Page:Arthur Stringer - The Hand of Peril.djvu/251

 out, and crawls up through the hole. He drops what he wants into his boat, slips down with the tide, and unloads at a Bath Beach fence."

"But all that takes time," complained the restless-souled Lambert.

"I've seen Whitey take a half-inch ship auger, bore up through a pier floor, tap an eighty-gallon brandy-cask, and drain it off and get away in half an hour's time."

"Then the sooner I get through the floor the better. How about to-night at eleven?"

There was a moment or two of silence.

"Tide's against us."

"Then twelve?"

"Too early. About four in the mornin' would be the best."

Then came still another silence.

"Hold on a minute! Why couldn't you wait until about half-past nine to-night, go to their watchman with an order from the office, and get inside and stay there until Whitey gives a signal?"

"Where would I get the order?" Lambert, it was plain, was not his usual inventive and expeditious self. The other man even laughed a little.

"Ain't you a scratcher? Couldn't you work a little Jim the Penman stunt on that wharf bunch?"

"If you can get me a letter-head."

"Sure I can."

"That would give me time to sort out the paper and get it baled together ready for handling."

"There's just one thing," objected the man called Burke.