Part 17 (1/2)

Everybody laughed.

”It doesn't follow that he's a spy, just because he has three silver dollars. He may be a smuggler, all right enough. But I believe the smuggling is just a blind. If he were a genuine smuggler, he'd bring more than three dollars' worth of stuff across.”

”What have they done with his dollars now?” asked Roy eagerly.

”I don't know, Roy. The Chief got into instant touch with his men at El Paso as soon as I showed him the dollar Henry got. But I left before I knew what the outcome was. However, I have no doubt they will find that the dollars are what we suspect them to be.”

”Gee!” said Willie. ”To think that the wireless patrol found out about those dollars!”

”I guess the secret service knows by this time that boys are worth something,” smiled Roy. ”Before we get through, they may think so even more.”

”You're certainly not increasing in modesty,” laughed their leader.

”Well, I don't care,” said Roy hotly. ”It makes me tired. Everybody says, 'Oh! They're only boys.' Of course we're only boys, but look at what we've done. Why, the wireless patrol has got the best set of fellows----”

But Roy's protest was smothered in a burst of laughter from his fellows.

”Well, I'm glad you feel so good over what we've been fortunate enough to accomplish,” said Captain Hardy, ”for I fear there will be no more excitement for you. The Chief says his men now have the spy business well in hand, and that all he wants of us from now on is merely to stay here and catch their messages until he is ready to make his raid.”

”Just what I was saying,” burst out Roy indignantly. ”They won't let us in on their raid because 'we're only boys.' But who was it caught the dynamiters, if it wasn't 'just boys'? The men couldn't do it.

They tried twice and failed. Gee! It makes me tired.”

”Never mind, Roy,” said Captain Hardy smiling. ”Even if we don't have any further taste of excitement, we can always remember that we had a big part in catching these spies--for they're going to be caught, sure.

And you mustn't forget that if we stay here and do well the part a.s.signed to us, we are helping just as much as the men who actually round up the spies. You know Milton says 'They also serve who only stand and wait.' If there aren't any reserves to stand and wait behind the lines, the men on the firing-line do not dare to push ahead. And besides, Roy, it is seldom that four boys play so important a part in great deeds as you four boys already have played.”

”Four boys and a man,” corrected Henry. ”Without you we could never have gotten anywhere,” and Henry looked affectionately at his captain.

”Oh! Yes, I had a part in it,” agreed the captain, ”but it was only a part.”

”But you read the ciphers,” protested Henry. ”If you hadn't done that, we could not have made any headway at all.”

”And who caught the messages for me to decipher? The reason we have gotten along so well is because we work together so perfectly. I want to thank you boys for being so faithful. I've given you many hard tasks to do.”

”After our experiences at Camp Brady,” said Lew, ”we couldn't do anything else than be faithful. We know by experience what happens when we don't do our duty.”

”Then you are going to listen in during the remainder of the spy hunt,”

said Captain Hardy, with an affectionate smile, ”just as faithfully as though your work weren't already done and the spice gone out of it. I know it will be dull and uninteresting, boys, but you've made such a fine record that I don't want you to fall down now. So be very careful--if only for my sake.”

”They've never talked once,” said Henry ruefully, ”excepting after the transports sail. I don't suppose they ever will except when the s.h.i.+ps go out. We'll have to listen to nothing for twenty-four hours a day.

But we're going to do it just the same.”

He rose and walked toward the wireless room. ”It's back to the mines for me,” he added. And he disappeared through the doorway of the wireless room.

But hardly had he sat down and clamped the receiver to his ears before he cried out. His fellows came flocking into the room. Henry was swiftly writing a string of letters on a sheet of paper.

”Something of moment must be afoot,” said Captain Hardy, in a low voice, ”for them to be talking at this time. It must be important, indeed.”