erest they looked at Castle
William, the great circular stone fort, now useless for protection, but
venerable with age and tradition, that stood at the western edge of the
island.

Soon they were past the island and out in the open bay. Far to the
left were the Brooklyn shores, with their great shipping terminals and
stores and clustered steamers. On the right, and still more distant,
ran the low Jersey coast, almost hidden in fog and smoke. Against this
dull background towered the Statue of Liberty. Reverently the boys
stood looking at this great image, known the world over as no other
statue is known, and symbolic of all a free earth holds dear--symbolic
of that liberty, fraternity, equality that the free men of the world
are giving their lives to preserve. A mist rose in their eyes as they
looked at this symbol of that which they, too, were giving their
devoted efforts to preserve--their homes, their families, their
freedom. And on every face came a set expression of determination
that, even though the countenances wearing it were youthful, boded no
good to the treacherous enemies of freedom whose trail they were that
very moment following. Then they flashed past Robbin's Reef light and
snuggled into their slip at Staten Island.

Before them towered the community of St. George, straggling, like some
old world village, up the sloping streets to the heights. Quickly they
climbed a winding road that led to the top of the hill. Like Jerusalem
the golden, the village about them was beautiful for situation. For
miles it commanded an unobstructed view in almost every direction. To
the north were the rolling reaches of the Upper Bay across which they
had come, with the tall sky-scrapers of Manhattan towering heavenward
in the background and looking so near at hand that it was hard to
believe that they were six miles distant. Shaped not unlike a pear,
the great Bay tapered to stem-like dimensions as it flowed to the east
of Staten Island and found its way to that greater sheet of water, the
Lower Bay. On the opposite side of this passage rose the bluff shores
of Brooklyn. But the Staten Island shore towered high above everything
else. On opposite sides of the narrowest parts of the channel to the
sea were forts. And it was to this very Narrows that the wireless
detector had pointed when Roy caught the message on the previous night.

"From somewhere in this neighborhood that message came," said Captain
Hardy