“All right. Don’t shoot, I’ll come down.”  
“No one’s going to shoot you,” laughed as he gave Bob another shake. “Awful sorry to wake you up, old man,” he apologized as Bob finally got his eyes open and sat up in bed.
 
“Say, what’s the big idea?”
 
“That’s just it. It’s too big to keep.”
 
“Well, it had better be, or I’ll teach you to wake me up in the middle of the night.”
 
“Well, if you say it isn’t worth it I’ll take the teaching. Listen.”
 
For several minutes Jack talked rapidly while Bob listened without comment until he had finished.
 
“I’ll say that’s a peach of a plan,” he declared enthusiastically as Jack came to a pause.
 
“Worth waking you up for?”
 
“I’ll say it is. Where’d you get it?”
 
“It just came to me as I was thinking it over.”
 
“Well, it’s a peacherino all right, and well spring it on the captain first thing in the morning and I’ll bet he’ll jump for it.”
 
They talked the plan over for several minutes longer and Bob declared that there was not a in it.
 
“Well, boys, have you thought of any way to get those fellows?”
 
The boys, together with the captain, had finished breakfast and had returned to the latter’s room for a conference.
 
“Jack has,” Bob replied.
 
“Good. I’ll have to confess that I haven’t been able to work out anything at all satisfactory.”
 
“Well, it’s like this, sir. You see we worked out a small pocket radio phone a little while ago which seems to work pretty well. Here it is.” And he pulled the case from his pocket and handed it to the captain.
 
“You say you can talk with this?” the captain asked, much interested.
 
“Yes, sir. We know it’ll work for at least sixty miles because we have tested it that far.”
 
“Wonderful. What will you boys do next?”
 
“Now,” Bob continued, much pleased at the captain’s praise, “Jack’s plan is to get a fast plane with a good driver and have him all ready somewhere near here. Then we can go up there and watch for that fellow. Of course one of us will stay with the machine with one of these phones and the other will guide you and your men, taking the other phone. Then when he is about to start we can call and tell the driver and he can get after him. As soon as the plane is out of sight you can arrest the men and, if the man with your plane is successful, you’ll get the whole gang.”
 
“Bully; couldn’t be better, and I will act on it at once. I know just the fellow for the job. He made a record bringing down German planes during the war and he’s still in the government. I’m pretty sure he’s at Washington right now and we ought to be able to get him up here by the day after tomorrow at the latest. I’ve got enough men here for the other part of it and I’ll have time to arrange for the authority to make the arrest in Canada.”
 
“Then you think it will work,” Jack asked.
 
“Don’t see how it can help it. Of course there will be a possibility that he might miss him, but with a pair of good field glasses he ought not to. But, come on. We’ll go out and get a wire off to Captain Brice. That’s the fellow’s name.”
 
“I think I remember reading about him in the papers,” Bob said.
 
“No doubt. There was a lot about him in the press the last year of the war. Believe me, he is some flyer.”
 
They went to a nearby telegraph office and the captain sent his message, making use of the government code, after which they went to the Captain’s office.
 
“Now suppose you boys wait here in case a reply comes before I get back. I want to go down to the city hall to arrange about the papers for the arrest of those . I don’t think I will be gone more than an hour.”
 
He was back in just an hour and told the boys that he would have the necessary papers early the next day. He had been back only a few minutes when a boy came in with a telegram from Washington.
 
“Good,” the captain said as soon as he had read it. “Brice says that he is just leaving. Nothing could be better.”
 
“What time will he get here?” Bob asked.
 
“Well, now, that’s pretty hard to tell. You know an airplane is still a pretty uncertain quantity, but if he has no trouble he ought to get here some time this afternoon. It’s about seven hundred and fifty or eight hundred miles from here and he ought to make it in eight or ten hours.”
 
The day passed quickly and they had just returned to the office when the phone rang.
 
“That was Brice,” the captain said after a short conversation. “He has just landed about five miles out of town. Come on, we’ll get my car and go out for him.”
 
