Kenneth returned more quickly than he had gone. He was consumed with a
feverish impatience to assure himself of Pariset's safety. Pariset had
been very confident; but it was at least within the bounds of
possibility that, if discovered by the Germans, he might be overpowered
before he had time to fire a warning shot.
When he reached the trap-door he tapped lightly on it. It was raised at
once.
"Good!" whispered Pariset. "Is it done?"
"Yes, the wire is cut."
"Capital! You have only been twenty minutes."
"Has anything happened?"
"A minute or two ago there was a ring at the bell, and I heard someone
go to the door. I was afraid that some friend of these fellows had
discovered the lancers and come to give warning; but it can't be that,
because all is quiet."
"Still, he may be a friend, and that will mean that we have six men to
deal with instead of five."
"It doesn't matter, now the wire is cut. We had better creep out again,
go round by the field, cross the bridge, and join the lancers in an
attack on the house."
"Suppose the lancers haven't come!"
"We have to reckon with that possibility, of course; but it's not
probable. I'll just reconnoitre again; then we'll get back. If the
lancers have not arrived, we must get the assistance of some stout
fellows from the farm. I'm determined that these Germans shall not
escape."
"Let me go," said Kenneth. "You don't know German; I do; and I might
overhear something worth making a note of."
"That's a good notion. We may get on the track of other operations of
theirs. Take off your boots; I'll tie them to mine."
A minute later Kenneth tiptoed in his stocking feet along the dark
passage. Through the closed door of the kitchen on the left came the
sounds of some one moving about. On the other side he heard the voices
of the men in the dining-room, the door of which was ajar. Grasping his
revolver, he bent his ear towards the opening. At the first words he
caught he started. The voice was only too familiar to him. It was the
voice of Kurt Hellwig.
Was he there before, Kenneth wondered, or was he the newcomer whose ring
Pariset had heard? In a few seconds the point was cleared up.
"Yes," Hellwig was saying, "I had intended to give you the word by
wireless myself. But the chief wanted me to come through and see that
all was ready. The wire is fixed?"
"I guarantee that," was his friend's reply. "You don't want to go along
the tunnel yourself?"
"No, I'll take your word for it. I'm very tired; thought I should never
get through. Our friend Spiegel was caught in Liege before my eyes, and
taken away to be shot. The soldiers could hardly save him from
lynching, the mob was so furious."
"The Belgians are going to be troublesome, then?" said another voice.
"It appears so. We opened the attack on the forts yesterday, and the
fools had the audacity to reply. They did some damage, too, worse luck.
Von Emmich is attacking again to-day in full force, and with his numbers
he'll sweep the idiots away. There'll not be a man left. The orders
are to spare nothing and nobody."
"When are we likely to get the word?" asked his friend.
"Probably not at all. If our men are already in Liege, as I expect is
the case, we shall leave the bridge intact: the railway will be useful.
It is only to be blown up in case of a check, to prevent the Belgians
from being reinforced from France. But that's not at all likely."
"I suppose it is true that England has declared war?"
Hellwig's ironical laugh made Kenneth's blood boil.
"Yes, it's true," he said. "It's the chance we've been waiting for for
years. They've next to no army; they're never ready; and within a week
there'll be a rebellion in Ireland which will keep the whole of their
forces busy. Within a month we shall have France under our heel; then
we'll turn back and crush the Russians, who've no organization. Then
with the Channel ports in our possession the rest will be easy. By this
time next year the Kaiser will be dictating peace in London."
"Well, you ought to know the English; you've lived among them. How they
got their empire I can't understand.... Then we shall be leaving here
soon? It's quite time."
"What do you mean?"
"It may be all right, but thinking it over I can't help feeling a little
suspicious. The beer delivered to-day was brought by two clerks. They
said the draymen had been called up, and they were doing duty in their
place. It didn't occur to me till they were driving off that the
clerks, well-set-up young fellows, were likely to have been called up
before the draymen. The man who usually comes is a big fat fellow who
couldn't march a mile without collapsing. But nothing has happened, so
I suppose I was suspicious for nothing."
"They didn't come into the house?"
"No; the fellow who brought the cask into the lobby didn't seem at all
curious. Ah!"
He was interrupted by the ticking of an instrument on a table at the far
end of the room. There was silence for a moment as he read the message.
"The bridge is to be blown up," said the man, returning. "At last!"
