CHAPTER XXI
IN THE OLD LORRAINE CHATEAU
What Jack said in his cautious fashion puzzled Tom. For the life of himhe could not understand what had arisen, calling for any unusual displayof generalship. Surely Jack should have been equal to the task ofgetting Bessie down from the window, even if he had to make use ofknotted bed-clothes in lieu of a rope.
Still he had asked Tom to come up, and there was nothing to do but granthis request. "Complications," Jack said, had arisen. That was asuggestive word, and to Tom's mind seemed to hint at further mystery.
Accordingly he proceeded to imitate the example of his comrade. Jack hadshown the way, and all his chum had to do was to follow. As Tom was alsoan all-around athlete, accustomed to much climbing from small boyhood,after nuts and birds' nests and all such things as take lads into talltrees, he found but little trouble in making the ascent.
When he drew himself alongside Jack, the other gave a sigh of relief.
"Whee! I'm glad you've come, I tell you, Tom," he said. "It was gettingtoo big a job for me to tackle."
"What's happened, Jack?" asked the late arrival on the stone ledge underthe window of the upper room.
"First, here's Bessie, Tom," Jack went on. "She wants to shake handswith you. Since we parted, when the steamer was docked, the poor girlhas been having all sorts of trouble; and she's glad as can be to see usboth again; aren't you, Bessie?"
Tom, feeling a small, trembling hand groping for his, immediatelygrasped it, and gave a squeeze that must have carried conviction to theheart of the girl.
"Oh, I'm shivering like everything!" she murmured, adding quickly: "Butnot with fear. It's because my prayers have been answered, and help hascome at last, when everything looked so awfully dark--and I'm so very,very hungry."
"Hungry!" repeated Tom, starting, it seemed such a very strange word forthe girl to use, even though they were in Germany, where all food heknew must be getting exceedingly scarce.
"Yes, what do you think, that rotten bounder of a spy is half starvingthe poor girl! He ought to be tarred and feathered, that's what!"growled the indignant Jack.
"Not so loud," warned Tom. "Some one may hear you, Jack. But tell mewhat you've learned."
"Why, first of all, Tom, it was Bessie who wrote that warning message Ihad, and attached it to that little balloon, hoping the favorable breezewould carry it over the front to the French lines. So that mystery isexplained. Then, Tom, there are _two_ we've got to take out of thisplace, instead of just one, as we thought."
"I don't get you!" Tom ejaculated. "What do you mean by two?"
"It's a story in itself, I guess," whispered Jack. "I don't whollyunderstand it myself. But it seems that Bessie's mother didn't drownafter all when the _Lusitania_ went down, as Potzfeldt reported shedid."
"You surprise me, Jack! How could that be?" demanded the other youth,thrilled by the startling information.
"Oh, that slick rascal managed it somehow," came the soft if indignantreply. "We'll learn more about it later on. He was picked up by afishing boat. The lady was temporarily out of her mind, so he gave itout later that she had gone down. How he ever got her over here inGermany beats me. But he managed to do it it seems. And she's been kepta prisoner in this old chateau of his ever since!"
"But what was his object?" asked the amazed Tom.
"It had a heap to do with finances," Jack told him. "While he held apaper that gave him charge over her daughter over in America, and a partof the big Gleason fortune also, there were valuable papers he had beenunable to get his greedy hands on. She absolutely refused to tell himwhere they were hidden. As a last resort what did the wretch do but goall the way back to America."
"You mean to fetch his ward across with him, Jack?"
"Yes, just to use Bessie as a lever to compel her mother to give upthose valuable papers. I always said, you remember, Tom, that man washugging some secret to his heart. And so he was."
"He's been treating Bessie badly then, half starving her, I think yousaid?" continued Tom.
"Just what he has, poor girl," growled his chum, savagely. "It's anawful thing to be hungry! I don't see how any one can stand it. But hehasn't broken the spirit of either of them yet, though Bessie's gettingso weak she finds herself crying every now and then, just as we heardher. And it was that which brought us over to find out what it meant.But Tom, tell her we mean to stand by, and see that both her mother andherself are taken to a place of safety."
This Tom readily did, though as yet he could hardly understand just howtheir promise could be fulfilled. One they might manage to take aloftwith them, by crowding, but the Caudron was not capable of seating four;nor would it be safe to carry a couple of inexperienced passengers alongwith themselves.
"But we're losing valuable time," he observed. "The sooner we get intouch with Mrs. Gleason the better. There's a whole lot to be donebefore we can say we're on the safe side of the fence."
"Then first of all we'd better climb inside the room, hadn't we?"suggested Jack.
