummed out of the cove into the starlit night, headed for Main Haven, and for the numerical strength of the law to defeat the plans of the underworld! Both Stanley and John thrilled as they lost track of the white water about the racing boat.
“They’ll be in Main Haven in no time!” Stan said. “And I hope they get back twice as fast! I’m nervous about Dad! Hegarty’s anxious to get him!”
“Thumping blazes!” snapped John, snatching up his bow and arrows. “What’s keeping us here?”
Stan grinned and blew out the cabin light.
“Took the words right out of my mouth, John,” said he. “Let’s go!”
Fifteen minutes later, as they were coming up over the highest rise and in sight of the battle, the boys gave cries of astonishment! The entire ridge of the cove was lined with darting flames of light, and the apex of those flashes was a spot in the cove in which the Sea Hawk, dimly outlined by her own gunfire, was giving battle to Nevada! Two other moving black shadows were sliding into the cove now, spitting steel and fire! The Malcon and the Canton, having discharged part of their crews to surround the spot from the land, were now coming to the aid of the embattled Sea Hawk.
In the meantime, at Main Haven, the racing G-boat had summoned aid. Wires were humming with the news. The Chief himself had dictated crisp orders! Men were appearing instantly as if from the ground itself. From barber shops, boat yards, and the grocery store, came men who had worked for a day or so now as common working men but who were highly trained law officers awaiting this very summons!
They came on the run, adjusting automatics in holsters, unleashing hand machine guns, checking the fuses on tear-gas bombs! Waiting boats appeared as if from the water itself, trim, speedy craft, with trained men ready to handle the helms! From points along the coast other swift boats put out, too, and, within a half hour, Porpoise Island would not only be surrounded with wary and swift boats waiting for escaping underworld craft, but the beaches on the island would receive corps of G-men, each a crack shot, each capable of effective single-handed combat, each determined to capture the criminals alive or die wiping them out!
They had taken Alvin Karpis, Baby-Face Nelson, Dillinger in their stride, and a host of other public enemies! They had trimmed the sails of Hogan and Brennan! They loved the law and the right and hated the rats who tried to undermine and destroy the sacred common rights of mankind! And they went up the hills of Porpoise Island that night eager for combat, brave, strong, resourceful!