Boy Scouts -- Juvenile fiction; Courage -- Juvenile fiction; Spy stories; World War, 1914-1918 -- England -- Juvenile fiction
As to just how he would try to get away, he did not try to plan. He
felt that somewhere along the route some chance would present itself,
and that it would be better to trust to that than to make some plan. He
was ordered to the front of the squad–so that a better eye could be kept
upon him, as the lieutenant put it. Harry had irritated him by his
attempts to cause a change in the disposition of Graves and himself, and
the officer gave the impression now that he regarded Harry as a
desperate criminal, already tried and convicted.
Harry counted upon the traffic, sure to increase as it grew later, to
give him his chance. Something accidental, he knew, there must be, or
he would not be able to get away. And it was not long before his chance
came. As they crossed a wide street there was a sudden outburst of
shouting. A runaway horse, dragging a delivery cart, came rushing down
on the squad, and in a moment it was broken up and confused. Harry
seized the chance. His bicycle, by a lucky chance, was a high geared
machine and before anyone knew he had gone he had turned a corner. In a
moment he threw himself off the machine, dragged it into a shop, ran
out, and in a moment dashed into another shop, crowded with customers.
And there for a moment, he stayed. There was a hue and cry outside. He
saw uniformed men, on bicycles, dashing by. He even rushed to the door
with the crowd in the shop to see what was amiss! And, when the chase
had passed, he walked out, very calmly, though his heart was in his
mouth, and quite unmolested got aboard a passing tram car.
He was counting on the stupidity and lack of imagination of the
lieutenant, and his course was hardly as bold as it seems. As a matter
of fact it was his one chance to escape. He knew what the officer would
think–that, being in flight, he would try to get away as quickly as
possible from the scene of his escape. And so, by staying there, he was
in the one place where no one would think of looking for him!
On the tram car he was fairly safe. It happened, fortunately, that he
had plenty of money with him. And his first move, when he felt it was
safe, was to get off the tram and look for a cab. He found a taxicab in
a short time, one of those that had escaped requisition by the
government, and in this he drove to an outfitting shop, where he bought
new clothes. He reasoned that he would be looked for all over, and that
if, instead of appearing as a Boy Scout in character dress of the
organization, he was in the ordinary clothes, he would have a better
chance. He managed the change easily, and then felt that it was safe for
him to try to get into communication with Dick.
In this attempt luck was with him again. He called for the number of
the vicarage at Bray, only to find that the call was interrupted again
at the nearest telephone center. But this time he was asked to wait,
and in a moment he heard Jack Young’s voice in his ear.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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