Boy Scouts -- Juvenile fiction; Courage -- Juvenile fiction; Spy stories; World War, 1914-1918 -- England -- Juvenile fiction
It was just outside of Bray Park–he remembered it now. A tiny box of a
place it was, too, but solidly built of stone. It might have been used
as a tool house. There was one window; that and the door were the only
means of egress. The German looked hard at the window and laughed.
Dick saw then that it was barred. To get out that way, even if he had
the chance, would be impossible. And the guard evidently decided that.
He lay down across the door.
"So!" he said. "I shall sleep–but with one ear open! You cannot get
out except across me. And I am a light sleeper!"
Dick sat there, pondering wretchedly. The man who had been struck on
the head was breathing stertorously. His companion soon dropped off to
sleep, like the German, so that Dick was the only one awake. Through
the window, presently, came the herald of the dawn, the slowly advancing
light. And suddenly Dick saw a shadow against the light, looked up
intently, and saw that it was Jack Young. Jack pointed. Dick, not quite
understanding, moved to the spot at which he pointed.
"Stay there!" said Jack, soundlessly. His lips formed the words but he
did not utter them. He nodded up and down vehemently, however, and Dick
understood him, and that he was to stay where he was. He nodded in
return, and settled down in his new position. And then Jack dropped out
of sight.
For a long time, while the dawn waxed and the light through the window
grew stronger, Dick sat there wondering. Only the breathing of the
three men disturbed the quiet of the little hut. But then, from behind
him, he grew conscious of a faint noise. Not quite a noise, either; it
was more a vibration. He felt the earthen floor of the hut trembling
beneath him. And then at last he understood.
He had nearly an hour still to wait. But at last the earth cracked and
yawned where he had been sitting. He heard a faint whisper.
"Dig it out a little–there’s a big hole underneath. You can squirm your
way through. I’m going to back out now."
Dick obeyed, and a moment later he was working his way down, head first,
through the tunnel Jack had dug from the outside. He was small and
slight and he got through, somehow, though he was short of breath and
dirtier than he had ever been in his life when at last he was able to
straighten up–free.
"Come on!" cried Jack. "We’ve no time to lose. I’ve got a couple of
bicycles here. We’d better run for it."
Run for it they did, but there was no alarm. Behind them was the hut,
quiet and peaceful. And beyond the hut was the menace of Bray Park and
the mysteries of which the Germans had spoken in the great grey motor
car.
CHAPTER VIII–A DARING RUSE
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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