Then the youthful investigator slipped down the slope and into the shadow. He went cautiously, though, for fear that Don Emilio might have posted a guard below.
There was none, however. Tom found himself staring at what looked like a new boathouse on shore, such as is used for the winter storing of yachts or motor boats. There were no windows. The door, a strong affair, was secured by a padlock.
“If they’re putting the stuff in there and locking it up, then they don’t intend to ship it to-night,” Halstead wisely decided.
He had learned, apparently, all that was to be learned at this point. To keep his eyes upon the case-carrying toilers might mean only to witness a repetition of the same monotonous work through all the night.
“That one bright light up in the attic,” Halstead wondered, the memory of it coming back to him. “I wonder what’s going on up there? And I mean to know, too.”
Satisfied that he knew all about the waterfront business, Halstead took such a wide, curving sweep in getting back to the farmhouse that he ran no risk of running into the busy eight.
Once more he sought the deep shadow of the wagon shed, from which point he stared long and wonderingly.
Beneath that attic window was a kitchen annex of one story. And Tom made out, presently, that a lightning rod ran down the back of the main building close to that brilliantly lighted window on the third floor. The rod touched the roof of the kitchen annex, running thence down to the ground.
“It’s a job for stocking feet, anyway,” Halstead decided at last. Having removed his shoes and feeling about in the dark, the young skipper ran his hand against a coil of rope hanging on a peg.
“Good enough!” he cried inwardly. “I don’t believe there are many climbing jobs where a rope won’t come in handy.”
As he removed the coil of rope from the peg he discovered a few lengths of cord. These he stuffed into one of his pockets.
“For I can’t tell what kind of a sling I may need to rig before I get through,” he thought.
The busy eight were returning from still another trip to the water front. Halstead stopped all movement, remaining utterly quiet until they had started shoreward with the next load.
“Now I’ve got to work fast,” thought Captain Tom thrilling. “I reckon it’s about fifteen minutes between their arrivals here. That means fast work, my boy.”