CHAPTER XV.
ON GUARD.
"You will restore to me my papers, I hope?" remarked the man.
"If you mean the naturalization papers that stamp you as one HansLarsen, formerly of Sweden," replied Frank, "I am going to put them inyour inside pocket. But they will be taken by the officials, and I doubtif you ever see them again. They must know they are either stolen,bought, or forged, and that you only carry them to give trouble in caseyou are arrested."
He was as good as his word, for he had taken the papers to show theMajor in case any proof were desired after his story had been told.
Then came the file of British soldiers, direct from Major Nixon. Theybrought a note from the officer to Frank and his chums, desiring thatthe prisoner be turned over, and also stating that the word he had givenFrank would be religiously kept.
The spy walked away in the midst of his guards, who had orders not tolet him communicate with anyone on the way. In order to make morepositive of this, they had a covered wagon close by, in which he was tobe conveyed to the jail.
"I'm glad we're free from him," said Billy, after they had watched theparty leaving the stockade.
"You don't think there would be any attempt made at trying to rescue himwhile they're on the way?"
"Sugar and sandwiches, but I should hope not!" exclaimed Pudge.
Frank did not seem to be worrying about such a remote possibility.
"No, I don't think they're numerous enough to risk an encounter with adozen armed Tommies looking for trouble, just as Pudge here would lookfor his breakfast," he observed.
"Now we've got the place all to ourselves," said Billy. "There's such athing as being overcrowded, as the backwoodsman remarked when he heardthat another family had started a clearing three miles away from hisshack. But I'd like to have been down in Dunkirk when they sighted thosegulls coming sailing along, ever so high up in the air."
"Dories and dingbats, but I warrant you there was some excitement to thesquare inch," Pudge insinuated.
Frank laughed as he stretched himself out on a bench to rest.
"You missed a grand sight," he told them.
"Lots of people scared, I take it?"
"Well, they were fairly crazy," he was told. "If a menagerie of wildanimals had broken loose and come to town it could hardly have createdmore of a panic than when that cry sounded through the streets: 'TheGermans are coming!' Men, women and children all ran this way and that.Some dodged down into cellars, while others crawled under frontdoor-stoops, as though that would save them in case a bomb burst closeby. It was a panic, all right, and I never saw anything like it in allmy experience."
"They must have felt silly after they found out what it really was?"Billy went on to say.
"Oh, not so very much," he was told by the one who had been on the spot,and was in a position to relate things at first hand. "You see a goodmany started to make out they knew the dots must be birds, and said theyhad just been carrying on in that excited way for a lark."
"To be sure," declared Billy, "that's the way lots of people always tryto crawl through a little hole when caught with the goods on. Some ofthe others, I reckon, laughed it off, and admitted that they didn't careto be blown up; that they got plenty of that sort of thing at home, asit was. But, Frank, how about our own program?"
"You mean about staying here and being ready to start off when we getthe word--is that it, Billy?"
"Yes; shall we stick it out here the rest of the day?"
"I think," said Frank, "none of us have any need to leave the placeagain until we start the motors and open up on the second trial spin,this time with some of the best British aviators along to observe howthe _Sea Eagle_ carries herself."
"Do you think there will be a representative of the French Governmentaboard to take notes along the way?" asked Billy.
"That's my understanding of the case," he was told.
"Well, it ought to settle the matter of our business, Frank."
"Just what it must," came the reply. "We'll give an exhibition of allthe _Sea Eagle_ is capable of doing in a way to make those otherseaplanes look sick. Then we'll expect to have the deal closed. That'smy understanding of the bargain."
"But, Frank, whatever are we going to do for eats between now andto-morrow, when we come back from the raid up the coast?" asked Pudge,with a despairing expression on his fat face that would make anyonebelieve he had lost his last friend; or else just heard the news that hewas to be hanged in three hours.
"I've fixed all that," the other told him, "and right now I think I seethe wagon coming with a lot of good stuff, such as can still be had inDunkirk if you've got the francs to buy it with."
Pudge was comforted by hearing such glorious news. He immediately tookup his position outside the door from where he could keep an eye on theroad close to the stockade gates.
"What are you doing out there, Pudge?" called Billy.
"Sandwiches and sauerkraut, but you wouldn't want to run the risk ofhaving that grocery wagon miss the place and drive past, would you,Billy?" demanded the sentinel; and the others let him alone, knowingfull well that Pudge would not allow any accident of that sort to comeabout as long as his voice held good.
It turned out that Frank had bought a whole assortment of things to eat;indeed, Billy declared he believed they could stand a siege of a wholeweek with that lot of foodstuffs to fall back on.
"Three days, anyhow," assented Pudge, who evidently had a differentviewpoint from Billy when it came to sizing up the lasting qualities ofedibles.
