The Bradys and the Girl Smuggler | Page 8

it could be read.
On the following day they had it translated, and read the following
startling piece of information:

"Paris, France, May 19.
"My dear La Croix: In reply to yours of the 5th inst., I beg to say that I
can easily meet your daughter at Havre, if she comes over on the
Champagne. I shall then take her to Amsterdam, Holland, and procure
the fifty packages of diamonds. She can then assume a fictitious name
and take passage on the steamer Labrador, to Canada. You can meet
her in Montreal, and the stones can be taken across the border at
Niagara Falls, as you suggest. Should you follow this plan, wire me at
once, and I shall so arrange matters that the American spies for the
Customs officials who are on the lookout here shall know knothing
about the transaction. Everything depends upon keeping this a secret
from them, or they will cable back to the U.S. inspectors to keep a
watch for Clara when she returns to Canada--"
The letter ended abruptly here, for the rest was missing.
But there was enough to expose the whole plan of smuggling a huge
amount of diamonds into the United States.
The Bradys were astonished and Harry said at once:
"This letter proves that La Croix must be the gigantic smuggler whom
the Customs department want run down."
"No question about it," replied Old King Brady. "And as we have the
details of a scheme he intends to operate, we had better make
preparations to nip the plan in the bud, or else to capture the girl
smuggler when she makes her attempt to beat the Custom House."
"Are you aware that the steamer Champagne sails for Havre to-day?"
"Does she?" muttered Old King Brady, glancing at his watch. "Well,
we'll barely have time to reach her if we go at once. Get a cab and we'll
see if we can catch her before she departs."
"Even if we miss her," said Harry, consolingly, "we will be pretty sure
to see La Croix on the pier, seeing his daughter off."

"I don't want to arrest him in that case," said Old King Brady, "for if
the girl gets away, we'll have to keep the man watched in order to let
him lead us to his daughter when she returns. As she's pretty sure to
have all those diamonds with her, we can nab them with evidence on
their persons, of their smuggling enterprise."
Harry nodded and they hurried out together.
A hack was engaged and they rode over to the French Trans-Atlantic
Company's pier on the North river.
By the time the cab reached the dock, however, the steamship's
mooring lines had been cast off, the gangplank was down and the
vessel was being pulled out into the stream.
The detectives were disappointed.
Eagerly scanning the throng of passengers on the upper deck, they
suddenly caught view of Clara La Croix.
The girl was standing in the stern waving her handkerchief and
shouting to a stylishly-dressed middle-aged woman on the stringpiece:
"Good-by, mamma!"
"Farewell, Clara--be very careful of yourself, my child!" replied the
woman, as she waved her handkerchief back at the girl.
Harry nudged Old King Brady.
"There's her mother," he muttered, "but La Croix has not shown up. He
fears arrest now, as he knows we are after him."
"So much the better," replied the old detective, drily. "This woman
won't know us. It will therefore be all the easier to follow her
undetected."
The steamship soon went down the river and the friends and relatives
of the departing passengers began to leave the pier.

Mrs. La Croix was one of the last to go. She did not know that the
Bradys were close behind her.

CHAPTER V.
AT A VILLAIN'S MERCY.
The smuggler's wife leisurely left the pier, crossed the street and went
in the direction of Sixth avenue, on foot.
It did not seem to occur to her that she might be followed, for she never
once glanced back in the direction she came from.
Old King Brady and his partner did not know much about the woman.
Whether she was actually concerned in La Croix's smuggling games or
not, they had not the faintest idea.
She was a fine-looking woman, tall and stately, with brown hair, blue
eyes and handsome features. But she seldom laughed.
Hers was one of those set, inscrutable faces, hard to read, for she
seldom showed the emotions preying upon her mind.
"She don't seem to fear detection," commented Harry, as they walked
along. "She hasn't made the slightest effort to conceal her actions."
"Well," replied the old detective, as he thoughtfully took a fresh quid of
tobacco, "you must not forget that the woman isn't aware of the fact
that we