In answer Tom proceeded to get one leg over the sill, and then pass hisentire body across. Jack quickly followed. In the semi-darkness, for themoon gave a dim light, they clustered there, and continued to map outtheir immediate plans in whispers that could not have been heard a dozenfeet distant.
It appeared that Bessie knew where her mother was confined, though bothdoors were fastened on the outside to prevent their havingcommunication. But the girl had found a way. Night after night she wasaccustomed to slipping from her window, when everything was quiet belowand the lights all out, making her way along that narrow coping, orledge, and tapping softly at the window of her mother's room.
They would remain together until toward morning, when the girl made it apractice to return by the same perilous route.
On this particular night it had seemed as though the lights below wouldnever go out. Carl Potzfeldt, the master spy, expecting important newsand a messenger from the headquarters of the Crown Prince, had beenwaiting up until long after midnight in order to fullfil the importantduties entrusted to him.
Jack suggested that he creep along that coping and inform the lady ofthe golden chance for escape that had arrived. But as she would hardlybe able to return by the same way, it seemed as though some other schememust be considered.
Bessie herself had a brilliant thought bordering on an inspiration.
"Listen, and I will tell you," she said at this juncture. "All the timeI have been here my one thought has been of escape. I dreamed nothingelse save getting my poor mother away from the clutches of that cowardwho had hypnotized her in the past, and made her believe he was a goodman as well as her cousin from Alsace-Lorraine. And I know of a way itcan be done."
"Tell us your plan, please," begged Jack; though he would be sorry tolearn that the honor of releasing Bessie's imprisoned mother was not tofall to his share in the undertaking.
"There is another window. It opens upon a hallway; and I can get throughit, because I've tried it more than once. But the proper time hadn'tcome, for how were we to flee from this awful country? Wait for me here,both of you. I shall be able to open her barred door, and then my own.And it is better that I carry her the good news than some one who wouldbe a stranger to my mother, however much I have told her about you."
Tom saw that her plan was the best, after all. He himself had been alittle afraid that if Jack came tapping at the window of Mrs. Gleason'sroom she might take the alarm, thinking it but another twist to theodious schemes of Potzfeldt, and perhaps shrieking out in terror, whichwould cause an alarm, and ruin everything.
Bessie climbed nimbly out of the window, showing how accustomed she wasto such athletic exercises. Jack held on to her to the last, and hiswhispers were all of an entreating character, as he begged her to bevery careful, and not slip in her excitement.
Now she was gone, and the two air service boys, left by themselves inthat room of the old Lorraine chateau, counted the seconds and theminutes until they should hear a gent
le signal at the door, to signifythat Bessie and her mother were there, about to enter.
Jack walked softly up and down, like a velvet-footed tiger in its cage.He was so worked up by the excitement of the occasion that Tom did nothave the heart to ask him to stop his movements, though he certainlywould have done so had not the other been keeping on his tiptoes all thewhile.
What a remarkable turn their venture into the country back of theenemy's lines had taken! And what astounding discoveries they had madein the bargain!
Jack was getting more and more impatient. Several times did he pause atthe door, to lay his ear close to the heavy panel, and listen. Hewondered what could be keeping Bessie. Surely she had had ample time toopen the door of her mother's room and explain everything to the lady.In his excitement he pictured all sorts of fresh trouble as havingbefallen the girl. What if by accident she had run across the masterGerman spy in the corridor? But then, in such a case, Bessie surelywould have screamed in order to warn her two friends that they were indanger of being discovered, should Potzfeldt and some of his assistantsburst into the room.
Of course Jack had magnified things wonderfully. Less than half the timehad elapsed than he thought had passed when there came a soft scratchingon the door to notify them Bessie was there. They next heard a slightcreaking sound, and then the soft closing of the door.
"Bessie, is it you?" asked the eager Jack, softly.
A reply in the affirmative followed.
"And here is mother with me," added the girl, a note of joy in hervoice, even though she spoke in a whisper.
So they came together. In the semi-darkness the boys could not see whatBessie's mother looked like. They did note, however, that she was smallof stature; and this fact pleased Tom very much indeed. For already hehad figured out just how the rescue must be carried out, since thereseemed to be no other way.
His plans would entail some sacrifice on Jack's part, and also more orless exposure to peril; but then Tom knew his chum too well to imaginehe would hesitate even a moment when called upon to take this additionalburden on his shoulders.
Both of them squeezed the trembling hand of the woman, and as best theywere able assured her that they meant to carry both Bessie and herselfto a place of safety, provided they were courageous enough to trustthemselves to the care of two air pilots.