The Bradys and the Girl SmugglerA crowd of anxious people surrounded them, but they quickly avoided them by dodging into another car and saying to the conductor:
"Top floor--quick!"
Bang! went the gate and up they shot.
Reaching the upper story the detectives made a rush for the room La Croix had been occupying and found it empty.
"The birds have flown!" muttered Old King Brady in disgust.
"No wonder. We were caged up in the elevator so long they had ample time."
"They may have left some clew behind. Let us search the room."
This was done, and in the slop basin they found a letter torn up in small pieces.
Harry carefully gathered up the fragments and put them in his pocketbook.
"It's written in French," he commented, "but it may be of some use. I'll put the pieces together and we'll have it translated."
They failed to find anything else and went downstairs.
Returning to the clerk, they asked if La Croix had been seen.
"He did not come out this way," replied the man, shaking his head.
"Sure?"
"Positive!"
"Well, he and his family are gone."
"Ain't they up in their room?"
"No."
"That's queer."
"Not at all. You heard how the elevator fell with us?"
"Yes."
"Well, La Croix saw us and cut the cable."
"Good Lord! Tried to kill you?"
"Exactly. That's why they fled."
"What a villain that fellow must be."
"Is there any other exit from here?"
"Yes, indeed. I'll have a boy show you."
He rang a hand-bell and a uniformed boy approached, to whom he gave an order and the Bradys were escorted away.
By questioning the help they soon found that the smuggler, his wife and his daughter had left the hotel by another exit.
A policeman in the street had seen them hire a cab and drive away through Broadway at a rapid pace.
Unable to learn anything else, the detectives went home. They had very comfortable apartments and spent the day there piecing out the torn letter so it could be read.
On the following day they had it translated, and read the following startling piece of information:
"Paris, France, May 19.
"My dear La Croix: In reply to yours of the 5th inst., I beg to say that I can easily meet your daughter at Havre, if she comes over on the Champagne. I shall then take her to Amsterdam, Holland, and procure the fifty packages of diamonds. She can then a.s.sume a fict.i.tious name and take pa.s.sage on the steamer Labrador, to Canada. You can meet her in Montreal, and the stones can be taken across the border at Niagara Falls, as you suggest. Should you follow this plan, wire me at once, and I shall so arrange matters that the American spies for the Customs officials who are on the lookout here shall know knothing about the transaction. Everything depends upon keeping this a secret from them, or they will cable back to the U.S. inspectors to keep a watch for Clara when she returns to Canada--"
The letter ended abruptly here, for the rest was missing.
But there was enough to expose the whole plan of smuggling a huge amount of diamonds into the United States.
The Bradys were astonished and Harry said at once:
"This letter proves that La Croix must be the gigantic smuggler whom the Customs department want run down."
"No question about it," replied Old King Brady. "And as we have the details of a scheme he intends to operate, we had better make preparations to nip the plan in the bud, or else to capture the girl smuggler when she makes her attempt to beat the Custom House."
"Are you aware that the steamer Champagne sails for Havre to-day?"
"Does she?" muttered Old King Brady, glancing at his watch. "Well, we'll barely have time to reach her if we go at once. Get a cab and we'll see if we can catch her before she departs."
"Even if we miss her," said Harry, consolingly, "we will be pretty sure to see La Croix on the pier, seeing his daughter off."
"I don't want to arrest him in that case," said Old King Brady, "for if the girl gets away, we'll have to keep the man watched in order to let him lead us to his daughter when she returns. As she's pretty sure to have all those diamonds with her, we can nab them with evidence on their persons, of their smuggling enterprise."
Harry nodded and they hurried out together.
A hack was engaged and they rode over to the French Trans-Atlantic Company's pier on the North river.
By the time the cab reached the dock, however, the steamship's mooring lines had been cast off, the gangplank was down and the vessel was being pulled out into the stream.
The detectives were disappointed.
Eagerly scanning the throng of pa.s.sengers on the upper deck, they suddenly caught view of Clara La Croix.
The girl was standing in the stern waving her handkerchief and shouting to a stylishly-dressed middle-aged woman on the stringpiece:
"Good-by, mamma!"