What a different story there would have been to tell had someone had that thought only half an hour earlier! But it is often so. The most trivial miscalculation, the most insignificant mistake, seemingly, may prove to be of the most vital importance. Dick went to the telephone. It was one of the old-fashioned sort, still in almost universal use in the rural parts of England, that require the use of a bell to call the central office. Dick turned the crank, then took down the receiver. At once he heard a confused buzzing sound that alarmed him. "I’m afraid the line is out of order, sir," he said. And after fifteen minutes it was plain that he was right. The wire had either been cut or it had fallen or been short circuited in some other way. Dick and Jack looked at one another blankly. The same thought had come to each of them, and at the same moment. "They’ve cut the wires!" said Dick. "Now what shall we do? We can’t hear from Harry, either!" "We might have guessed they’d do that!" said Jack. "They must have had some one out to watch us, Dick–perhaps they thought they’d have a chance to catch us. They know that we’ve found out something, you see! It’s a good thing we stayed where we could make people hear us if we got into any trouble." "Oh, nonsense!" said the vicar, suddenly. "You boys are letting your imaginations run away with you! Things like that don’t happen in England. The wire is just out of order. It happens often enough, Jack, as you know very well!" "Yes, sir," said Jack, doggedly. "But that’s in winter, or after a heavy storm–not in fine weather like this. I never knew the wire to be out of order before when it was the way it is now." "Well, there’s nothing to be done, in any case," said the vicar. "Be off to bed, and wait until morning. There’s nothing you can do now." Dick looked as if he were about to make some protest, but a glance at Jack restrained him. Instead he got up, said good-night and followed Jack upstairs. There he took his bath, except that he substituted cold water for the hot, for he could guess what Jack meant to do. They were going out again, that was certain. And, while it is easy to take cold, especially when one is tired, after a hot bath, there is no such danger if the water is cold. "Do you know where the telephone wire runs?" he asked Jack. "Yes, I do," said Jack. "I watched the men when they ran the wire in. There are only three telephones in the village, except for the one at Bray Park, and that’s a special, private wire. We have one here, Doctor Brunt has one, and there’s another in the garage. They’re all on one party line, too. We won’t have any trouble in finding out if the wire was cut, I fancy."