CHAPTER XXI
Pamela's Night Walk
Pamela went back to Moss Cottage with new courage. The secret, which hadalmost overwhelmed her when she had tried to bear it alone, assumed adifferent aspect now she shared it with her friends. Captain Harper hadtaken the full responsibility of the affair, and as one of His Majesty'sofficers she knew he could be trusted. She placed herself entirely inhis hands, and followed his directions implicitly. To keep watch withoutarousing her uncle's suspicions was to be her present role. Under coverof going to tea with the Watsons, she met Captain Harper at Walden, andlearnt from him the Morse code. Once she had mastered that, she was ableto write down some of the wireless messages. To her they were absolutelyunintelligible, for they were in cipher, but she made a faithful recordof what she heard through the receiver, and sent it by David or Anthonyto the young officer.
For the moment Captain Harper acknowledged himself baffled.
"We have the keys to a number of ciphers, but there's one here we don'tunderstand. It's solely for this reason we're allowing this wirelessapparatus at Moss Cottage to remain where it is. Pamela must use allher ingenuity to discover the key to the cipher. She's the only personwho has the opportunity of doing so. If we were to arrest Mr. Hockheimerat once we might or might not find treasonable papers upon him. It isdoubtful if we should learn his secret."
To David and Anthony the affair was of the supremest interest. Theyenvied Pamela her unique chance of serving her country. They were gladenough to be employed as carriers, and would take the notes from herwhen they met her in the morning, and, according to arrangement, conveythem to Captain Harper. Sometimes they took them direct to the Camp,after they returned from school, and sometimes they handed them to anorderly who would be strolling about near the station. As for Pamela,she lived from day to day in a ferment of expectation, waiting andwatching for her opportunity. And one evening she found it. Mr.Hockheimer had come, as was his custom, to Moss Cottage, and had set hisniece to listen for messages while he took his ease in the house. For anhour or more Pamela had sat with the receiver to her ears, but had heardnothing. At last came the familiar humming. She jotted down the letters,put the paper safely in her pocket, and ran up the garden to warn heruncle. That night he had been drinking more heavily than usual. Helurched in his walk as he approached the stable, and it was withdifficulty that he climbed the ladder. Pamela followed him nervously.His hands shook as he fitted on the receiver, but he nevertheless tookdown the message. Then he paused, and seemed to be calculatingsomething out on the paper. She crept a little nearer. He was toomuddled to realize her approach. She peeped over his shoulder unnoticed.In his half-drunken condition he was working out the cipher and writingit down. She copied it word by word. It was in German.
"U-boot auf Aermelmeere heute Abend. Zeigen Licht auf Berry Head."
Pamela backed away cautiously towards the ladder. Just as she reached ither uncle turned round and called to her.
"Give me a hand, Pam! Don't feel--very well to-night," he stammeredthickly. "Got to go out, too. Must go home and get the car. Little storeof petrol they don't know about! And I shan't tell them either!" (Hehinnied at his own joke.) "Give me your hand."
He leaned heavily on his niece, and she helped him down the ladder. Shewatched him as he stumbled along the narrow path in the darkness. Hecalled to her, but she did not follow him to the cottage. Instead, shewent to the palings and scrambled over into the high road. She surmisedthat she had surprised a most important secret, one which she felt mustbe communicated at once to head-quarters. It was absolutely necessarythat Captain Harper should know of this. By warning him in time shemight prevent some great disaster. She must get to the Camp as quicklyas possible. It was late, long past eleven o'clock (Mr. Hockheimer hadhad no compunction in keeping his niece out of bed to mind hisbusiness), and the night was moonless. Pamela shuddered as she thoughtof the long, lonely walk before her. Could she find the Camp in thedark? A sudden inspiration struck her. She would hurry to the Watsonsinstead and ask one of the boys to go on a bicycle. She ran almost allthe way along the familiar road to Walden. She found the house shut upand the family gone to bed, but she made a rat-tat with the knocker thatsoon roused them.
"What is it?" cried David out of the window.
"It's I--Pamela! I've brought news!" she gasped.