They found Captain Brice waiting for them on the of an old farm house, and the greeting between the two captains was very , as they were old friends. Then the boys were introduced and the red blood to their cheeks at the words of praise upon them.
 
“Brice, if there are two smarter boys than these I’d like to see them. You just wait till I tell you some of the things they’ve done.”
 
They drove at once to the hotel, and after supper went to the captain’s room, where he explained the situation to Captain Brice.
 
“And now what do you think of it?” he asked.
 
“Don’t see how it could be better.”
 
“Then you think you can get him?”
 
“Don’t see why not. It’s the best bet you’ve got, and I think it will work. That is unless he’s got a faster machine than I have, and I don’t think it has been made yet,” he added with a note of pride.
 
When the captain showed Captain Brice the pocket radios he looked at them in wonder.
 
“Do you mean to tell me that you made these and that they’ll work?” he asked, turning to Bob.
 
“Sure they made them, and that’s nothing compared to some other things they’ve invented. Why, you ought to see a new cell that they run their motor cycles and motor boat and with. As inventors they’ve got Edison backed off the mat,” and the captain looked at the boys with pride.
 
“And are they the boys who helped you out last summer with the moonshiners?”
 
“They sure are!”
 
“Then I’ve heard a lot about you,” Captain Brice said, turning to the boys. “Last winter Jim could talk of nothing else.”
 
“I’m afraid the Captain is to exaggerate,” Bob .
 
It was on a Friday that Captain Brice came to Bangor and, after talking the matter over at some length, it was that they would not make the start before Tuesday. Captain Jim, as Captain Brice called him, was of the opinion that it would be several days at least before the smugglers attempted another flight and Captain Brice announced that he would have to take some time to go over his motor to be sure that it was in first class condition.
 
“There was a bit of a knock in her coming up and I think she’s got a loose wrist pin,” he said.
 
Captain Brice was very much interested in the new cell about which Captain Jim was so enthusiastic and nothing would do but he must be shown the wheels which were fitted up with them. At Bob’s invitation he went for a short ride on one of them and on his return he was as about it as was Captain Jim.
 
“If we’d only had that cell in the war and had some of our planes equipped with them,” he said. “Just think what it would have meant to us to have been able to sail through the air without making a sound. It was the noise of the motors that gave us away every time. Do you think, boys, that they could be made large enough to drive a plane?”
 
“I don’t see why they couldn’t be, although we have never tried it. We have a runabout over home which is equipped with one of them about four times as large as these and it will hit sixty on a good road.”
 
“What do you estimate the strength of this cell?”
 
“We have found by experiment that the power increases very nearly as the square of the diameter of the cell. This one, as you see, is about an inch in diameter and it develops very nearly four horse power.”
 
“Great Scott, then one a foot in diameter would develop five hundred and seventy-six horse power. Think of it Jim.”
 
“I have thought of it many times,” Captain Jim smiled.
 
“I’ll say it would run a plane,” Captain Brice declared.
 
The following morning the boys spent with Captain Brice watching him as he worked on his motor and whenever they could.
 
“That’s a Liberty isn’t it?” had asked as soon as he saw it.
 
“Yes.”
 
“And we’re pretty sure that that fellow has a liberty also.”
 
“And you’re wondering if I’m going to be able to catch him?”
 
Jack .
 
“Well, you see, sir, I—” he began when the captain interrupted.
 
“Sure I see, but you see I’ve got a new type of carburetor here which is the only one ever made because I made it myself and so far it has given this old buss nearly fifty per cent. more speed than she had before, and she could give any of them a good run before I made the change.”
 
At noon they met Captain Jim at the hotel and they had dinner together.
 
Captain Jim announced that he had the for the arrest of the men all in shape and Captain Brice said that he would easily be able to finish with the plane on Monday.
 
“Then I guess we can consider ourselves at liberty for the week end,” Captain Jim said as he pushed back his chair. “What’ll we do?”
 
“How about driving over to Skowhegan and staying w............