With the aid of the little stove they prepared a lunch, and reallyenjoyed it immensely. Pudge seemed to be reminiscent, for he brought upnumerous half forgotten times of the past when in company with HarryChester they had enjoyed many a similar repast, cooked under strangeconditions it might be, but never to be wholly forgotten by those whotook part in the feast.
Then the afternoon came and it was a long one to the three chums shut upfor the most part in the hangar. The fire was kept up in the stove,because there was a tang to the February air so close to the Channel.
Frank went carefully over every part of the seaplane to make certain itwas in the best shape possible for the long journey they had before themunder conditions that no one could possibly foresee. He did not mean toneglect the slightest thing that could add to their comfort and safety.
Pudge had managed to make himself a pretty cozy nest with a couple ofblankets, and he put in part of the afternoon "making up for lostsleep," he told them. It was a standard joke with them that the fat chumwas always far behind in his customary allotment of sleep; somehow orother he never did seem able to fully catch up.
Billy and Frank often stepped outside and took an observation. This notonly included the weather but the conditions existing on the harbor,where there were boats of various descriptions to be seen, for the mostpart unloading war material sent from Great Britain in spite ofGermany's submarine warfare.
"This has been a pretty good day for aerial work, Frank," suggestedBilly. "What about the prospects for to-morrow?"
"I think we can count on it holding about as it is for anothertwenty-four hours," came the answer, "and then a change is about due.It's still cold enough to snow, and I expect we'll meet a lot of snowsqualls when we're making that trip up the Belgian coast."
"Do you really believe there'll be that many seaplanes in thebunch--thirty or more, the Major told us?"
"They have planned to make this raid a record breaker, it looks like,"said Frank, "and will try to get out every machine they have a pilotfor. It's going to be a feather in our caps to be able to say weaccompanied them, no matter what amount of damage they manage to inflicton the submarine bases, or railway stations and gas or oil tanks of theGerman army."
"Well, I think we're in great luck to get the chance to go along, Frank;though, of course, we don't mean to throw a single bomb, or do the leastthing to harm the Kaiser's army. As I look at it t
he main purpose of ourbeing allowed to accompany the squad of raiders is to let them see whatcards we're holding in this invention of Dr. Perkins. The FrenchGovernment officials want to be shown, just as if they were fromMissouri."
"They'll see a few things calculated to make them open their eyes,unless I miss my guess," said Frank, with quiet confidence; for he knewwhat the _Sea Eagle_ type of hydro-aeroplane was capable of doing whenproperly handled, and only longed for the opportunity of showing thoseBritish aviators, some of them well-known air pilots, the crowningtriumph of Yankee ingenuity.
"It's getting on toward evening now, with the sun near setting time,"remarked Billy, as though he felt that a load was taken from hisshoulders with the passing of that almost interminable day.
"There's a steamship coming in," Frank said. "It's taking all sorts ofchances of being torpedoed, even if the Germans have said they areholding back until the eighteenth to start the reign of terror."
"Do you really think the submarine blockade is going to work?" askedBilly.
"Honestly I don't see how it can," Frank replied. "They have only acertain number of the latest undersea vessels capable of staying awayfrom a base for a week. These can't be everywhere, and are liable to besunk by torpedo boats. I've no doubt the Germans will punch holes in agood many small steamers; but as a rule the big ones can run away fromthem. I guess it's a whole lot of a bluff, between you and me."
"Will Great Britain dare them to do their worst, do you think, Frank?"
"Yes, even knowing that they threaten to sink merchant vessels and theircrews of noncombatants without giving warning. Somehow or other it doesseem to me that Germany is doing everything possible to make outsidersdistrust her. But I suppose we can't look at things the same way theymust from inside, especially since England threatens to _starve_ Germanyinto submission."
"There's the sun going to set," remarked Billy.
They stood and watched it go down, and the gray of evening begin tocreep across the cold sea. So that night in February closed in. Like agrim phantom the steamer came stealing into the harbor, with few lightsshowing.
"Let's go in where it's warm and comfortable," said Billy. "Frank, sincewe have plenty of stuff along with us why not make an allowance ofcoffee for the men who are standing guard over our plant here. A mug ofhot coffee would take the chill out of their bones, I'm thinking."
"A good idea, Billy, and thank you for suggesting it. We'll find whatPudge says, and carry it out. With the lantern we can make the rounds,and see that no sentry is omitted."
With such sentiments spurring them on, the boys entered the hangar andfound that Pudge was already deep in the pleasing duty of getting supperready. Hardly had they mentioned the subject of treating the guards to acup of hot coffee than he announced that he was heartily in accord withthe scheme.