ation. By great good luck, Captain Folsom was in the Custom House
at the time, on business connected with the disposal of the vast
amount of liquor taken from the Brownell house. He commiserated with
the boys on their hard luck, as well as on their lucky escape the
previous night when unexpectedly attacked.

He promised to notify the New York police who would keep a lookout for
the motor boat along both the Brooklyn and Manhattan water fronts.
Furthermore, he agreed to undertake to notify the police authorities
of towns along the Long Island shore between the Temple estate and the
metropolis, so that in case the smugglers made a landing and
abandoned the boat, the boys would be notified where to recover it.

In conclusion, he added that the big raid and the arrest of Paddy Ryan
and others at the Brownell house had not as yet brought to light the
principals in the liquor-smuggling ring. The lesser prisoners,
questioned separately, maintained that Ryan and Higginbotham were the
sole principals known to them. Higginbotham had not been found, and
Ryan refused to talk. It was Captain Folsom's opinion, however, that
one or more men of wealth and, possibly, of social or financial
position, were behind the plot.

"You boys have been of such assistance," he said, "that I'm telling
you this, first, because I know you will be interested, but, secondly,
because I want to put you on the lookout. You have shown yourselves
such sensible, clever fellows that, if you keep your ears open, who
knows but what you will stumble on something of importance. I believe
the man or men behind the plot may live in the 'Millionaire Colony'
down your way."

What Captain Folsom had told the boys opened a new line for thought,
and they discussed the matter at some length after finishing the radio
conversation. The girls also were keenly interested.

"It's so romantic," said Della. "Just like the olden days when
smuggling was a recognized industry in England, for instance, and big
merchants holding positions of respectability and honor connived with
the runners of contraband."

"You needn't go that far from home," said Frank, a student of Long
Island colonial history. "There was a time when, on both coasts of
Long Island, pirates and smugglers made their headquarters and came
and went unmolested. In fact, the officials of that day were in league
with the rascals, and there was at least one governor of the Province
of New York who feathered his ne