"The constable!" whispered Herbert. "He must see us, but he mustn"t speak to us."
For a moment the three men showed themselves in the middle of the street, and then, as though at sight of the policeman they had taken alarm, disappeared through an opening between two houses. Five minutes later a motor-car, with its canvas top concealing its occupants, rode slowly into Stiffkey"s main street and halted before the constable. The driver of the car wore a leather skull-cap and goggles. From his neck to his heels he was covered by a raincoat.
"Mr. Policeman," he began; "when I turned in here three soldiers stepped in front of my car and pointed rifles at me. Then they ran off toward the beach. What"s the idea--manoeuvres? Because, they"ve no right to--"
"Yes, sir," the policeman a.s.sured him promptly; "I saw them. It"s manoeuvres, sir. Territorials."
"They didn"t look like Territorials," objected the chauffeur. "They looked like Germans."
Protected by the deepening dusk, the constable made no effort to conceal a grin.
"Just Territorials, sir," he protested soothingly; "skylarking maybe, but meaning no harm. Still, I"ll have a look round, and warn "em."
A voice from beneath the canvas broke in angrily:
"I tell you, they were Germans. It"s either a silly joke, or it"s serious, and you ought to report it. It"s your duty to warn the Coast Guard."
The constable considered deeply.
"I wouldn"t take it on myself to wake the Coast Guard," he protested; "not at this time of the night. But if any Germans" been annoying you, gentlemen, and you wish to lodge a complaint against them, you give me your cards--"
"Ye G.o.ds!" cried the man in the rear of the car. "Go on!" he commanded.
As the car sped out of Stiffkey, Herbert exclaimed with disgust:
"What"s the use!" he protested. "You couldn"t wake these people with dynamite! I vote we chuck it and go home."
"They little know of England who only Stiffkey know," chanted the chauffeur reprovingly. "Why, we haven"t begun yet. Wait till we meet a live wire!"
Two miles farther along the road to Cromer, young Bradshaw, the job-master"s son at Blakeney, was leading his bicycle up the hill. Ahead of him something heavy flopped from the bank into the road--and in the light of his acetylene lamp he saw a soldier. The soldier dodged across the road and scrambled through the hedge on the bank opposite. He was followed by another soldier, and then by a third. The last man halted.
"Put out that light," he commanded. "Go to your home and tell no one what you have seen. If you attempt to give an alarm you will be shot.
Our sentries are placed every fifty yards along this road."
The soldier disappeared from in front of the ray of light and followed his comrades, and an instant later young Bradshaw heard them sliding over the cliff"s edge and the pebbles clattering to the beach below.
Young Bradshaw stood quite still. In his heart was much fear--fear of laughter, of ridicule, of failure. But of no other kind of fear. Softly, silently he turned his bicycle so that it faced down the long hill he had just climbed. Then he snapped off the light. He had been reliably informed that in ambush at every fifty yards along the road to Blakeney, sentries were waiting to fire on him. And he proposed to run the gauntlet. He saw that it was for this moment that, first as a volunteer and later as a Territorial, he had drilled in the town hall, practiced on the rifle range, and in mixed manoeuvres slept in six inches of mud.
As he threw his leg across his bicycle, Herbert, from the motor-car farther up the hill, fired two shots over his head. These, he explained to Ford, were intended to give "verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative." And the sighing of the bullets gave young Bradshaw exactly what he wanted--the a.s.surance that he was not the victim of a practical joke. He threw his weight forward and, lifting his feet, coasted downhill at forty miles an hour into the main street of Blakeney. Ten minutes later, when the car followed, a mob of men so completely blocked the water-front that Ford was forced to stop. His head-lights illuminated hundreds of faces, anxious, sceptical, eager.
A gentleman with a white mustache and a look of a retired army officer pushed his way toward Ford, the crowd making room for him, and then closing in his wake.
"Have you seen any--any soldiers?" he demanded.
"German soldiers!" Ford answered. "They tried to catch us, but when I saw who they were, I ran through them to warn you. They fired and--"
"How many--and where?"
"A half-company at Stiffkey and a half-mile farther on a regiment. We didn"t know then they were Germans, not until they stopped us. You"d better telephone the garrison, and--"
"Thank you!" snapped the elderly gentleman. "I happen to be in command of this district. What are your names?"
Ford pushed the car forward, parting the crowd.
"I"ve no time for that!" he called. "We"ve got to warn every coast town in Norfolk. You take my tip and get London on the long distance!"
As they ran through the night Ford spoke over his shoulder.
"We"ve got them guessing," he said. "Now, what we want is a live wire, some one with imagination, some one with authority who will wake the countryside."
"Looks ahead there," said Birrell, "as though it hadn"t gone to bed."
Before them, as on a Mafeking night, every window in Cley shone with lights. In the main street were fishermen, shopkeepers, "trippers"
in flannels, summer residents. The women had turned out as though to witness a display of fireworks. Girls were clinging to the arms of their escorts, shivering in delighted terror. The proprietor of the Red Lion sprang in front of the car and waved his arms.
"What"s this tale about Germans?" he demanded jocularly.
"You can see their lights from the beach," said Ford. "They"ve landed two regiments between here and Wells. Stiffkey is taken, and they"ve cut all the wires south."
The proprietor refused to be "had."
"Let "em all come!" he mocked.
"All right," returned Ford. "Let "em come, but don"t take it lying down!
Get those women off the streets, and go down to the beach, and drive the Germans back! Gangway," he shouted, and the car shot forward. "We warned you," he called, "And it"s up to you to--"
His words were lost in the distance. But behind him a man"s voice rose with a roar like a rocket and was met with a savage, deep-throated cheer.
Outside the village Ford brought the car to a halt and swung in his seat.
"This thing is going to fail!" he cried petulantly. "They don"t believe us. We"ve got to show ourselves--many times--in a dozen places."
"The British mind moves slowly," said Birrell, the Irishman. "Now, if this had happened in my native land--"
He was interrupted by the screech of a siren, and a demon car that spurned the road, that splattered them with pebbles, tore past and disappeared in the darkness. As it fled down the lane of their head-lights, they saw that men in khaki clung to its sides, were packed in its tonneau, were swaying from its running boards. Before they could find their voices a motor cycle, driven as though the angel of death were at the wheel, shaved their mud-guard and, in its turn, vanished into the night.
"Things are looking up!" said Ford. "Where is our next stop? As I said before, what we want is a live one."
Herbert pressed his electric torch against his road map.
"We are next billed to appear," he said, "about a quarter of a mile from here, at the signal-tower of the Great Eastern Railroad, where we visit the night telegraph operator and give him the surprise party of his life."
The three men had mounted the steps of the signal-tower so quietly that, when the operator heard them, they already surrounded him. He saw three German soldiers with fierce upturned mustaches, with flat, squat helmets, with long brown rifles. They saw an anaemic, pale-faced youth without a coat or collar, for the night was warm, who sank back limply in his chair and gazed speechless with wide-bulging eyes.
In harsh, guttural tones Ford addressed him. "You are a prisoner," he said. "We take over this office in the name of the German Emperor. Get out!"
As though instinctively seeking his only weapon of defence, the hand of the boy operator moved across the table to the key of his instrument.
Ford flung his rifle upon it.
"No, you don"t!" he growled. "Get out!"
With eyes still bulging, the boy lifted himself into a sitting posture.