"They were a little too smart for you and your gang."
The four auto thieves were herded together and an officer with drawn revolver was put on guard.
"I guess we'll go back into the cave and see what we can find," decided the trooper.
Leaving the prisoners under guard, he and some of his men, together with the Hardy boys, went back into the main cavern, where the officers inspected the remaining cars and the loot that they found stored there. The sergeant rubbed his hands gleefully.
"Everything's here," he said. "At least, everything we need to make an airtight case against that gang. And we'll recover the rest of the stuff without much trouble, I imagine."
He turned to Joe Hardy.
"You said you learned where they were sending the cars?" he inquired.
"They spoke of a man named Clancy in Atlantic City. They drove the stolen cars out through the gully, across the Shore Road onto one of those old private roads, and then down the coast."
"That's all we want to know. We'll wire the Atlantic City police as soon as we get back to headquarters."
"We might as well bring back as much of
