The Blue Clipper

: The Smuggler Spy by Roger Starbuck is a maritime smuggling narrative set near Vera Cruz, Mexico. The story centers on masked operative Wilkins, who visits Captain Malo's hidden cavern base housing sixty smugglers of various nationalities. Wilkins reports that government cruisers are pursuing their operation and arranges payment for intelligence. Malo discusses plans to run sugar cargo up the Mississippi and successfully recruits young Midshipman Harry Wand into the smuggling ring. Wand, a disappointed naval officer engaged to Mary Clare, a New York merchant's daughter, has grown moody after missing promotion. While government revenue cutters patrol the coast, Wand mysteriously disappears from his vessel in New Orleans. Mary, distressed by his absence, receives attentions from Captain Watson aboard the Roland. The narrative interweaves Wand's secret recruitment into Malo's smuggling operation with Mary's anguished uncertainty about his whereabouts.