The Watsons were downstairs directly. They listened breathlessly to thestory she had to tell. David and Anthony hurried to the outhouse fortheir bicycles, and set off at once for the Camp to find Captain Harper.Who could say how much might depend on their speed?
Pamela watched them go with a feeling of intense relief. Her part of thebusiness was finished; she had now set the machinery in motion thatwould accomplish the rest. The reaction after the intense strain was sogreat that she burst into tears.
"I must go home!" she sobbed. "Mother will think I am lost!"
"Daphne and I will go with you. I can't let you walk back alone at thistime of night," said Mrs. Watson kindly. "If you'll take my advice,dear, you'll tell your mother everything now. She ought to know."
Pamela's friends escorted her to the door of Moss Cottage and left herthere. What explanation she gave to her mother they never knew. Theyfeared there was great unpleasantness in store for the Reynolds, for Mr.Hockheimer was sure to be arrested, and the fact that it must be throughhis niece's instrumentality only seemed to make matters worse. David andAnthony returned with the news that they had roused Captain Harper atthe Camp, and that after reading the message he had ridden offimmediately upon his motor bicycle. They went to bed wondering whatwould be happening while they slept.
The boys looked out for Pamela next morning on the road to the station,but she was not there. The train for once went without her. They spentan agitated day at school and hurried back from Netherton that afternoonat topmost speed. They found Captain Harper in the garden at Walden. Helooked very grave.
"Do you know what that message was you brought me?" he asked."Translated into English it meant, 'U-boat in Channel to-night. Showlight on Berry Head.' I hear a certain important vessel had an extremelynarrow escape last night. The wireless apparatus at Moss Cottage hasbeen taken down already. The police went up there this morning."
"And Mr. Hockheimer?"
Captain Harper knocked the end off his cigarette before he answered.
"Mr. Hockheimer has gone to settle his great account. He and his carwere found in the river at Chadwick this morning. The road turns at avery sharp angle there on to the bridge, and it is thought that in thedarkness he missed his way and went over the bank. There is not a shadowof doubt that he was going to give signals to the enemy. We had longsuspected him as a spy, and part of my business down here had been towatch him. In the circumstances this has been the most merciful thingthat could have happened. For the sake of the Reynolds we are hushingthe matter up. There is no need for it to be bruited about theneighbourhood. Your family are the only people who have any knowledge ofthe affair. I can trust you to keep it from going further."
"On our honour!" the boys assured him.
The "sad fatality at Chadwick Bridge" made a sensation in the localnewspapers. An inquest was held on Mr. Hockheimer, and a verdict of"Death from misadventure" returned. Though many people in theneighbourhood may have had their suspicions as to the nature of hiserrand on that dark night, no evidence of an incriminating nature wasbrought before the coroner. He was buried at Lyngates in the Reynolds'sfamily vault, where his wife had been carried two years before. He hadleft no will, and the question of who was to inherit the Lyngatesproperty might be a matter for Chancery to settle. By the advice of theold solicitor who had managed the estate for many years, Mrs. Reynoldsand Pamela took temporary possession of the Hall until a claim could beset up on their behalf. At the time of Squire Reynolds's death it hadbeen the current gossip of the village that some later will than theone proved must be in existence. If such a will had been made, however,it had never been found. The only possible clue seemed to be t
he letterthat David and Anthony had found inside the Latin dictionary, which hadfallen into the hands of Mr. Hockheimer, and had been so strangelyrescued from destruction by Captain Harper when masquerading asSpring-heeled Jack. The latter reported that at the time he had examinedthe half-burnt sheet, anticipating that it might contain treasonablecorrespondence, but had been unable to make sense of it. In accordancewith instructions he had handed it over to his Colonel, and he supposedit would now be filed in the Secret Service Department. Red tape mightprevent repossession of the original, but he was using his influence toobtain a copy. After considerable delay a reply came from the War Officeto the effect that the paper in question appeared to have been partiallyburnt, but that the remaining fragment ran as follows:--
bitter thoughts against you, but love for your country has are, and I am ready to acknowledge your to see them, should they ever come to gones shall be bygones now. I am in your favour, and shall put it is sure to be found, both die, they will be provided
WHO COULD SAY HOW MUCH MIGHT DEPEND ON THEIR SPEED?]