"Give me a few minutes to finish my meal," said Hellwig. "I've had
nothing to eat for twelve hours. A quarter of an hour, say; that won't
make any difference. I wish your cook would hurry up."
Kenneth turned to go back, anticipating a possible visit to the kitchen.
At the same moment the kitchen door opened, and an old woman bearing a
tray came into the passage. The light from the lamp behind her fell on
an unfamiliar figure at the door of the dining-room--a bootless man with
a revolver in his hand. The woman screamed; the tray fell from her
hand, and a pool of soup spread over the floor. There was an outcry in
the dining-room; the man nearest the door flung it fully open, to find
the muzzle of a revolver within a few inches of his head.
In the moment allowed him for thought, Kenneth had realised that he
could not escape if he dashed past the old woman with armed men at his
back. With an inward tremor he made up his mind to the bold course.
"Hands up!" he cried, as the startled man recoiled.
The German instantly flung up his hands. But his companions realised
the position. One of them sprang across the room to an electric push in
the wall. Another, covered by the man who had flinched, whipped out his
revolver, and took a snapshot at Kenneth. But a slight movement of the
man between them brought him in the line of fire, and he fell with a
bullet through his head.
It was no time for half measures. Kenneth covered his assailant, fired,
and brought him down. Through the shrieks of the old woman in the
passage there came to his ears a shout of encouragement, and immediately
after he had fired his shot Pariset rushed up to the doorway, reaching
over Kenneth's shoulder to point his revolver. At the sight of this the
three remaining men dashed to the open window and leapt out; the last of
them, pausing to close the window, was winged by Pariset's flying shot.
Kenneth and his friend sprang across the room, threw the window open,
and jumped into the yard. But the brief delay at the window had given
the fugitives time to make their escape in the darkness. They were not
to be seen.
"The lancers will get them!" Kenneth panted.
"If they've come!" replied Pariset.
He blew his whistle. There was no response. They dashed across the
yard, wondering how the Germans could have escaped, for there was no
outlet on this side of the house, and the wall was high and spiked. But
after a minute or two they discovered a gap in the base of the wall,
large enough to admit a man crawling. On the outside it was concealed
by long grass and weeds. Wriggling through this they sprinted along by
the wall to the road. And then they heard the distant galloping of a
troop of horsemen. Pariset blew his whistle again, and in a few seconds
a half squadron of Belgian lancers reined up.
"Three men have escaped," cried Pariset. "Round them up!"
The horsemen galloped off, some along the road, some along the grassy
bank of the stream, the rest into the field beyond the hedge.
"A pity they were late," said Pariset, walking slowly with Kenneth back
to the house. "When I heard your shot I expected that they'd force the
door and rush in."
"I hope they will catch the Germans," said Kenneth. "One of them--it
was the last comer, the man whose ring at the bell you heard--was
Hellwig. I shall be particularly disgusted if he gets off."
"What led to the row? You weren't rash enough to attack them?"
"No; but I wasn't so careful as I ought to have been, I'm afraid. You
see, hearing no knives and forks going, I thought they had finished
their meal, and everything was cleared away, and didn't expect any
danger from the kitchen. As soon as I knew there was something
preparing for Hellwig I backed, straight into the old woman with a tray.
It was all up then, of course."
"You've had a lucky escape. But we have saved the bridge."
"One of the fellows dashed to an electric push," said Kenneth, smiling.
"I was too busy to notice how he looked when the explosion he expected
didn't happen, but I've no doubt it was the surprise of his life."
"We'll have a look round. I'll give the old woman a soothing
explanation, and borrow a lamp."
Their investigation added little to their knowledge. The luggage of the
spies contained no papers bearing on espionage. But the wireless
installation, carried up inside the chimney, was very powerful. The
electrical apparatus for firing the mine was in perfect order.
"There is nothing amateurish about it," said Pariset. "This is spying
reduced to a science."
It was some time before the lancers returned. They brought with them
the man who had been wounded as he sprang through the window. The
others had got away. The man who had fired at Kenneth was dead; his
comrade, to whom he owed his death, Kenneth had wounded.
After consultation with the captain of lancers, it was decided to leave
a dozen men to occupy the mill, pending the receipt of instructions from
headquarters. Kenneth and Pariset begged a lodging for the night from
the old miller, who was delighted at the success of their scheme, and
lavishly hospitable.