“He’s the fellow who chased Jones that day in the motorboat.” “And he’ll chase us, too,” declared Tony, “if we don’t get away from here pretty quick.” “Why should we go now?” demanded Frank. “We’ve stumbled on something important. That may be the smugglers’ cove.” “But how do they get to the house if you think they have anything to do with the Polucca place?” asked Tony. “Those cliffs in there are mighty steep.” “There must be some way that we don’t know of. What do you say we hang around here for a while and see what we can do?” Tony became infected with the enthusiasm of the Hardy boys and he readily agreed to keep the motorboat in the vicinity of the cliff, although it was decided that they should not remain too near, but cruise up and down the shore in case the sharp-eyed man should be watching them. “It was a good thing we didn’t put up an argument with that fellow,” said Frank, at last. “I’ll say it was!” Tony agreed emphatically. “We didn’t have much chance to argue with that revolver he had.” “I don’t mean that. He may think we were just out for a cruise and accidentally wandered into that cove. If he knew we were hunting for dad he might have acted very differently.” “That’s true, too,” said Joe. “Well, we won’t go home just yet.” It was late in the afternoon. The sky was overcast and twilight was falling. A cold wind blew in from the sea. The motorboat went some distance down the shore and then they turned and, keeping well out in the bay, went on up past the cliff once again. They kept a sharp eye on the location of the cove, and in spite of the fact that they knew just where it was they were scarcely able to distinguish the narrow opening in the rocks. “No wonder the place hasn’t been heard of more often!” Frank said. “It looks like an unbroken wall of rock from this far out.” “You’ve got to be careful around here, Tony,” cried Joe. “First thing you know we’ll hit the rocks and be smashed.” “That’s right,” added Frank. “It’s pretty dangerous so close to the cliff.” “You leave it to me,” came from their schoolmate. “I know how to handle this boat.” It was true, Tony did know how to handle the motorboat; yet several times they came perilously close to the rocks over which the waves were dashing. In fact, once there came a slight bump followed by a grating sound which made the hearts of all the boys leap into their mouths. “Narrow squeak, that,” admitted Tony. “I guess I’d better keep out a little farther, after all.” “I certainly should,” answered Frank. Although they cruised around for more than an hour, they saw not the slightest sign of life either about the base of the cliff or on the Polucca place, which, keeping well out from shore as they did, they could plainly distinguish. As the gloom deepened they felt that it was almost useless to continue, but Frank decided that they should wait a while longer.