CHAPTER V
ON THE TRAIL
Harry had reached Colonel Throckmorton without difficulty and beforedelivering Major French's message, he explained his suspicions regardingthe driver.
"What's that? 'Eh, what's that?" asked the colonel. "Spy? This country'ssuffering from an epidemic of spy fever--that's what! Still--a taxi cabdriver, eh? Perhaps he's one of the many who's tried to overcharge me.I'll put him in the guardhouse, anyway! I'll find out if you're rightlater, young man!"
As a matter of fact, and as Harry surmised, Colonel Throckmorton feltthat it was not a time to take chances. He was almost sure that Harrywas letting his imagination run away with him, but it would be safer toarrest a man by mistake than to let him go if there was a chance that hewas guilty. So he gave the order and then turned to question Harry. Thescout first gave Major French's message, and Colonel Throckmortonimmediately dispatched an orderly after giving him certain whisperedinstructions.
"Now tell me just why you suspect your driver. Explain exactly whathappened," he said. He turned to a stenographer. "Take notes of this,Johnson," he directed.
Harry told his story simply and well. When he quoted the officer'sremark to the cab driver, with the German inversion, the colonelchuckled.
"You have your way lost!' Eh?" he said, with a smile. "You're right--hewas no Englishman! Go on!"
When he had finished, the colonel brought down his fist on his desk witha great blow.
"You've done very well, Fleming--that's your name?--very well, indeed,"he said, heartily. "We know London is covered with spies but we haveflattered ourselves that it didn't matter very much what they found,since there was no way that we could see for them to get their news totheir headquarters in Germany. But now--"
He frowned thoughtfully.
"They might be able to set up a chain of signalling stations," he said."The thing to do would be to follow them, eh? Do you think you could dothat? You might use a motorcycle--know how to ride one?"
"Yes, sir," said Harry.
"Live with your parents, do you? Would they let you go? I don't think itwould be very dangerous, and you would excite less suspicion than a man.See if they will let you turn yourself over to me for a few days. Pickout another scout to go with you, if you like. Perhaps two of you wouldbe better than one. Report to me in the morning. I'll write a note toyour scoutmaster--Mr. Wharton, isn't it? Right!"
As they made their way homeward, thoroughly worked up by the excitementof their adventure, Harry wondered whether his father would let himundertake this service Colonel Throckmorton had suggested. After all, hewas not English, and he felt that his father might not want him to doit, although Mr. Fleming, he knew, sympathized strongly with the Englishin the war. He said nothing to Dick, preferring to wait until he wassure that he could go ahead with his plans.
But when he reached his house he found that things had changedconsiderably in his absence. Both his parents seemed worried; his fatherseemed especially troubled.
"Harry," he said, "the war has hit us already. I'm called home by cable,and at the same time there is word that your Aunt Mary is seriously ill.Your mother wants to be with her. I find that, by a stroke of luck, Ican get quarters for your mother and myself on tomorrow's steamer. Butthere's no room for you. Do you think you could get along all right ifyou were left here? I'll arrange for supplies for the house; Mrs.Grimshaw can keep house. And you will have what money you need."
"Of course I can get along!" said Harry, stoutly. "I suppose thesteamers are fearfully crowded?"
"Only about half of them are now in service," said Mr. Fleming. "And therush of Americans who have been travelling abroad is simply tremendous.Well, if you can manage, it will relieve us greatly. I think we'll beback in less than a month. Keep out of mischief. And write to us asoften as you can hear of a steamer that is sailing. If anything happensto you, cable. I'll arrange with Mr. Bruce, at the Embassy, to help youif you need him, but that ought not to be necessary."
Harry was genuinely sorry for his mother's distress at leaving him, buthe was also relieved, in a way. He felt now he would not be forbidden todo his part with the scouts. He would be able to undertake what promisedto be the greatest adventure that had ever come his way. He had no fearof being left alone for his training as a Boy Scout had made him tooself reliant for that.
Mr. and Mrs. Fleming started for Liverpool that night. Train servicethroughout the country was so disorganized by the military use of therailways that journeys that in normal, peaceful times required only twoor three hours were likely to consume a full day. So he went into thecity of London with them and saw them off at Euston, which was full ofdistressed American refugees.
The Flemings found many friends there, of whose very presence in Londonthey were ignorant, and Mr. Fleming, who, thanks to his businessconnections in London, was plentifully supplied with cash, was able torelieve the distress of some of them.
