CHAPTER VII--A HORNET'S NEST
"I am not at all happy about this," said Pariset, after a brief silence.
"We haven't learnt very much, certainly," said Kenneth.
"I don't mean that. We have learnt enough if that is your man. But Isee no means of preventing the destruction of the bridge."
"We might fly to Charleroi and send a squadron of lancers back. Thereare only five men to deal with, apparently."
"That's not the difficulty. The point is that at the first sign ofmolestation they would fire the mine. You may depend upon it that theyare picked men, with resolution enough to do their job, even at the costof their lives. It would not be much use to capture them after themischief was already done."
"The mine is to be fired on receipt of a marconigram."
"You didn't tell me that. It may happen at any minute, then. They musthave wireless rigged up in the mill-house. We might have cut a wire,but with wireless we are helpless."
"Unless we could get into the mill," Kenneth suggested.
"Ah, if we could! But there's no chance of it. The fellow is on thequi vive: I don't like the way he looked after us."
"Wouldn't the old miller, as the landlord, have a right to go in?"
"I daresay, but the old man couldn't do anything. Even if he knewanything about wireless or mines, he would only get flustered; hecertainly would quite fail to do any damage."
"Perhaps he could tell us of another way into the mill, so that we coulddo it ourselves."
"That could only be in the darkness, and they may fire the mine beforenight. I see nothing for it, after all, but to bring some cavalry fromCharleroi and take care the men don't escape. We can do that, if wecan't save the bridge."
"Why not wait a little? If the order to fire the mine comes suddenly,any time before night, we can't prevent it. But if it doesn't comebefore night, we still have a chance. In any case we ought to get somelancers over, to be in the neighbourhood at nightfall. It won't takelong for one of us to get into Charleroi and back."
"That would be risky after that fellow's question about the aeroplane.The best course will be to send in a message by the drayman. I'll writea note as soon as we get back."
The drayman readily agreed to carry Pariset's note to the commandant ofthe Charleroi garrison. When he had departed, the miller was taken intoconsultation.
"Is there any other entrance to the millhouse besides the front door?"asked Pariset.
"There is a door to the stables, but that has long been nailed up," theold man replied.
"Describe the interior as well as you can."
"Well, monsieur, I lived there fifty years, so I ought to know somethingabout it. You go in by the door; well, first there's the lobby; beyondthat, straight ahead, is the kitchen, and beyond that again, looking onthe stream, is the storeroom with the mill above. To the left of thatis the hoist; and this side of it, overlooking the yard, is the bigroom, dining-room and parlour in one. There you have the ground-floor;the bedrooms are upstairs."
"And the wall goes all round?"
"Yes, right down to the stream on each side, and along the bank, exceptwhere the wheel juts out into the waterway. The old wheel is droppingto pieces; it hasn't been used these twenty years."
"Couldn't we get in that way?"
"Ma foi! That's an idea, now. Many's the time I got in that way as aboy, when the wheel was stopped--just a boy's devilry, you understand.You could get in that way yet, if the woodwork isn't too rotten to bearyour weight. You would have to wade the stream, but that isn't deep orswift except in winter. Old as I be I'll show you the way myself."
"We could get in without being heard?"
"To be sure, if the woodwork doesn't crack and give way. The kitchen isthe nearest room; old Jules, the handy man, is as deaf as a post, andhis wife, who does the cooking, isn't much better."
"And where is the entrance to the underground passages?"
"To the left of the kitchen, in the floor of the hoist."
As the miller answered his questions, Pariset sketched a rough plan ofthe building.
"Is that something like it?" he asked, handing the paper over.
The old man put on his spectacles deliberately, and examined the sketch.
"Near enough," he said. "Ma foi! But I couldn't have done thatmyself."
"Now the question is, when shall we try to get in?" asked Pariset. "Thebest time would be when the men are having a meal. The Germans taketheir meals seriously; if they are ever to be caught off their guard itis when they are feeding."
"That's true," said the miller. "They have their supper somewhere aboutseven o'clock. I know that because one evening I met old Jules comingback from the village all puffing and blowing. I asked him why he wasin such a hurry for an old man; had to ask three times before he heardme; and he told me he'd forgotten the vinegar, and the gentlemen werevery angry."
"Well, it's dusk at seven; the lancers will be here by half-past. We'llmake our attempt then."
"Better go a little earlier, while it's light enough to see our way,"suggested the miller. "I'm not so young as I was, and I doubt whether Icould find my way in the dark."
"Very well. It's now nearly five; we have nearly two hours to wait.You'll give us a meal, miller?"
"To be sure; the best I have. I'd feed a regiment to capture a Germanspy."
Just before seven Pariset and Kenneth left the house with the miller.Pariset had given the farmer a note addressed to the officer of theexpected lancers, asking him to leave the horses at the farm, and posthis men behind the hedge lining the road in the neighbourhood of themill, ready to break in if they were called upon, or to intercept theGermans if they tried to escape.
