Soon Harry heard the water rustling. And then, to his surprise, his guide led him straight into a tangle of shrubbery. It was hard going for him, for his ankle pained him a good deal, but he managed it. And in a moment the other boy spoke, and, for the first time, in a natural voice.
"I say, I"m glad we"re here!" he said, heartily. "D"ye see?"
"It looks like a cave," said Harry.
"It is, but it"s more than that, too. This place is no end old, you know.
It was here when they fought the Wars of the Roses, I"ve heard. And come on--I"ll show you something!"
He led the way on into the cave, which narrowed as they went. But Harry, pointing his flashlight ahead, saw that it was not going to stop.
"Oh! A secret pa.s.sage! I understand now!" he exclaimed, finally.
"Isn"t it jolly?" said the other. "Can"t you imagine what fun we used to have here when we played about? You see, this may have been used to bring in food in time of siege. There used to be another spur of this tunnel that ran right into the house. But that was all let go to pot, for some reason.
This is all that is left. But it"s enough. It runs way down under the river--and in a jiffy we"ll be out in the meadows on the other side. I say, what"s your name?"
They hadn"t had time to exchange the information each naturally craved about the other before. And now, as they realized it, they both laughed.
Harry told his name.
"Mine"s Jack Young," said the other scout. "I say, you don"t talk like an Englishman?"
"I"m not," explained Harry. "I"m American. But I"m for England just now--and we were caught here trying to find out something about that place."
They came out into the open then, where the light of the stars enabled them to see one another. Jack nodded.
"I got an idea of what you were after--you two," he said. "The other one"s English, isn"t he?"
"d.i.c.k Mercer? Yes!" said Harry, astonished. "But how did you find out about us?"
"Stalked you," said Jack, happily. "Oh, I"m no end of a scout! I followed you as soon as I caught you without your bicycles."
"We must have been pretty stupid to let you do it, though," said Harry, a little crestfallen. "I"m glad we did, but suppose you"d been an enemy! A nice fix we"d have been in!"
"That"s just what I thought about you," admitted Jack. "You see, everyone has sort of laughed at me down here because I said there might be German spies about. I"ve always been suspicious of the people who took Bray Park.
They didn"t act the way English people do. They didn"t come to church, and when the pater--I told you he was the vicar here, didn"t I?--went to call, they wouldn"t let him in! Just sent word they were out! Fancy treating the vicar like that!" he concluded with spirit.
Harry knew enough of the customs of the English countryside to understand that the new tenants of Bray Park could not have chosen a surer method of bringing down both dislike and suspicion upon themselves.
"That was a bit too thick, you know," Jack went on. "So when the war started, I decided I"d keep my eyes open, especially on any strangers who came around. So there you have it. I say! You"d better let me try to make that ankle easier. You"re limping badly."
That was true, and Harry submitted gladly to such ministrations as Jack knew how to offer. Cold water helped considerably; it reduced the swelling.
And then Jack skillfully improvised a brace, that, binding the ankle tightly, gave it a fair measure of support.
"Now try that!" he said. "See if it doesn"t feel better!"
"It certainly does," said Harry. "You"re quite a doctor, aren"t you? Well, now the next thing to do is to try to find where d.i.c.k is. I know where he went--to the place where we cached our cycles and our papers."
Like d.i.c.k, he was hopelessly at sea, for the moment, as to his whereabouts.
And he had, moreover, to reckon with the turns and twists of the tunnel, which there had been no way of following in the utter darkness. But Jack Young, who, of course, could have found his way anywhere within five miles of them blindfolded, helped him, and they soon found that they were less than half a mile from the place.
"Can you come on with me, Jack?" asked Harry. He felt that in his rescuer he had found a new friend, and one whom he was going to like very well, indeed, and he wanted his company, if it was possible.
"Yes. No one knows I am out," said Jack, frankly. "The pater"s like the rest of them here--he doesn"t take the war seriously yet. When I said the other day that it might last long enough for me to be old enough to go, he laughed at me. I really hope it won"t, but I wouldn"t be surprised if it did, would you?"
"No, I wouldn"t. It"s too early to tell anything about it yet, really. But if the Germans fight the way they always have before, it"s going to be a long war."
They talked as they went, and, though Harry"s ankle was still painful, the increased speed the bandaging made possible more than made up for the time it had required. Harry was anxious about d.i.c.k; he wanted to rejoin him as soon as possible.
And so it was not long before they came near to the place where the cycles had been cached.
"We"d better go slow. In case anyone else watched us this afternoon, we don"t want to walk into a trap," said Harry. He was more upset than he had cared to admit by the discovery that he and d.i.c.k had been spied upon by Jack, excellent though it had been that it was so. For what Jack had done it was conceivable that someone else, too, might have accomplished.
"All right. You go ahead," said Jack. "I"ll form a rear guard--d"ye see?
Then you can"t be surprised."
"That"s a good idea," said Harry. "There, see that big tree, that blasted one over there? I marked that. The cache is in a straight line, almost, from that, where the ground dips a little. There"s a clump of bushes."
"There"s someone there, too," said Jack. "He"s tugging at a cycle, as if he were trying to get ready to start it."
"That"ll be d.i.c.k, then," said Harry, greatly relieved. "All right--I"ll go ahead!"
He went on then, and soon he, too, saw d.i.c.k busy with the motorcycle.
"Won"t he be glad to see me, though?" he thought. "Poor old d.i.c.k! I bet he"s had a hard time."
Then he called, softly. And d.i.c.k turned. But--it was not d.i.c.k. It was Ernest Graves!
CHAPTER IX
AN UNEXPECTED BLOW
For a moment it would have been hard to say which of them was more completely staggered and amazed.
"What are you doing here?" Harry gasped, finally.
And then, all at once, it came over him that it did not matter what Ernest answered; that there could be no reasonable and good explanation for what he had caught Graves doing.
"You sneak!" he cried. "What are you doing here--spying on us?"
He sprang forward, and Graves, with a snarling cry of anger, lunged to meet him. Had he not been handicapped by his lame ankle, Harry might have given a good account of himself in a hand-to-hand fight with Graves, but, as it was, the older boy"s superior weight gave him almost his own way. Before Jack, who was running up, could reach them, Graves threw Harry off. He stood looking down on him for just a second.
"That"s what you get for interfering, young Fleming!" he said. "There"s something precious queer about you, my American friend! I fancy you"ll have to do some explaining about where you"ve been to-night!"
Harry was struggling to his feet. Now he saw the papers in Graves" hand.