H.J. Gaudreau - Jim Crenshaw 02 - The Collingwood Legacy by H.J. Gaudreau Page A

few moments later a sad moan came from behind the boat. “Awwww…Darn, I thought we had something!”
    Walking around the boat Jim and Gerry found the women sitting on two crates, another two crates were open and they were attempting to open a third.
    “These are all Canadian Whiskey crates, but they’re all empty!” Sherrie explained.
    “You were looking for cheap booze weren’t you!” Gerry pointed an accusatory finger at his wife and laughed.
    The group examined the whiskey crates. “Lots of empty booze boxes,” Gerry said. “I kind of like the old wooden crates, they’re sort of interesting. Think we could use some around the house as decorations?”
    “I don’t know, but I’ll bet we can get rid of these in a garage sale in about a minute,” Sherrie observed.
    Jim had become fixated on repairing the boat. “I’ll bet I can fix this,” he said to himself as he studied the damaged bow. A moment later he was climbing the ladder and reentering the cabin. After several minutes Jim yelled, “Hey Gerry, do me a favor and bring me the tool box and flashlight.”
    Gerry grabbed the box and soon found Jim on his hands and knees in the forward cabin of the craft, his head and shoulders wedged under a small settee.
    “I should be able to access the bilge from somewhere around here. If I can, we should be able to see the frame and the backside of that impact point. We should be able to tell how big a deal it will be after seeing that.”
    Gerry agreed with the plan and the two began looking for the bilge access panels. Soon Jim found the latch and pulled a three-foot long by two-foot wide piece of cabin sole from its frame. The two examined the inside of the bilge. Gerry looked at Jim but didn’t say anything.
    “That’s odd,” Jim said.
    “What is that?” Gerry asked.
    There was no bilge. Instead, another panel lay just under the cabin sole they had removed. Gerry shinned the flashlight along the new panel. Finally, he spotted four large screw heads, one at each corner. Jim grabbed a screwdriver and they removed the cover. Inside they found six crates of Canadian Whiskey, only these were full.
    It took a moment for Eve and Sherrie to climb the ladder and join Jim and Gerry in the boat. Soon the four had removed the six cases to the floor of the barn.
    “I think this is a smuggler’s boat. That extra little storage area must have been added to the boat after it was built,” Jim said while climbing back up the ladder.
    “You really think so? That’s too cool!” Sherrie said.
    “Bet there’s more,” Eve added.
    “What makes you say that?” Gerry asked.
    “Well, if I’m going to all the trouble to outfit this big boat to smuggle booze I’m going to take a lot, not a little. And let’s face it, six cases is really not that much.” Eve seemed confident in her guess.
    Jim studied Eve for a moment, “You’re right, that makes sense, let’s keep looking.” It took nearly thirty minutes, but they found five more compartments. All were empty save one, and it held an additional four cases of hard liquor. By now there was no doubt, this was indeed a bootlegger’s boat. They loaded the ten cases of liquor in the bed of Gerry’s truck and returned to the barn.
    Jim and Gerry climbed back into the boat and began to examine the false bilge. “This might give us a better chance to see the inside framing,” Jim said to Gerry. He stretched out on the floor. Then, on his back, Jim slowly inched his head and shoulders inside the large compartment hidden in the bilge. The walls were made of pine boards with several coats of shellac to seal them from bilge water. Using the flashlight Jim examined the compartment interior. Solid walls. He would have to drill a hole.
    Gerry sat on the settee next to where Jim lay. “See anything?” he asked.
    “Nothing, we’re going to need a hole saw to get past these walls.”
     

 
    Chapter 22
     
    As the nation’s economy sputtered Cole’s days had become