Part 6 (1/2)
I'll stay behind, and you run on around the bend, drop out of the car, quietly, and leave it at the side of the road.”
”Will that be safe, Jack? Couldn't anyone who came along run off with it?”
”Not if you take the spark plug out and put it in your pocket. That cripples the car absolutely, and you ought always to do that, even if you just leave a car outside a store for a couple of minutes when you go in to buy something. This car is great, too, because you don't have to crank it. It has a self-starting device, so that you can start the motor automatically without leaving your seat.”
”All right, Jack. What am I to do after I leave the car?”
”Work up quietly into the woods there. When you get up a way, scout down easily, and try to trail them. You'll find traces of them up there on the ridge, I'm sure, if they're really up there. I'll do the same thing from the other side here. I think we've got a good chance to break one of their signalling relays, don't you see?”
”I'll take my flags along, shall I, Jack?”
”Good idea! No telling what we'll be able to find out and do here. All right--I'm going to drop out now!”
The car slowed down and he dropped off silently, and laughed as he saw Tom Binns guide the big machine off into the light beyond the covered bridge again. Then, the laughter gone from his face, he slipped cautiously back in the opposite direction, and at the entrance to the bridge dropped down to the bed of the creek. The season had been dry, and the water in the creek was very shallow. His plan was definite in his own mind, and he had had enough experience in scouting to know that there was at least a good chance of success in his enterprise, although a difficult one.
His destination was the ridge where Tom Binns had seen the flas.h.i.+ng of red and white signal flags. Step by step now, climbing slowly and carefully, he made his way up the bank, sure that even if whoever was on the ridge had guessed the ruse of the way in which he had left the automobile, they would not be looking for an attack from the direction in which he was making his stealthy, Indian-like advance. Another reason for slow and deliberate progress was to give Tom Binns time to reach the ridge, and take up a position favorable for the playing of his part in the scheme.
Before him now, as he moved on, he could hear sounds of quiet and stealthy movement, and at last, standing before him, as he peeped through a small opening in the thick undergrowth, he could see a Boy Scout, standing stiff and straight, and working his signal flags. He had to stand on a high spot and in a clearing to do this, as otherwise, of course, his flags could not have been seen at any distance. Jack measured the place with his eyes. His whole plan would collapse if the body of the signalling Scout were visible from the next relay stations, but he quickly decided that only the flags would show.
From behind the Scout with the flags now came the call of a crow--caw, caw, caw!
Jack grinned as he answered it. For a moment a look of suspicious alertness showed on the face of the Blue Scout. He whirled around to face the sound behind him, and in the moment that his back was turned Jack sprang on him.
The Blue Scout put up a fine struggle, but he was helpless against the combined attack of Jack Danby and Tom Binns, who sprang to his comrade's aid as soon as he saw what Jack had done.
”Two to one isn't fair,” gasped Jack as he sat on his prisoner's chest, ”but we had to do it. This is war, you see, and they say all's fair in love and war. Who are you?”
”Canfield, Tiger Patrol, Twenty-first Troop, Hampton's Scouts,” said the prisoner. ”Detailed for Scout service with the Blue army. You got me fair and square. We caught one of your fellows near Mardean, we heard, soon after the war began. Sorry--but it's all in the game.
”How on earth did you get to me so quietly? I was watching you in the road by the bridge, and I thought you'd gone off in your car. You certainly fooled me to the queen's taste.”
”Fortune of war,” said Jack. ”The car gave us a big advantage. You're not to blame a bit. I guess you'll be exchanged pretty soon, too. We'll give you for Warner, you see. He's the one of our Troop who was caught.
And a fair exchange isn't any robbery.”
”Have we got to tie him up?” asked Tom Binns.
”Not if he'll give his parole not to escape or accept a rescue,” said Jack. ”How about that, Canfield? Will you give me your word of honor?
I'm Jack Danby, a.s.sistant Patrol Leader of the Crow Patrol of Durland's Troop, and ranking as a corporal for the maneuvers in the Red army.”
”I'll give you my parole all right,” said Canfield. He saluted stiffly.
”Glad to meet you, Corporal Danby. Sorry the tables aren't turned, though. We've got a special dinner for our prisoners to-night--but we haven't caught many prisoners yet, worse luck!”
”All right! See if the flags are just the same, Tom.”
Tom Binns compared the flags captured from Canfield with those he himself carried.
”They're exactly the same,” he said. ”We can use either his or ours. It doesn't make any difference.”