THE SILENT WIRE
Probably Jack Young and Dick reached the vicarage just about the time
that saw Harry getting into trouble with the police for speeding. The
vicar was still up, he had a great habit of reading late. And he seemed
considerably surprised to find that Jack was not upstairs in bed. At
first he was inclined even to be angry, but he changed his mind when he
saw Dick, and heard something of what had happened.
"Get your friend something to eat and I'll have them make a hot bath
ready," said the vicar. "He looks as if he needed both!"
This was strictly true. Dick was as hungry and as grimy as Harry
himself. If anything, he was in even worse shape, for his flight through
the fields and the brook had enabled him to attach a good deal of the
soil of England to himself. So the thick sandwiches and the bowl of milk
that were speedily set before him were severely punished. And while he
ate both he and Jack poured out their story. Mr. Young frowned as he
listened. Although he was a clergyman and a lover of peace, he was none
the less a patriot.
"Upon my word!" he said. "Wireless, you think, my boy?"
"I'm sure of it, sir," said Dick.
"And so'm I," chimed in Jack. "You know, sir, I've thought ever since
war seemed certain that Bray Park would bear a lot of watching and that
something ought to be done. Just because this is a little bit of a
village, without even a railroad station, people think nothing could
happen here. But if German spies wanted a headquarters, it's just the
sort of place they would pick out."
"There's something in that," agreed the vicar, thoughtfully. But in his
own mind he was still very doubtful. The whole thing seemed incredible
to him. Yet, as a matter of fact, it was no more incredible than the war
itself. What inclined him to be dubious, as much as anything else, was
the fact that it was mere boys who had made the discovery.
He had read of outbreaks of spy fever in various parts of England, in
which the most harmless and inoffensive people were arrested and held
until they could give some good account of themselves. This made him
hesitate, while precious time was being wasted.
"I hardly know what to do--what to suggest," he went on, musingly. "The
situation is complicated, really. Supposing you are right, and that
German spies really own Bray Park, and are using it as a central station
for sending news that they glean out of England, what could be done
about it?"
"The place ought to be searched at once every-one there ought to be
arrested!" declared Jack, impulsively. His father smiled.
"Yes, but who's going to do it?" he said. "We've just one constable here
in Bray. And if there are Germans there in any number, what could he do?
I suppose we might send word to Harobridge and get some police or some
territorials over. Yes, that's the best thing to do."
But now Dick spoke up in great eagerness. "I don't know, sir," he
suggested. "If the soldiers came, the men in the house there would find
out they were coming, I'm afraid. Perhaps they'd get away, or else
manage to hide everything that would prove the truth about them. I think
it would be better to report direct to Colonel Throckmorton. He knows
what we found out near London, sir, you see, and he'd be more ready to
believe us."
"Yes, probably you're right. Ring him up, then. It's late, but he won't
mind."
What a different story there would have been to tell had someone had
that thought only half an hour earlier! But it is often so. The most
trivial miscalculation, the most insignificant mistake, seemingly, may
prove to be of the most vital importance. Dick went to the telephone. It
was one of the old-fashioned sort, still in almost universal use in the
rural parts of England, that require the use of a bell to call the
central office. Dick turned the crank, then took down the receiver. At
once he herd a confused buzzing sound that alarmed him.
"I'm afraid the line is out of order, sir," he said. And after fifteen
minutes it was plain that he was right. The wire had either been cut or
it had fallen or been short circuited in some other way. Dick and Jack
looked at one another blankly. The same thought had come to each of
them, and at the same moment.
"They've cut the wires!" said Dick. "Now what shall we do? We can't hear
from Harry, either!"
"We might have guessed they'd do that!" said Jack. "They must have had
some one out to watch us, Dick--perhaps they thought they'd have a
chance to catch us. They know that we've found out something, you see!
It's a good thing we stayed where we could make people hear us if we got
into any trouble."
"Oh, nonsense!" said the vicar, suddenly. "You boys are letting your
imaginations run away with you. Things like that don't happen in
England. The wire is just out of order. It happens often enough, Jack,
as you know very well!"
"Yes, sir," said Jack, doggedly. "But that's in winter, or after a heavy
storm--not in fine weather like this. I never knew the wire to be out of
order before when it was the way it is now."
"Well, there's nothing to be done, in any case," said the vicar. "Be off
to bed, and wait until morning. There's nothing you can do now."
Dick looked as if he were about to make some protest, but a glance at
Jack restrained him. Instead he got up, said good-night and followed
Jack upstairs. There he took his bath, except that he substituted cold
water for the hot, for he could guess what Jack meant to do. They were
going out again, that was certain. And, while it is easy to take cold,
especially when one is tired, after a hot bath, there is no such danger
if the water is cold.
"Do you know where the telephone wire runs?" he asked Jack.
"Yes, I do," said Jack. "I watched the men when they ran the wire in.
