NOT CAUGHT NAPPING.
Frank was perfectly satisfied with the promise given him by Major Nixon.
He knew the bluff British soldier would keep his word to the letter.
While the man who had been caught hiding in the hangar of the young
American aviators would be taken to a place of security and kept
carefully guarded, in order to prevent his knowledge concerning the
contemplated aërial raid from leaking out, at the same time his life
would not pay the penalty of his capture.
After some more conversation covering the matter Frank, knowing the
other to be very busy, took his leave.
"A last word of warning, my boy," said the soldier, after shaking hands.
"Keep on the alert wherever you go in Dunkirk. While the place itself is
loyal, and is thronged now with soldiers of every type, at the same time
we know there are many secret sympathizers with the other side here
trying to learn the plans of our generals, so that they can communicate
them to the Kaiser's leaders."
"But why should I be picked out for trouble?" asked Frank.
"Because they know that you are here to complete a deal entered into
with the French Government in connection with your wonderful seaplane
before this war was dreamed of. They would be willing to do something to
prevent you from standing between their plans and the securing or
destroying of the machine in the hangar."
"I had not thought of it in that light," said Frank, disturbed more or
less.
"Pardon me for saying it," continued the Major, "but they understand
that if you could only be made to disappear your companions would be
much easier to hoodwink, and their plans looking toward destroying the
_Sea Eagle_ would be crowned with success. You will be doubly careful,
Frank, I hope."
The boy promised this. Even though he might not be willing to admit that
these secret agents of the Kaiser would dream of attempting any
violence, at the same time he saw the soldier was really concerned about
him.
So they parted with mutual good wishes.
Frank found himself again on the streets of the French seacoast city.
Dunkirk was a far different place in these strenuous war times from the
other days, when peace lay upon the land, and men went about their
customary vocations of fishing, trading, and disposing of the products
of the rich soil.
Now everywhere he looked Frank could see soldiers, and then more
soldiers. They thronged the principal streets, and passed in and out of
the shops buying things that appealed to their fancy. There were all
manner of strange foreign troops to be met with--Gurkhas from far-away
India; Canadians who resembled the Rough Riders of our own Spanish War
times; Colonials from Australia or New Zealand; and many others who
interested the boy very much.
Then, with the warning of Major Nixon still ringing in his ears, Frank
suddenly became aware of the fact that he himself was an object of
interest, though there was nothing about his make-up calculated to
attract attention in all that strange collection of men from the four
quarters of the globe.
Several times, on glancing hastily about him, he had noticed a certain
man dressed like a citizen apparently staring into the window of a
store. Frank began to believe the man was following him, and so he made
a test to prove it.
"I like that, now," he said to himself, with a chuckle when again he
found that he had not shaken the unknown off his track by slipping into
a certain side street, for the man was standing there on the curb as he
turned, and calmly brushing his sleeve as though utterly unconcerned.
"I wonder if they would dare try to stop me on the way to the hangar,"
Frank was asking himself, though he immediately added: "that's hardly
likely, for there's really no time when I'm out of sight of soldiers on
the road, because they're going and coming constantly. I could even fall
in behind a regiment if I wanted, and have plenty of company all the way
to the gates of our compound."
Just then he found himself attracted by the actions of a couple ahead of
him, a man of middle age and a woman. Apparently she had been seized
with some sort of vertigo, for the man was acting as though dreadfully
alarmed. He had thrown an arm about her, and was looking around in an
appealing way.
It happened that Frank was about the only person nearby, and it was only
natural for him to hasten forward.
"Oh! please help me support my wife, young sir!" exclaimed the citizen
as Frank arrived. "She is fainting, and just when we had reached our
home here. Would you mind supporting her on the other side, and
assisting me to get her to the door?"
An appeal like that could not be easily resisted, especially by one so
ready to help others as Frank Chester had always been in the past.
Somehow it did not appear to strike him as singular that the citizen
should be so fluent in his English when he was supposed to be a
Frenchman. All Frank thought of then was that the man was in
difficulties, and it would be next to nothing for him to lend the other
a helping hand.
So he took hold on the other side of the woman who was acting as though
swooning. Frank could not but notice that she appeared anything but
fragile.
The door of the modest looking house was close by, and between them he
and the distracted husband managed to half lead, half drag, the fainting
woman up to it. The man immediately opened the door with one hand.
"Please assist me a little further, and I will be so thankful!" he
pleaded.
Frank might have actually entered the house, only for a little thing
that he had noticed. As they approached the door he had seen the man
cast a quick glance upward toward the second story. The latticed blinds
were shut, but as Frank used his eyes to advantage he believed he saw
someone's face back of the screen.
Like a flash it struck him that the man must have made some sort of
quick signal to the party who was hidden up there. Frank became cautious
in that second, remembering the warning given him by Major Nixon.
These spies were up to all manner of trickery in order to carry out
their well-laid plans, and might not this pretended swooning of the
woman be only a bait intended to coax him into a trap?
Frank immediately released his hold of the woman, and he noticed that
she did not appear to be in danger of falling after he had withdrawn his
support, which in itself was a suspicious sign.
"Oh! I hope you will help me just a little further!" exclaimed the man.
"Inside is a chair, and if we could place her in that it is all I could
ask of you. Thank you a thousand times for what you have done already;
but do not leave me just yet."
It seemed hard to refuse, but Frank steeled his heart. He was positive
by now he had been made a victim to a deep-laid plot, and if he but
stepped within that open door something unpleasant was sure to happen to
him.
"You will have to excuse me, but I can go no further," he said hastily.
The man said something half under his breath. Frank saw that the woman
was apparently suddenly regaining her senses, for she had thrown out a
hand, and seemed to be trying to clutch hold of his sleeve.
The boy had no difficulty in avoiding the contact, however, thanks to
his suspicions. He dodged back, and then with a smile turned and walked
quickly away. When he glanced over his shoulder a minute later the
couple had vanished, evidently going into the house, which Frank could
imagine must be a nest of spies.
"That was a pretty close call for me," he was saying to himself as he
walked on; "and I can imagine there'll be a hurried exodus from that
building inside of a few minutes if I cared to hang around and watch.
They'll be afraid that I may tell on them, and have the soldiers
surround the place. But it isn't my business as a neutral to have German
spies arrested and shot."
Frank sauntered on. He had a few errands to attend to, some small
supplies to purchase connected with the seaplane, for new wants were
constantly cropping up in that line.
The little adventure caused his blood to warm up, but Frank had been
through so much in his past that he had by this time come to take such
things as a matter of course, and accept them philosophically.
"If that was intended for a stall," he said to himself presently, "it
shows how desperate they're getting about our disposing of the _Sea
Eagle_ to the French Government. Why, you'd think orders had gone out in
Berlin to prevent the transfer by hook or by crook. Certain it is these
people are risking their lives in the effort. But they will have to get
up pretty early in the morning to best us, that's all I can say, even if
it does sound like boasting."
Though remaining watchful, he was soon busy with his errands. No one
brushed elbows with him in the stores but that Frank used his eyes to
take note. Those who could arrange such an ingenious scheme as that
swooning lady and the call upon him for assistance might be equal to
other games of like character.
He managed to accomplish his several duties without any further cause
for alarm, and was once more on the streets observing all that happened.
A constantly increasing push of eager observers toward a certain point
told Frank there must be something of an unusual interest taking place
there, and consumed by the same curiosity he joined the throng, for he
had heard someone say the ambulances with the wounded had just come in
from the front.