arm, the roar of the presses providing a background for his chant.
"Extra! Read All About It! Spindrifters Smear Smugglers! Seaman Shows
Shootin' Savvy! Simple Sap Scampers, Saves Skin! Read All About It!"

Rick snatched one of the papers. "Thanks, I will. Hey, gang, listen to
this!" He read the headline aloud. "'Seaford Gunrunners Caught.'"

Scotty took a paper, too, and read the subhead. "'New Night Movie
Camera Supplies Evidence for Surprise Raid.'" He grinned at Jerry and
Duke Barrows. "Very restrained. Not a purple adjective in the lot."

Captain Douglas let out a bellow. "Hey! You don't mention the State
Police until the second line of the story. Call a cop someone, I want
these guys pinched."

"Charge 'em with serving poison coffee," Cap'n Mike suggested. "Never
drank such a brew in my life."

Duke grinned. "That isn't coffee, skipper. It's printer's ink with
cream and sugar. Go on, Rick, or someone. Read the rest of it."

"Byline," Rick said, "by Jerry Webster, and under that it says
copyrighted by the _Morning Record_. How did you copyright it so
quickly, Duke?"

"Sent a copy air mail to the copyright office and enclosed a dollar.
The letter will go out tonight. It's standard procedure. Go on, read.
I edited Jerry's story so fast I didn't have a chance to enjoy it."

Rick read on. "'A Seaford trawler captain, four members of his crew,
and two New Yorkers were arrested tonight on gunrunning charges after
a surprise raid by State Police officers culminated a series of events
that included the wrecking of the trawler _Sea Belle_, the use of a
new invention by the two youngest members of the Spindrift Island
Foundation to photograph the transfer of arms under cover of darkness
on the high seas, the kidnapping and maltreatment of a _Morning
Record_ reporter, and a fight in the attic of the Creek House hotel
that was ended by the timely intervention of a retired sea captain.'"
Rick got the last words out with his last bit of breath.

Scotty looked at Jerry with admiration. "He's not only a distance
runner, he's a distance writer. That was a hundred-yard sentence."

"I cannot tell a lie," Jerry said modestly. "I did it with my little
dictionary. Written by an ancestor who was also famous. Noah Webster."

"'One of the most surprising disclosures,'" Rick read on, "'was the
reason for the stubborn silence of Captain Thomas Tyler, master of the
trawler _Sea Belle_, which was wrecked on Smugglers' Reef a week ag