"I'm afraid it's no use in a court of law, Pamela," said Captain Harper,as he showed her the copy of the paper. "It's the merest scrap. Byimagining the missing words we might make it into something like this;but imagination won't give it legal value. Here's what I fancy it mayhave been:"
I own I held hard and / bitter thoughts against you, but now I feel that your / love for your country has shown me what you / are, and I am ready to acknowledge your wife and child, and / to see them, should they ever come to England. By / gones shall be bygones now. I am making a new will / in your favour, and shall put it in a place where it / is sure to be found, so that should we / both die, they will be provided for. /
"If this surmise is correct," continued Captain Harper, "and therereally was a new will, it may possibly be hidden somewhere at the Hall."
"We've searched everywhere," said Pamela sadly. "Two lawyer's clerkshave been here and gone through every morsel of paper in the house, andturned out every drawer and cupboard. I think myself that perhaps UncleFritz may have found it and destroyed it. Mother and I spend all ourspare time looking, but we never have any luck. I don't think we'relucky people. We seem just to have misfortune after misfortune. It hasalways been like this all our lives."
"Cheer up! It's a long lane that has no turning," comforted CaptainHarper. "I advise you to show this paper to your solicitor, though I'mafraid it's nothing to go by."
Pamela's affairs did indeed seem to have reached a crisis. Her fortuneswere much discussed in the neighbourhood, and general opinion decidedthat she would have difficulty in establishing legally her right to whatundoubtedly ought to be hers. Several naturalized German relations ofMr. Hockheimer had put in counter-claims for the estate. There waslikely to be a long and expensive lawsuit before the case was settled.
Then one day a wonderful thing occurred--an utterly unexpected andmarvellous thing, but one that--thank God!--has happened in otherfamilies since the war began. The postwoman who delivered the letter didnot know that it differed from other letters; she popped it through theslit in the front door and rang the bell as usual, and went on her way,all unsuspecting what news she had left behind her. Yet when Mrs.Reynolds saw the handwriting on the envelope she gave a little sharp cryand fainted away. Pamela did not go to school that day nor the next. Shewrote to Avelyn to explain her absence. The latter read the letter twicebefore her amazed brain could really grasp its contents.
"MY DEAR AVE,
"I hardly know how to tell you our good luck. Daddy is alive! He wasn't killed at Mons after all. He was taken prisoner and never reported. He was kept most fearfully strictly in a fortress and allowed no news of the outside world. He and a companion spent eighteen months making a tunnel out of their cell, and after simply thrilling adventures they escaped, and swam a river and got into Swiss territory. He's coming home, and Mother and I are going up to London to meet him. We're almost off our heads!
"Will you please tell Miss Thompson this is why I'm not at school? We start for town to-morrow morning.
"Much love from "PAM."
It was indeed a most happy ending to all the troubles of poor Mrs.Reynolds and Pamela. By the will which had already been proved, CaptainReynolds inherited his father's estate, which had only passed to thedaughter Dora in default of a male heir. He was soon able to settle upthe legal side of the matter and to obtain formal possession of thewhole property.
"I've made my own will now, and left everything safely tied up for youand your Mother before I go out to the front again," he told hisdaughter.
"Oh, Daddy! must you leave us and go back to France?" wailed Pamela.
"Every hour I spent in that fortress, Pam, made me all the more resolvedto help to fight this war to the finish. Would you want me to shirk andfail my country? I know you better than that. Tell me again what youtold me in 1914."
And Pamela stood up straight, and with a light in her eyes repeated:
"Though it tear and break my heart I let you go. When the Motherland is calling, Be it so! Let my own poor need and grief Be set aside, That justice and the right May now abide.
"God put courage and true might In your arm! May His mercy keep your life Safe from harm! Every hour my earnest prayer Shall be this: May we meet and greet again With a kiss."