Swamp Island Part 35

"They send-a me back," Tony said stubbornly. "I stay right-a here!"

"To starve? You're hungry now, aren't you?"

"Sure. But in Italy I hungry many times-a too."

"Tony, we'll talk about this later," Penny sighed. "Right now, I want to learn what's going on here at the island. Know anything about it?"

"Sure," the boy grinned. "Know plenty."

"Then suppose you tell me, Tony."

"I show-a you," the boy offered.

Avoiding the leafy tunnel, he led Penny in a half circle through another section of dense thicket.

Soon he motioned for her to drop on her knees.

The sickish odor rising through the trees now was very disagreeable again.

A few yards farther on, Tony halted. Still lying flat on his stomach, he carefully pulled aside the bushes so that his companion might see.

CHAPTER 22 _HELP FROM TONY_

Through the leaves, Penny saw a fairly large clearing. Three men, Ezekiel Hawkins and his two sons, were squatted about a big hardwood fire over which was a large copper cooker.

A pipe extended above the cover, connected with a series of coils immersed in a barrel of cold water.

"A still!" the girl whispered. "They're making alcohol here and selling it in the city! That's what those containers held that were trucked away!"

"Make-a the stuff every day," volunteered Tony. "I watch--sometimes I steal-a the lunch. They very mad but no catch."

"They're probably afraid you'll tell revenue officers," Penny whispered.

From one of the barrels, c.o.o.n had taken a dipper filled with the pale fluid. As he drank deeply from it, his father said sharply:

"Thet's enough, c.o.o.n! We gotta git this stuff made an moved out o' here tonight, and ye won't be fitten."

"What's yer rush, Pappy? We got termorrer, hain't we?" c.o.o.n sat down, and bracing his back against a tree trunk, yawned drowsily.

"Ye want to be caught by them lousy revenooers?"

"There hain't no danger. Hain't we got a fool-proof system? If anyone starts this way, Maw'll spot 'em and give us the signal."

"Folkses is gittin' wise, and we hain't none too popular hereabouts.

We're moving this stuff out tonight."

"Jest as you say, Pappy." c.o.o.n stirred reluctantly.

"An we hain't operatin' the still no more till things quiets down. I don't like it that gal snoopin' around here, claimin' to be lookin' fer her dawg."

"Ye should have kilt the dawg, stead o' keepin' him," Hod spoke up as he dumped a sack of mash into a tub. "Tole ye it would make us trouble."

"Yer always tellin' me!" Ezekiel retorted. "Thet dog's handy to heve here, an I never was one to kill a helpless animal without cause. Now git to yer work, and let me do the thinkin' fer this outfit!"

Penny's curiosity now had been fully satisfied as to the illegal business in which the Hawkins' family had engaged, but she also felt a little disappointed.

She had hoped the men would speak of Danny Deevers, perhaps revealing his hideout. The convict was nowhere to be seen, and there was no evidence he ever had been on Black Island.

Not wis.h.i.+ng to leave Mrs. Jones too long alone in the boat, Penny presently motioned to Tony that she had seen and heard enough.

Inch by inch, they crept backwards away from the tiny clearing.

Then suddenly Penny stopped, for Ezekiel was speaking again:

"We gotta do something about Danny and git him off our hands."

Penny instantly became all ears, listening intently to c.o.o.n's reply:

"Now ye'r talkin', Pappy. Takin' him in was a big mistake. Hit's apt ter land us in jail if them city officers come snoopin' around here agin."

"There wouldn't have been no risk, if Hod and Danny hadn't taken the widder's car and drive into town. Didn't ye have no sense, Hod?"

"Danny wanted to go," Hod whined. "How was we ter know another car was goin' to smash into us? Thet fool newspaper camera man an' the girl had to be there!"

"That wasn't the wust," Ezekiel went on as he fed the fire with chips.

"Then ye follered 'em to the theater!"

"Danny said we had ter git the picture or they'd print it in the newspaper."

"But did ye git the picture?"

"No," Hod growled.

"Instead o' that, ye let Danny git into a fight."

"'Twasn't no fight and n.o.body knew it was him. He seen an enemy o' his'n go into the building. I tried ter talk him out o' it, but he wouldn't listen. He crawled in through a window, and slugged the feller."

"He did have sense enough to git rid o' the car, but ye shouldn't have left it so close to our place," Ezekiel pointed out. "That newspaper gal's been out here twict now, and she's catchin' on!"

"She's only a gal," Hod said carelessly. "Ye do too much worryin', Pappy."

"I do the thinkin' fer this family. An' I say things is gittin' too hot fer comfort. We gotta git rid o' Danny tonight."

"How ye aimin' ter do it, Pappy?" inquired c.o.o.n. "Be ye fergittin' he's got $50,000 hid away somewheres an' he hain't give us our slice yet?"