Part 23 (2/2)
”Not at all, old man. What about the Secret Service? With our knowledge of Belgium and its languages I should think they might find us employment that will be every whit as useful to the Allies as fighting in the ranks. And it will give me a chance, occasionally, to see what Schenk is up to, and, perhaps, to try another fall with him.”
”Well, _that_ doesn't sound so bad. Anyway it is good enough to think about a little more before we make up our minds. Now for Maastricht and that rest we've been chasing ever since we left Liege for the Ardennes.
At last there seems a chance of our getting it.”
At Maastricht Max had a joyful reception. His mother had never lost hope of his safe return, but the suspense had been trying, and the news from Liege had not been of a kind to rea.s.sure her. However, here he was back again, safe and sound, and in that fact all fears and anxieties were forgotten. Dale shared in the welcome, and for a week or two the friends stayed happily at home. Then the leaven began to work again, and one day Dale found Max going carefully through the miscellaneous lot of papers which he had taken from his father's safe along with the money and securities on which his mother had since been living.
”Business, eh?” he enquired jocularly.
”Something of the sort,” admitted Max. ”Looking through those old papers we raided out of Schenk's clutches. Some of them are his and not my father's, and I can see why he was so anxious to get them back again.
Why, here is correspondence--between the rascal and someone who, I expect, is an agent of the German Government--dating back years before the war, in which Schenk is instructed to prepare the Durend works for the eventuality of a German occupation of Liege. It's all here, even to the laying down of concrete gun-platforms, one of which the impudent beggar disguised as our tennis-court.”
”Good! Anything else?”
”Nothing quite so good as that. Plans of the Durend mines and works and such-like. They may be useful some day.”
”When we get rid of Schenk, eh? That will be some time yet, so you need not bother your head about plans of the works. In fact, to put it mildly--I don't want to hurt your feelings--I expect the place will be so altered when you get it back that you won't recognize it, and those plans will be of mighty little use to you or anyone else.”
”Yes,” replied Max thoughtfully. ”You're referring to Schenk's threat that, if ever the Germans had to leave Liege, he would smash up the works so thoroughly that not one brick would be left upon another?”
”Aye.”
”He's just the man to do it.”
”He is that. And the less reason for you to bother about the place. It's no use worrying; it can't be helped.”
”I'm not so sure. Anyway I'm going to do what I can to save the place.
As for these papers of Schenk's, I'm going to hand them over to the British consul. They'll be useful, I don't doubt, as one more proof of Germany's deep-laid plans for war.”
Max did as he proposed, and the papers were accepted with alacrity and forwarded to the British Foreign Office. At the same time Max made application on his own and Dale's behalf for employment in Belgium as members of the British Secret Service. After a week or two's delay, during which time enquiries no doubt were being made into their credentials, an official arrived with the necessary doc.u.ments, and after a long conversation, detailing exactly what was required of them, Max and Dale were accepted and enrolled.
A few days later they had said good-bye to their home in quiet Maastricht and were away across the frontier, in the great whirlpool of the war once more.
They resumed the disguises of Walloon workmen, which had already served them in such good stead, and applied for work in Liege and all the big towns of Belgium. For two years and more they worked steadily, in different workshops up and down the country, gathering news and transmitting it faithfully to the agents of the British Government. They were cool and reliable observers, and their information was found to be so uniformly accurate that it was relied upon more and more as the months went by.
CHAPTER XXI
The Great Coup
At the commencement of their work in the Secret Service, Max and Dale visited Liege, and, while collecting information there, thought out and put into operation a far-reaching plan that they hoped might checkmate Schenk's schemes for the destruction of the Durend works when the Germans should be forced to evacuate the city. It was a plan formulated after they had again got into touch with M. Dubec and the small band of men who still loyally refused to work in the interests of the invaders.
M. Dubec had imparted to them the information--not unexpected--that Schenk had placed mines under all the workshops, and put everything in readiness for blowing them into the air whenever he should wish to do so.
”I have it from one of the men who actually helped to dig and fill them, Monsieur. He was not allowed to help in the wiring, and he believes this was done secretly at night, by Germans whom Schenk knew he could trust.”
”So you know that the shops are mined, but do not know where the wires run?”
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