Part 20 (1/2)

”March!” he said. ”Don't try to get away--I've got a leading rope, you see.”

He did have a loose end of rope, left over from a knot, and with this he proceeded to lead the enraged German to the automobile. It looked for all the world as if he were leading a dog, and for a moment d.i.c.k doubled up in helpless laughter. The whole episode had its comic side, but it was serious, too.

”Now we've got to draw off the gasoline in the tank in this bucket,” said Harry. The German had been bestowed in the tonneau, and made as comfortable as possible with rugs and cus.h.i.+ons. His feet were securely tied again, and there was no chance for him to escape.

”What are you going to do?” asked d.i.c.k. ”Are you going to try to fly in that machine?”

”I don't know, yet. But I'm going to have it ready, so that I can if I need to,” said Harry. ”That Bleriot may be the saving of us yet, d.i.c.k.

There's no telling what we shall have to do.”

Even as he spoke Harry was making new plans, rendered possible by this gift from the skies. He was beginning, at last, to see a way to circ.u.mvent the Germans. What he had in mind was risky, certainly, and might prove perilous in the extreme. But he did not let that aspect of the situation worry him.

His one concern was to foil the terrible plan that the Germans had made, and he was willing to run any risk that would help him to do so.

”That Zeppelin is coming here to Bray Park--it's going to land here,” said Harry. ”And if it ever gets away from here there will be no way of stopping it from doing all the damage they have planned, or most of it. Thanks to Graves, we wouldn't be believed if we told what we knew--we'd probably just be put in the guard house. So we've got to try to stop it ourselves.”

They had reached the Bleriot by that time. Harry filled the tank, and looked at the motor. Then he sat in the driver's seat and practiced with the levers, until he decided that he understood them thoroughly. And, as he did this, he made his decision.

”I'm going into Bray Park to-night,” he said. ”This is the only way to get in.”

”And I'm going with you,” announced d.i.c.k.

CHAPTER XVIII

VINDICATION

At first Harry refused absolutely to consent to d.i.c.k's accompanying him, but after a long argument he was forced to yield.

”Why should you take all the risks when it isn't your own country, especially?” asked d.i.c.k, almost sobbing. ”I've got a right to go! And, besides, you may need me.”

That was true enough, as Harry realized. Moreover, he had been investigating the Bleriot, and he discovered that it was one of a new safety type, with a gyroscope device to insure stability. The day was almost without wind, and therefore it seemed that if such an excursion could ever be safe, this was the time. He consented in the end, and later he was to be thankful that he had.

Once the decision was taken, they waited impatiently for the return of Jack Young. Harry foresaw protests from Jack when he found out what they meant to do, but for him there was an easy answer--there was room in the aeroplane for only two people, and there was no way of carrying an extra pa.s.senger.

It was nearly dusk when Jack returned, and he had the forethought to bring a basket of food with him--cold chicken, bread and b.u.t.ter, and milk, as well as some fruit.

”I didn't find out very much,” he said, ”except this. Someone from London has been asking about you both. And this much more--at least a dozen people have come down to Bray Park to-day from London.”

”Did you see any sign of soldiers from London?”

”No,” said Jack.

He was disappointed when he found out what they meant to do, but he took his disappointment pluckily when he saw that there was no help for it.

Harry explained very quietly to both Jack and d.i.c.k what he meant to do and they listened, open mouthed, with wonder.

”You'll have your part to play, Jack,” said Harry. ”Somehow I can't believe that the letter I wrote to Colonel Throckmorton last night won't have some effect. You have got to scout around in case anyone comes and tell them all I've told you. You understand thoroughly, do you?”

”Yes,” said Jack, quietly. ”When are you going to start?”

”There's no use going up much before eleven o'clock,” said Harry. ”Before that we'd be seen, and, besides, if a Zeppelin is coming, it wouldn't be until after that. My plan is to scout to the east and try to pick her up and watch her descend. I think I know just about where she'll land--the only place where there's room for her. And then--”