Part 8 (1/2)
”Yes, but he'll know their game is up,” said Harry. ”Don't you see, d.i.c.k?
He'll tell them they're suspected--and that's all they'll need in the way of warning. When men are doing anything as desperate as the sort of work they're up to in that house, they take no more chances than they have to.
They'd be off at once, and start up somewhere else. We only stumbled on this by mere accident--they might be able to work for weeks if 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! If they didn't--!
Well, we'll have to risk that. d.i.c.k, do you see that house over there? It's all boarded up--it must be empty.”
”Yes, I see it.” d.i.c.k caught Harry's idea at once this time, and began measuring with his eye the distance to the little house of which Harry had 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 his hands and feet. He's too strong for the pair of us, I'm afraid, if he should come to.”
Once that was done, they began to drag the spy toward the house. Half carrying, half pulling, they got him down the slope, and with a last great effort lifted him through a window, which, despoiled of gla.s.s, had been boarded up. They were as gentle as they could be, for the idea of hurting a helpless man, even though he was a spy, went against the grain. 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 the boards.
Then they made their own way inside, and Harry began to truss up the prisoner more scientifically. He understood the art of tying a man very well indeed, for one of the games of his old scout patrol had involved tying up one scout after another to see if they could free themselves. And when he had done, he stepped back with a smile of satisfaction.
”I don't believe he'll get himself free very soon,” he said. ”He'll be lucky 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't know how uncomfortable he is.”
”Are we going to leave him like that, Harry?”
”We've got to, d.i.c.k. But he'll be all right. I am going to telephone to Colonel Throckmorton and tell him to send here for him, but to do so at night, 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 colonel sends will find it. Come on!”
They went back to their cycles and rode on until they came to a place where they could telephone. Harry explained guardedly, and they went on.
CHAPTER VI
THE MYSTERY OF BRAY PARK
”I hope he'll be all right,” said d.i.c.k.
”They'll find him, I'm sure,” said Harry. ”Even if they don't, he'll be all right for a few days--two or three, anyhow. A man can be very uncomfortable and miserable, and still not be in any danger. We don't need half as much food as we eat, really. I've heard that lots of times.”
They were riding along the line that Harry had marked on his map, and, a mile or two ahead, there was visible an old-fas.h.i.+oned house, with a tower projecting from its centre. From this, Harry had decided, they should be able to get the view they required and so locate the second heliographing station.
”How far away do you think it ought to be, Harry?” asked d.i.c.k.
”It's very hard to tell, d.i.c.k. A first-cla.s.s heliograph is visible for a very long way, if the conditions are right. That is, if the sun is out and the ground is level. In South Africa, for instance, or in Egypt, it would work for nearly a hundred miles, or maybe even more. But here I should think eight or ten miles would be the limit. And it's cloudy so often that it must be very uncertain.”
”Why don't they use flags, then?”
”The way we do in the scouts? Well, I guess that's because the heliograph is so much more secret. You see, with the heliograph the flashes are centered. You've got to be almost on a direct line with them, or not more than fifty yards off the centre line, to see them at all, even a mile away.
But anyone can see flags, and read messages, unless they're in code. And if these people are German spies, the code wouldn't help them. Having it discovered that they were sending messages at all would spoil their plans.”