On we raced after the strange craft, the phantom that had scared
Staten Island. For a mile or so we seemed to be gaining, but one
of our cylinders began to miss--the boat turned sharply around a
bend in the shore. We had to give it up as well as trying to
overtake the ferry boat going in the opposite direction.
Kennedy's equanimity in our apparent defeat surprised me. "Oh,
it's nothing, Walter," he said. "They slipped away to-night, but I
have found the clue. To-morrow as soon as the Customs House is
open you will understand. It all centres about opium."
At least a large part of the secret was cleared, too, as a result
of Kennedy's visit to the Customs House. After years of fighting
with the opium ring on the Pacific coast, the ring had tried to
"put one over" on the revenue officers and smuggle the drug in
through New York.
It did not take long to find the right man among the revenue
officers to talk with. Nor was Kennedy surprised to learn that
Nichi Moto had been in fact a Japanese detective, a sort of stool
pigeon in Clendenin's establishment working to keep the government
in touch with the latest scheme.
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