ad your look," he said. "You came to spy and we helped you out.
Now you know there's nothin' wrong here. We warned you because we
didn't like you, see? And that's all. Now get goin' and don't ever
come back, or we'll work you over so you'll never be the same again.
Now git!"

They were shoved violently forward and landed sprawling on the hard
macadam road. Behind them the gate slammed shut, and as they got to
their feet and looked at each other ruefully, the sound of Carrots'
raucous laughter was like salt on raw flesh.

CHAPTER XI

The Hearing

"You two have certainly got your nerve, going back to Seaford after
that," Jerry Webster said.

"We'll stay away from the Kelsos and Brad Marbek. Don't worry about
that," Rick assured him. "But we're not giving up, are we, Scotty?"

"Not on your life," Scotty replied flatly.

Jerry's car bounced over Salt Creek Bridge and sped toward the Seaford
turnoff. The boys had phoned him early in the morning and found that
he had learned about Tom Tyler's hearing during his routine phone
calls to the Seaford authorities, and that he was going down to cover
it.

They had met him at the Whiteside dock, and on the way down had
brought him up to date on their part of the case, including their
humiliating experience of the night before.

"So your theory about smuggling must be wrong," Jerry said.
"Otherwise, you'd have found something."

"I'm not convinced," Rick argued. "It's still the only answer that
fits."

"Then where were the smuggled goods?"

"We could have gotten there too late," Scotty reminded. "If it was a
small shipment, it could have been unloaded and disposed of before we
showed up."

"Disposed of? How?" Jerry wanted to know.

Rick recalled that he had heard the sound of oars while in the cabin.
Red and Brad had rushed out right away, too, after hearing a hail.
"They might have taken the stuff up the creek," he mused. "They might
even have had a truck waiting at the bridge. There's not much traffic,
so it wouldn't be too great a risk. And even if a car came, they could
pretend the truck was changing a tire or something until it passed."

"That's reasonable," Jerry admitted. "Did you talk it over with Cap'n
Mike?"

Rick grinned ruefully at the memory of the two soaked, bedraggled,
filthy specimens who had knocked on Cap'n Mike's door last night. "We
were in no mood even to think about it," he said. "But we did find out
one thing. Cap'n Mike said it w