The Hardy boys thanked him warmly and Bates shambled away, his hands in his pockets.
Mrs. Hardy came into the hallway.
"Any news?" she asked anxiously.
"We have a clue, anyway," Frank told her. "That fellow says he saw dad on the shore road the morning he left here."
"Where was he?"
"Near the old Polucca place."
"The house on the cliff?"
Frank nodded.
Mrs. Hardy looked grave. "Surely he couldn't have gone there and disappeared!" she said.
"I can't imagine why he would go to the house on the cliff, anyway," observed Joe.
"Oh, I know now!" Mrs. Hardy exclaimed. "I had forgotten all about it. I intended to tell you boys, but somehow it slipped my mind. Now that you mention the Polucca place, I remember."
"What was it?"
"Your father discovered something about Snackley, the smuggler. It seems that Snackley was related to Felix Polucca, the miser."
"Related to him!"
"He was a cousin or nephew, or something of the sort. One of the government men told him that. So your father had an idea that Polucca must have been visited by Snackley at some
