“It was your coat and hat that did it, Tom,” explained Ned.  “I fought against being taken away, but when I happened to think if they took me for you it might be a trick against them.  And it was.  The Fogers didn’t discover the mistake until just before we started.”

“They planned for a big shipment of goods last night and used two airships.  I don’t know what became of the other.”

“We’ve got her, and the men, too,” interposed Mr. Whitford, as this conversation was taking place several hours later in the Swift home.  “I just had a wire from my deputy.  They got right after the damaged airship, and reached her just as the men were hiding the goods, and preparing to dismantle the craft.  We have them all, thanks to you, Tom!”

“And to think that the Fogers were in it all the while!” remarked Tom.  “They certainly fooled us.”

“I’m not done with them yet,” said Mr. Whitford.  “I’m going to have another look at their house, and the gardener’s home.”

“The Fogers were in dire straits, that’s why they went in with the smugglers,” explained Ned.  “Though they gagged me, they didn’t stop up my ears, and when they hid me in a little room on the airship, I could hear them talking together.  It seems that the smugglers put up the money to buy the airships, and just happened to stumble on Andy to run the machinery for them.  His father helped, too.  They shared in the proceeds, and they must have made considerable, for the smuggling has been going on for some time.”

“Well, they’ll lose all they made,” declared the agent.  Later he, Tom and Ned made another inspection of the Foger premises.  Down in the cellar of the gardener’s house they found, behind a cunningly concealed door, a tunnel leading into the old mansion.  Later it was learned that the smugglers had been in the habit of bringing goods across the border in airships, landing them in a lonely stretch of woods outside of Shopton, and later bringing them by wagon to the mansion.

Inside there, in some secret rooms that had been constructed off of the main apartments, the goods would be unpacked, put in different boxes, carried through the tunnel to the gardener’s house, and thence shipped as “old furniture” to various unscrupulous agents who disposed of them.

The hiring of Mr. Dillon had been only a blind.  Later the smugglers, in the guise of carpenters, made the desired changes.  So cunningly had the opening of the tunnel in the cellar of the gardener’s house been concealed, that it was only discovered after a most careful search.

There is little more to tell.  With the capture of the two airships, an end was put to the smuggling operations, especially since nearly all the gang was captured.  A few, those who brought the goods up the St. Lawrence, from the ocean steamers, managed to escape, but they had to go into hiding.

The goods captured proved very valuable, and partly made up to Uncle Sam’s treasury the losses sustained.  Tom was offered a big reward, but would not take it, accepting only money for his expenses, and requesting that the reward be divided among the agents of Mr. Whitford’s staff, who needed it more than Tom did.