Many had escaped from France, Germany and Austria with only the clothesthey wore, having lost all their luggage. Many more, though possessed ofletters of credit or travellers' checks for considerable sums, didn'thave enough money to buy a sandwich; since the banks were all closed andno one would cash their checks.
So Harry had another glimpse of the effects of war, seeing how itaffected a great many people who not only had nothing to do with thefighting, but were citizens of a neutral nation. He was beginning tounderstand very thoroughly by this time that war was not what he hadalways dreamed. It meant more than fighting, more than glory.
But, after all, now that war had come, it was no time to think of suchthings. He had undertaken, if he could get permission, to do a certainvery important piece of work. And now, by a happy accident, as heregarded it, it wasn't necessary for him to ask that permission. He wasnot forbidden to do any particular thing; his father had simply warnedhim to be careful.
So when he went home, he whistled outside of Dick Mercer's window, wokehim up, and, when Dick came down into the garden, explained to him whatColonel Throckmorton wanted them to do.
"He said I could pick out someone to go with me, Dick," Harry explained."And, of course, I'd rather have you than anyone I can think of. Willyou come along?"
"Will I!" said Dick. "What do you think you'll do, Harry?"
"We may get special orders, of course," said Harry. "But I think thefirst thing will be to find out just where the signals from that houseare being received. They must be answered, you know, so we ought to findthe next station. Then, from that, we can work on to the next."
"Where do you suppose those signals go to?"
"That's what we've got to find out, Dick! But I should think, in thelong run, to someplace on the East coast. Perhaps they've got some waythere of signalling to ships at sea. Anyhow, that's what's got to bediscovered. Did you see Graves tonight?"
"No," said Dick, his lips tightening, "I didn't! But I heard about him,all right."
"How? What do you mean?"
"I heard that he'd been doing a lot of talking about you. He said itwasn't fair to have taken you and given you the honor of doing somethingwhen there were English boys who were just as capable of doing it asyou."
"Oh!" said Harry, with a laugh. "Much I care what he says!"
"Much I care, either!" echoed Dick. "But, Harry, he has made some of theother chaps feel that way, too. They all like you, and they don't likehim. But they do seem to think some of them should have been chosen."
"'Well, it's not my fault," said Harry, cheerfully. "I certainly wasn'tgoing to refuse. And it isn't as if I'd asked Mr. Wharton to pick meout."
"No, and I fancy there aren't many of them who would have done as wellas you did today, either!"
"Oh yes, they would! That wasn't anything. We'd better get to bed now. Ithink we ought to report just as early as we can in the morning. If weget away by seven o'clock, it won't be a bit too early."
"All right. I'll be ready. Good-night, Harry!"
"Good-night, Dick!"
Morning saw them u
p on time, and off to Ealing. There ColonelThrockmorton gave them their orders.
"I've requisitioned motorcycles for you," he said. "Make sure of thelocation of the house, so that you can mark it on an ordnance map forme. Then use your own judgment, but find the next house. I have hadletters prepared for you that will introduce you to either the mayor orthe military commander in any town you reach and you will get quartersfor the night, if you need them. Where do you think your search willlead you, Fleming?"
He eyed Harry sharply as he asked the question. "Somewhere on the Eastcoast, I think, sir," replied Harry.
"Well, that remains to be seen. Report by telegraph, using this code.It's a simplified version of the official code, but it contains all youwill need to use. That is all."
Finding the house, when they started on their motorcycles, did not proveas difficult a task as Harry had feared it might. They both remembered anumber of places they had marked from the cab windows, and it was notlong before they were sure they were drawing near.
"I remember that hill," said Harry. "By Jove--yes, there it is! On topof that hill, do you see? We won't go much nearer. I don't want them tosee us, by any chance. All we need is to notice which way they'resignalling."
They watched the house for some time before there was any sign of life.And then it was only the flashes that they saw. Since the previous daysome sort of cover had been provided for the man who did the signalling.
"What do you make of it, Dick?" asked Harry eagerly, after the flashinghad continued for some moments.
"It looks to me as if they were flashing toward the north and a littletoward the west," said Dick, puzzled.
"That's the way it seems to me, too," agreed Harry. "That isn't what weexpected, either, is it?"
"Of course we can't be sure."
"No, put it certainly looks that way. Well, we can't make sure fromhere, but we've got to do it somehow. I tell you what. We'll circlearound and get northwest of the house. Then we ought to be able to tella good deal better. And if we get far enough around, I don't believethey'll see us, or pay any attention to us if they do."