The miller led the way across the fields, by a route which did notexpose them to view from the mill-house until they arrived within a fewyards of the bank of the stream opposite the wheel. The last part ofthe journey lay through a cornfield, the wheat growing so high that bystooping they completely hid themselves.
All was silent in the mill-house. Dusk was just falling. A lamp hadalready been lit in the kitchen, sending a ray of light across the yardto the left. The rear of the building, facing the stream, was dark.
Following the miller, the two young fellows stepped into the stream, andwaded across knee deep till they stood below the wheel. It was anundershot wheel. The chains confining it were deeply rusted. Some ofthe floats had fallen away; others were broken; all were more or lessdecayed.
"I've done my part," the miller whispered. "You must squeeze throughinto the wheel and slide along the axle. Where it is let into thebrickwork you'll find a hole big enough to crawl through. Climb up, andyou'll find yourselves in a little room that used to be the tool-shop.Take care you don't stumble over the tools on the floor. At the furtherside there's a door into the storeroom. I can do no more. Que le bonDieu vous protege!"
He shook hands with them in turn, recrossed the stream, and disappearedamong the wheat stalks.
With some difficulty Pariset squeezed his body between two of thefloats, hoisted himself up, and stood in the interior of the wheel. Therotten woodwork creaked, and the wheel itself groaned slightly as itmoved an inch or two; but the movement was checked by the rusty chains.Kenneth followed more easily. They swung themselves on to the axle,jerked their way along it, came to the hole of which the miller hadspoken, and clambering up through it, stood on the floor of thetoolroom. Hands and clothes were coated with red rust.
The room was lit by a small window overlooking the stream. To theirsurprise, it was not empty except for a few rusty implements, as theyhad expected from the miller's description. A new deal bench stoodagainst the wall, flanked by a turning lathe, and an elaborateengineering equipment.
"Electrical!" Pariset whispered.
Treading very carefully, they gently opened the door, took a look round,and passed into the capacious storeroom. Here they found the plant of awireless telegraphy installation. The antennae passe
d through holes inthe ceiling, emerging, as they guessed, under cover of the parapet, onthe flat roof of the mill.
In the fast-fading light they were just able to see a doorway on theright, leading, as they knew from the miller's description, to the hoistand shoot. In front of them was another door, now open, giving accessto a passage between the kitchen and the dining-room. Pariset slippedoff his wet boots.
"Wait here," he whispered.
Stealing along the passage, he came to a door on the right. He put hisear against it, and heard the clink of knives and forks mingled withguttural conversation. Creeping back again, he whispered:
"They are feeding. Come along!"
They passed from the storeroom into the chamber which had formerlycontained the hoist. Here they noticed a tall heap of earth.
"They dug that out when continuing the underground passage to thebridge," said Pariset.
"Here's the trap-door," returned Kenneth. "Look! There's a wirerunning through it, connecting with the room behind."
"It's all very thorough, confound them!" said Pariset. "I hope thetrap-door won't creak."
They lifted it gently, and found that it moved on a central axis, welloiled. Peering into the dark depths, Kenneth discovered a woodenladder. They crept down this, into a large underground chamber flaggedwith stone, and ventilated by narrow gratings in the brick walls, abovethe level of the stream.
"We had better not both go on," said Pariset. "I'll go up and keepwatch. You proceed, and cut the wires at the further end of thepassage."
"Why not here?" said Kenneth. "It would save time."
"But if the word should come to fire the mine, and they find theapparatus doesn't work, they'd soon discover the cut here and repair it.Much better do the damage at the other end."
"Very well. You'll use your revolver if they come before I get back?"
"Yes. I'll take my chance. They probably won't guess that there's anyone below, if I shut down the trap-door. You know what to do: cut thewire, or disconnect the terminals."
With the trap-door closed, it was pitch dark in the chamber. Kennethstruck a match, and making his way carefully over the flagstones foundhimself in a narrow passage, which led into another large chamber likethe first. This again was connected with a third by a short passage.The floor of the third was heaped with newly excavated earth, and thesole outlet from it was a low tunnel, which a man could enter only bybending low.
Kenneth crept into it, breathing with difficulty in the stuffyatmosphere impregnated with the smell of earth. It seemed endless, andmust have cost prodigious labour. On and on he went, his back and legsaching, his breathing more and more oppressed. The thought came to him,what if the tunnel were obstructed at the further end? When the wirehad once been laid, the Germans would have no interest in keeping thepassage clear. What if the roof fell upon him? What if--direstpossibility of all!--the mine were fired while he was still in thetunnel? At this thought he felt a momentary "sinking," and dropped hismatch-box. Taking a grip upon himself he waited a few moments until hisnerves were steadied, groped for the match-box, struck another match,and went on.
A few yards more brought him to an enlargement of the tunnel, where hecould stand upright. And here he found that the wire, laid along thefloor, ended in a metal case, which he guessed to contain a detonatingapparatus, like the floating mines employed at sea. It was the work ofa moment to sever the wire. Then, turning his back on this terribleagent of destruction, Kenneth hurried along as fast as possible towardsthe open end of the tunnel.