Part 13 (1/2)
They slipped out quietly, within ten minutes of the time when they were put in the guard tent. Quietly still, and using every bit of Scout craft that they knew, they made their way to the shelter of the woods, wondering every minute why some alarm was not raised. But a dead silence still prevailed behind them when they crept into the sheltering shadow of the trees, and, once there, they straightened up and began to more fast.
First they went some distance into the woods, so as to lessen the danger of discovery should their absence from the tent be discovered, and then they struck out boldly in the direction which they had traveled only a short time before, making their way back toward the place where they had left Tom and the grey scout car.
”Gee,” said Pete, drawing a long breath, ”that certainly was easy! You were right, Jack. I thought they must be setting some sort of a trap for us. It didn't really seem as if they could be going to leave things fixed so nicely for us. Why, they might better have turned us loose at once! Then someone with more sense might have picked us up and really held on to us before we could get out.”
”They ought to be licked for being so careless,” said Jack. ”I'll put everything that happened in the camp into my report. I'll bet the next time they get prisoners, they'll look after them all right! It makes me sore, because they're supposed to be learning how to act in case of a real war just as much as we are, and it shows that there's an awful lot of things they don't know at all.”
In the east now the first faint stirrings of the light of the coming moon that would soon make the country light began to show.
”I'm glad we got through so soon, anyhow,” said Jack, then. ”For Tom Binns' sake, mostly. It must have been scary work for him, just sitting there in the dark, waiting for us.”
”He won't have to wait much longer, Jack. He's certainly a plucky one! I know that waiting that way scares him half to death, but you never hear a peep out of him. He just does as he's told, and never whimpers at all.”
”He's got what's really the highest courage of all, though he doesn't know it himself, Pete. He's got the pluck to do things when he's deadly afraid of doing them. There are a lot of people like that who are accused of being cowards, when they're really heroes for trying to do things they're afraid of. I've got much more respect for them than I have for people who aren't afraid of things. There's nothing brave about doing a thing you're not afraid of.”
”There's the car now, Jack! We haven't wasted much time coming back, anyhow.”
Jack put his hand to his lips and imitated the cry of a crow. That was the sign of the Crow Patrol, to which all three of the Scouts belonged.
”There comes his answer! That means the coast is clear. I was half afraid they might have caught him and the car. It wouldn't have done at all for us to escape as we have and then walk into a trap here--that would make us look pretty foolish, it seems to me.”
”You're right it would, Jack. h.e.l.lo, Tom! Anything doing here while we were gone?”
”Not a thing! How on earth did you get back so soon? Did you get what you were looking for?”
”I guess we did! Get the spark plug in, Tom, and we'll be off.”
A few moments saw them on the road again, and moving fast. In the distance now, as they sped along, Jack's practiced ear caught a strange sound, and he slowed down so that he might listen the better.
”Say,” he cried, in sudden excitement, ”that's another car! And what's an automobile doing here at this time of night?”
The same thought came to the three of them at once.
”I wonder if it's one of their scout cars,” cried Tom Binns, voicing the thought. ”I've been thinking it was funny we hadn't run into them at all, Jack.”
”Well, we'll have to look out if it is,” said Jack.
The sound grew louder, and it was soon apparent that the other car was coming toward them. Jack slowed down, and kept to a slow pace, keeping his car as much as possible in the shadow of the trees that hung over one side of the road. The other car came on fast, and, as it swept around a bend of the road that had hidden it from them, they were almost blinded by the great ray from the searchlight it carried. Jack himself had been running without lights of any sort, for greater safety from detection.
As soon as the driver of the other car saw the machine in which the three Scouts were riding, he slowed down. It came alongside in a few moments and a man leaned out and hailed Jack.
”What are you doing here?” he cried, and then, before Jack could answer the question: ”Come on, men, it's one of their cars! We've got to capture them!”
As he spoke he slewed his car around, so that it half filled the road, and two men leaped to the ground and made for Jack's car.
But Jack had a different plan. He had no mind to surrender tamely now when victory was within his grasp. In a moment the big grey car shot down the road, and the next moment it was roaring at full speed ahead.
Behind it, after a stunned moment of surprise and silent inaction, thundered the other car, a scout car of the Blue army.
”Gee, this is going to be a real road race!” yelled Jack. ”That car is this one's twin. They can go just as fast as we can. And they're stronger than we are, if they ever catch us--three men to three boys.