His heart leaped within him. Two people entered, a man and woman. They switched on a light. If these people had come thirty seconds earlier he would have been caught coming down the stairs, Ted thought, as he crouched behind the turn of the staircase.
"It was nice of you to see me home, Mr. Erkin," said the young lady.
"Will you be good enough to let the light burn, as some of the folks are not in yet? Come and see me some time."
"Good-night, thank you, I will," the man answered and left.
The boy thought, "Well, I certainly should be called Lucky. Here I wonder how to find an entrance to the cellar and they are kind enough to turn on a light for me."
It was fairly easy for Ted to find his way now, but because of the light he had to use even greater care.
The cellar seemed deserted, when he got there. It was pitch dark and it took several minutes for him to grow accustomed to the extreme darkness. Then he heard the faint murmur of voices.
Strong and Walker had slept fitfully and had been wide awake at various times. Strong had again been awakened and was insisting that Walker listen to him.
As Ted drew nearer, he heard Strong say, "I don"t think, the way I feel, I shall ever be able to move again. But if I knew that Ted was just the least bit successful I could be forever content."
"The poor child--if he did anything at all," Walker answered, "it would be wonderful. It"s a man"s job, what, then, could a boy do?"
As if in answer to the question, they heard a low voice call, "Mr.
Strong, Mr. Strong!"
"Who is that?" the startled voice of Strong demanded.
"It"s me, Ted!" said that ungrammatical young man, a bit excitedly.
[Ill.u.s.tration: TED FREES THE PRISONERS]
"G.o.d bless you, boy. Is it really you? Have you a match?"
Ted struck one. Hurriedly he untied the two men, who were already questioning him excitedly and to whom he whispered a.s.surances.
As they turned the corner (having left the building without trouble) Strong looked back. An auto pa.s.sed north on Michigan avenue.
"That"s Winckel"s car," he said. "We weren"t any too soon."
Ted told the two men of the night"s adventures and they both listened eagerly. Strong was laboring under great excitement as the boy went on with his story. When Ted was through he placed his hand on Ted"s shoulder and said, quietly and very impressively, to him:
"I simply can"t tell you the things I long to say. You"re going to be a man, my boy! This is a day"s work of which you will always be proud.
"Knowing what we know, we can go to sleep tonight, awake in the morning with a plan as to just what we will do. I could almost cry with contentment. This news you bring is what we have long striven to learn, and along comes Ted Marsh--Lucky, the Boy Scout--and makes Canada and England his very grateful and humble servants.
"There are several things we know we can do now," he added. "We had best take a night to sleep it over."
"You are a wonder, Ted, my friend," added Walker.
"Come, let us go," said Strong.
"We are all weary. I hate to leave you. I"d like to celebrate, but I guess we had better postpone it until tomorrow. See you at eight."
CHAPTER VIII
WINCKEL CALLS A HALT
There were glaring headlines in the newspapers the next morning. War was on. People who had doubted all along, who could not believe it possible, now had to believe. And, although England was as yet not involved, no one was optimistic enough to imagine that she would stay out of it.
Around newspaper offices, everywhere, excited, eager groups discussed it all. Many a man heard the thrilling call of his native land and many listened and made plans to return to either Germany, Russia, England or France.
Yet neither in headlines nor in the ordinary run of news, was there mention made of the events of our story. Silent, powerful forces were at work to keep it quiet.
The automobile of Herr Winckel stopped before his house and from it Schmidt, O"Reilly and the owner alighted. They made their way to the cellar, a precaution as to the safekeeping of the prisoners. O"Reilly and Schmidt were to be guests of Winckel for the night. Much work had been planned for the morning.
"Quiet, aren"t they?" said Schmidt, as Winckel started to turn on the light.
"I guess they are asleep," remarked O"Reilly. The light glared. A moment"s hush. There were astonished and wondering exclamations. The ropes which had held the prisoners tied, were strewn about, but the prisoners were nowhere.
"What can it mean?" exclaimed Winckel, searching vainly for an explanation.
Wild guesses were made by the three as to how the escape was made.
"Well," said Winckel after awhile, "never mind how they escaped, the important thing is--how much have they found out of our plans." He showed plainly how disturbed he was.
"How can they have found out about our plans? Pretty far fetched to imagine that they could have obtained any information--the chances are that they did not escape until late this evening."
O"Reilly interrupted Schmidt. "Is there any way in which we can find out the last time someone in the house saw the prisoners?"
"Good idea," said Winckel. "We shall soon find out."
The household was awakened. Inquiries and investigation showed that Lauer, a trusted employee of Winckel, had taken a last look at the prisoners at about ten o"clock. He was certain of that; he had heard their voices, although he could not make out what they spoke about.
There were sighs of relief from Schmidt and O"Reilly, who felt that the situation was covered, but Winckel was more skeptical and less canny.
"I will admit that they were here until ten o"clock and later. I will even admit that they were not listening at the conference. But how was their escape managed and why after ten? Did they have outside help and how did the outside help know of their imprisonment here?
"Both of you gentlemen may be tired and may wish to retire. Please do so, if you want to. I am going down to our meeting place to see what I can see. A little late, I will admit, and it may not do us much good, but there is always a chance. It is important for us to find out if we have blundered, if our plans have been disclosed."
Both Schmidt and O"Reilly insisted on accompanying Winckel and the three left the house in the next five minutes.
They reached the building in about twenty minutes. No policeman was about to see them violate the speed laws on the way. An immediate and careful search of the room was made, to see if anyone had been there since they left and also for any clue as to the probable leak.
"Nothing seems wrong as far as I can see," O"Reilly started to say.
"h.e.l.lo, what is this?" He had discovered the cleverly concealed wires of the dictaphone. Winckel and Schmidt joined him on the instant. They traced the wires and soon found out the whole layout.
"Mischief is certainly afoot," exclaimed Schmidt. The other men said nothing, but studied the proposition.
"There still is a chance," said O"Reilly In an unconvincing manner--as if he wanted to believe something his better sense did not permit him to do, "that this outfit was not used since Strong and the other man had been kept from it."