CHAPTER VII
Bound and Gagged
The Hardy boys were astonished by this information. Their father, tapping a pencil quickly on the desk, leaned forward in his chair.
"You may have stumbled on some information of great value," he said to them quietly. "I need hardly tell you that it is best to keep it to yourself. If Ganny Snackley is operating in this vicinity it will be a great feather in our cap to catch him."
"It's an unusual name," remarked Frank. "I'll bet that's the Snackley our man meant, all right."
"And the farmer said there was smuggling going on in the Bay," Joe pointed out.
"Of course, there always has been more or less smuggling carried on in Barmet Bay. But it's been on a small scale. Ganny Snackley and his gang are international smugglers. The last I heard of him he was operating up on the New England coast. But probably things grew too hot for him and he moved down here. He
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