There are only three telephones in the village, except for the one at
Bray Park, and that's a special, private wire. We have one here, Doctor
Brunt has one, and there's another in the garage. They're all on one
party line, too. We won't have any trouble in finding out if the wire
was cut, I fancy."
Their chief difficulty lay in getting out of the house. True, Jack had
not been positively ordered not to go out again, but he knew that if his
father saw him, he would be ordered to stay in. And he had not the
slightest intention of missing any part of the finest adventure he had
ever had a chance to enjoy--not he! He was a typical English boy, full
of the love of adventure and excitement for their own sake, even if he
was the son of a clergyman. And now he showed Dick what they would have
to do.
"I used to slip out this way, sometimes," he said. "That was before I
was a scout. I--well, since I joined, I haven't done it. It didn't seem
right. But this is different. Don't you think so, Dick?"
"I certainly do," said Dick. "Your pater doesn't understand, Jack. He
thinks we've just found a mare's nest, I fancy."
Jack's route of escape was not a difficult one. It led to the roof of
the scullery, at the back of the house, and then, by a short and easy
drop of a few feet, to the back garden. Once they were in that, they had
no trouble. They could not be heard or seen from the front of the house,
and it was a simple matter of climbing fences until it was safe to
circle back and strike the road in front again. Jack led the way until
they came to the garage, which was at the end of the village, in the
direction of London.
Their course also took them nearer to Bray Park, but at the time they
did not think of this.
"There's where the wire starts from the garage, d'ye see!" said Jack,
pointing. "You see how easily we can follow it--it runs along those
poles, right beside the road."
"It seems to be all right here," said Dick.
"Oh, yes. They wouldn't have cut it so near the village," said Jack.
"We'll have to follow it along for a bit, I fancy a mile or so, perhaps.
Better not talk much, either. And, I say, hadn't we better stay in the
shadow? They must have been watching us before--better not give them
another chance, if we can help it," was Jack's very wise suggestion.
They had traveled nearly a mile when Dick suddenly noticed that the
telephone wire sagged between two posts, "I think it has been. Cut--and
that we're near the place, too," he said then, "Look, Jack! There's
probably a break not far from here."
"Right, oh!" said Jack. "Now we must be careful. I've just thought,
Dick, that they might have left someone to watch at the place where they
cut the wire."
"Why, Jack?"
"Well, they might have thought we, or someone else, might come along to
find out about it, just as we're doing. I'm beginning to think those
beggars are mightily clever, and that if they think of doing anything,
they're likely to think that we'll think of it. They've outwitted us at
every point so far."
So now, instead of staying under the hedge, but still in the road, they
crept through a gap in the hedge, tearing their clothes as they did so,
since it was a blackberry row, and went along still in sight of the
poles and the wire, but protected by the hedge so that no one in the
road could see them.
"There!" said Jack, at last. "See? You were right, Dick. There's the
place--and the wire was cut, too! It wasn't an accident. But I was sure
of that as soon as I found the line wasn't working."
Sure enough, the wires were dangling. And there was something else. Just
as they stopped they heard the voices of two men.
"There's the break, Bill," said the first voice. "Bli'me, if she ain't
cut, too! Now who did that? Bringing us out of our beds at this hour to
look for trouble!"
"I'd like to lay my hands on them, that's all!" said the second voice.
"A good job they didn't carry the wire away--'twon't take us long to
repair, and that's one precious good thing!"
"Linemen," said Jack. "But I wonder why they're here? They must have
come a long way. I shouldn't be surprised if they'd ridden on bicycles.
And I never heard of their sending to repair a wire at night before."
"Listen," said Dick. "Perhaps we will find out."
"Well, now that we've found it, we might as well repair it," said the
first lineman, grumblingly. "All comes of someone trying to get a
message through to Bray and making the manager believe it was a life and
death matter!"
"Harry must have tried to telephone--that's why they've come," said
Jack. "I was wondering how they found out about the break. You see, as a
rule, no one would try to ring up anyone in Bray after seven o'clock or
so. And of course, they couldn't tell we were trying to ring, with the
wire cut like that."
"Oh, Jack!" said Dick, suddenly. 'If they're linemen, I believe they
have an instrument with them. Probably we could call to London from
here. Do you think they will let us do that?"
"That's a good idea. We'll try it, anyway," said Jack. "Come on. It must
be safe enough now. These chaps won't hurt us."
But Jack was premature in thinking that. For no sooner did the two
linemen see them than they rushed for them, much to both lads' surprise.
"You're the ones who cut that wire," said the first, a dark, young
fellow. "I've a mind to give you a good hiding!"
But they both rushed into explanations, and luckily, the other lineman
recognized Jack.
"It's the vicar's son from Bray, Tom," he said. "Let him alone."
And then, while their attention was distracted, a bullet sang over their
heads. And "Hands oop!" said in a guttural voice.