“Up you go!” said the man, under his breath. Then, to someone at the rail, “Here’s three young recroots, Don Ortiga!”

“Don—” Nicky gulped. “What’s the matter?” whispered Tom.

“Ortiga—” Nicky returned, “that’s the name of the man who owned that other speed boat, back in Jamaica! Now—I wonder——”

CHAPTER XIII

THE MYSTERY BOYS DECIDE

“What do you wonder?” asked Tom, when the chums were herded into the small forecastle in the bow, vacant at the moment.

“The man who owned that boat, back in Jamaica—the _El Libertad_—was named Senor Ortiga,” Nicky answered. “I wonder if this one is the same fellow.”

“But this isn’t the _Libertad_,” Tom objected. “It’s a bigger boat and it isn’t white.”

“And that fellow called this man ‘Don’ and not ‘Senor,’” Cliff added. “They may be relatives. Mr. Neale saw the man in Jamaica—he would know. I wonder where he is!”

As he expressed this wondering about their chief, the latter was holding a conference with a Government Revenue Officer in the tiny cabin of a very swift little revenue cutter which was cruising among the reefs and keys, in search of the very hi-jackers and rum-runners among whom the chums were quartered.

The revenue cutter was on patrol duty, but so far its quarry had, by virtue of a system of signals from allies on shore, eluded capture; with its gray hull, its absence of lights, its quiet and speedy engines, the light-draught craft had been able to slip into hiding while its cargo was transferred to shore, whence the Indians in the extensive gang would convey it in their canoes to a northern point in Florida where trucks could receive the cases of illicit liquor.

“I wish there was some way for us to capture these fellows,” said Tom. Now that he knew that there was nothing ghostly or unnatural about the band, he was his usual, cool, calm self. Nicky and Cliff echoed his wish, in low tones. But they had no time for speculation or planning.

The ape-like man appeared in the forecastle companionway and beckoned abruptly.

They followed him along a narrow deck to the dark cabin and went in. 

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