So they mounted their machines again, and in a few moments were speedingtoward a new and better spot from which to spy on the house. But this,when they reached it, only confirmed their first guess. The signals weremuch more plainly visible here, and it was obvious now, as it had notbeen before, that the screen they had noticed had been erected as muchto concentrate the flashes and make them more easily visible to areceiving station as to conceal the operator. So they turned and figureda straight line as well as they could from the spot where the flasheswere made. Harry had a map with him, and on this he marked, as well ashe could, the location of the house. Then he drew a line from it to thenorthwest.
"The next station must be on this line somewhere," he said. "We'll stickto it. There's a road, you see, that we can follow that's almoststraight. And as soon as we come to a high building we ought to be ableto see both flashes--the ones that are being sent from that house andthe answering signals. Do you see?"
"Yes, that'll be fine!" said Dick. "Come on!"
"Not so fast!" said a harsh voice behind them.
They spun around, and there, grinning a little, but looking highlydetermined and dangerous, was the same man they had seen the day before,and who had questioned them when the tire of their taxicab blew out! Butnow he was not in uniform, but in a plain suit of clothes.
"So you are spying on my house, are you?" he said. "And you lied to meyesterday! No troops were sent to Croydon at all!"
"Well, you hadn't any business to ask us!" said Dick, pluckily. "If youhadn't asked us any questions, we'd have told you no lies."
"I think perhaps you know too much," said the spy, nodding his head,"You had better come with me. We will look after you in this house thatinterests you so greatly."
He made a movement forward. His hand dropped on Dick's shoulder. But asit did so Harry's feet left the ground. He aimed for the spy's legs,just below the knee, and brought him to the ground with a beautifuldiving tackle--the sort he had learned in his American football days. Itwas the one attack of all others that the spy did not anticipate, if,indeed, he looked for any resistance at all. He wasn't a footballplayer, so he didn't know how to let his body give and strike the groundlimply. The result was that his head struck a piece of hard ground withabnormal violence, and he lay prone and very still.
"Oh, that was ripping, Harry!" cried Dick. "But do you think you'vekilled him?"
"Killed him? No!" said Harry, with a laugh.
"He's tougher than that, Dick!"
But he looked ruefully at the spy.
"I wish I knew what to do with him," he said. "He'll come to in a littlewhile. But--"
"We can get away while he's still out," said Dick, quickly. "He can'tfollow us and we can get such a start with our motorcycles."
"Yes, but he'll know their game is up," said Harry. "Don't you see,Dick? He'll tell them they're suspected--and that's all they'll need inthe way of warning. When men are doing anything as desperate as the sortof work they're up to in that house, they take no more chances than theyhave to. They'd be off at once, and start up somewhere else. We onlystumbled on this by mere accident--they might be able to work for weeksif they were warned."
"Oh, I never thought of that! What are we to do, then?'
"I wish I knew whether anyone saw us from the house or if they didn't--!Well, we'll have to risk that. Dick, do you see that house over there?It's all boarded up--it must be empty."
"Yes, I see it." Dick caught Harry's idea at once this time, and beganmeasuring with his eye the distance to the little house of which Harryhad spoken. "It's all down hill--I think we could manage it all right."
"We'll try it, anyhow," said Harry. "But first we'd better tie up hishands and feet. He's too strong for the pair of us, I'm afraid, if heshould come to."
Once that was done, they began to drag the spy toward the house. Halfcarrying, half pulling, they got him down the slope, and with a lastgreat effort lifted him through a window, which, despoiled of glass, hadbeen boarded up. They were as gentle as they could be, for the idea ofhurting a helpless man, even though he was a spy, went against thegrain. But--
"We can't be too particular," said Harry. "And he brought it on himself.I'm afraid he'll have worse than this to face later on."
They dumped him through the window, from which they had taken theboards. Then they made their own way inside, and Harry began to truss upthe prisoner more scientifically. He understood the art of tying a manvery well indeed, for one of the games of his old scout patrol hadinvolved tying up one scout after another to see if they could freethemselves. And when he had done, he stepped back with a smile ofsatisfaction.
"I don't believe he'll get himself free very soon," he said. "He'll belucky if that knock on the head keeps him unconscious for a long time,because he'll wake up with a headache, and if he stays as he is he won'tknow how uncomfortable he is."
"Are we going to leave him like that, Harry?"
"We've got to, Dick. But he'll be all right, I am going to telephone toColonel Throckmorton and tell him to send here for him, but to do so atnight, and so that no one will notice. He won't starve or die of thirst.I can easily manage to describe this place so that whoever the colonelsends will find it. Come on!"
They went back to their cycles and rode on until they came to a placewhere they could telephone. Harry explained guardedly, and they went on.