The Boy Scout Aviators
by
George Durston

Part 1 out of 3







This etext was produced by Sean Pobuda.








THE BOY SCOUT AVIATORS

BY GEORGE DURSTON



CHAPTER I


SERIOUS NEWS


"As long as I can't be at home," said Harry Fleming, "I'd rather
be here than anywhere in the world I can think of !"

"Rather!" said his companion, Dick Mercer. "I say, Harry, it must
be funny to be an American!"

Harry laughed heartily.

"I'd be angry, Dick," he said, finally, "if that wasn't so English
-- and so funny! Still, I suppose that's one reason you
Britishers are as big an empire as you are. You think it's sort
of funny and a bit of a misfortune, don't you, to be anything but
English ?"

"Oh, I say, I didn't quite mean that," said Dick, flushing a
little. "And of course you Americans aren't just like foreigners.
You speak the same language we do - though you do say some funny
things now and then, old chap. You know, I was ever so surprised
when you came to Mr. Grenfel and he let you in our troop right
away!"

"Didn't you even know we had Boy Scouts in America?" asked Harry.
"My word as you English would say. That is the limit! Why, it's
spread all over the country with us. But of course we all know
that it started here -- that Baden-Powell thought of the idea!"

"Rather!" said Dick, enthusiastically. "Good old Bathing-Towel!
That's what they used to call him at school, you know, before he
ever went into the army at all. And it stuck to him, they say,
right through. Even after Mafeking he was called that. Now, of
course, he's a lieutenant general, and all sorts of a swell. He
and Kitchener and French are so big they don't get called
nicknames much more."

"Well, I'll tell you what I think," said Harry, soberly. "I think
he did a bigger thing for England when he started the Boy Scout
movement than when he defended Mafeking against the Boers!"

"Why, how can you make that out?" asked Dick, puzzled. "The
defence of Mafeking had a whole lot to do with our winning that
war!"

"That's all right, too," said Harry. "But you know you may be in
a bigger war yet than that Boer War ever thought of being."

"How can a war think, you chump?" asked the literal-minded Dick.

Again Harry roared at him.

"That's just one of our funny American ways of saying things,
Dick," he explained. "I didn't mean that, of course. But what I
do mean is that every-one over here in Europe seems to think that
there will be a big war sometime -- a bigger war than the world's
ever seen yet."

"Oh, yes!" Dick nodded his understanding, and grew more serious.
"My pater - he's a V. C., you know -- says that, too. He says
we'll have to fight Germany, sooner or later. And he seems to
think the sooner the better, too, before they get too big and
strong for us to have an easy time with them."

"They're too big now for any nation to have an easy time with
them," said Harry. "But you see what I mean now, don't you, Dick?
We Boy Scouts aren't soldiers in any way. But we do learn to do
the things a soldier has to do, don't we?"

"Yes, that's true," said Dick. "But we aren't supposed to think
of that."

"Of course not, and it's right, too," agreed Harry. "But we learn
to be obedient. We learn discipline. And we get to understand
camp life, and the open air, and all the things a soldier has to
know about, sooner or later. Suppose you were organizing a
regiment. Which would you rather have -- a thousand men who were
brave and willing, but had never camped out, or a thousand who had
been Boy Scouts and knew about half the things soldiers have to
learn? Which thousand men would be ready to go to the front
first?"

"I never thought of that!" said Dick, mightily impressed. "But
you're right, Harry. The Boy Scouts wouldn't go to war themselves,
but the fellows who were grown up and in business and had been Boy
Scouts would be a lot readier than the others, wouldn't they? I
suppose that's why so many of our chaps join the Territorials when
they are through school and start in business?"

"Of course it is! You've got the idea I'm driving at, Dick. And
you can depend on it that General Baden-Powell had that in his
mind's eye all the time, too. He doesn't want us to be military
and aggressive, but he does want the Empire to have a lot of
fellows on call who are hard and fit, so that they can defend
themselves and the country. You see, in America, and here in
Enland, too, we're not like the countries on the Continent. We
don't make soldiers of every man in the country."

"No -- by Jove, they do that, don't they, Harry? I've got a,
cousin who's French. And he expects to serve his term in the
army. He's in the class of 1918. You see, he knows already when
he will have to go, and just where he will report - almost the
regiment he'll join. But he's hoping they'll let him be in the
cavalry, instead of the infantry or the artillery."

"There you are! Here and in America, we don't have to have such
tremendous armies, because we haven't got countries that we may
have to fight across the street - you know what I mean. England
has to have a tremendous navy, but that makes it unnecessary for
her to have such a big army."

"I see you've got the idea exactly, Fleming," said a new voice,
breaking into the conversation. The two scouts looked up to see
the smiling face of their scoutmaster, John Grenfel. He was a
big, bronzed Englishman, sturdy and typical of the fine class
to which he belonged -- public school and university man, first-
class cricketer and a football international who had helped to win
many a hard fought game for England from Wales or Scotland or
Ireland. The scouts were returning from a picnic on Wimbledon
Common, in the suburbs of London, and Grenfel was following his
usual custom of dropping into step now with one group, now with
another. He favored the idea of splitting up into groups of two
or three on the homeward way, because it was his idea that one of
the great functions of the Scout movement was to foster enduring
friendships among the boys. He liked to know, without listening
or trying to overhear, what the boys talked about; often he would
give a directing word or two, that, without his purpose becoming
apparent, shaped the ideas of the boys.

"Yes," he repeated. "You understand what we're trying to do in
this country, Fleming. We don't want to fight -- we pray to God
that we shall never have to. But, if we are attacked, or if the
necessity arises, we'll be ready, as we have been ready before.
We want peace -- we want it so much and so earnestly that we'll
fight for it if we must."

Neither of the boys laughed at what sounded like a paradox. His
voice was too earnest.

"Do you think England is likely to have to go to war soon --
within a year or so, sir?" asked Harry.

"I pray not," said Grenfel. "But we don't know, Fleming. For the
last few years -- ever since the trouble in the Balkans finally
flamed up -- Europe has been on the brink of a volcano. We don't
know what the next day may bring forth. I've been afraid - " He
stopped, suddenly, and seemed to consider.

"There is danger now," he said, gravely. "Since the Archduke
Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated, Austria has been in
an ugly mood. She has tried to blame Servia. I don't think
Russia will let her crush Servia -- not a second time. And if
Russia and Austria fight there is no telling how it may spread."

"You'd want us to win, wouldn't you, Harry, if we fought?" asked
Dick, when Mr. Grenfel had passed on to speak to some of the
others.

"Yes, I think I would -- I know I would, Dick," said Harry,
gravely. "But I wouldn't want to see a war, just the same. It's
a terrible thing."

"On, it wouldn't last long," said Dick, confidently. "We'd lick
them in no time at all. Don't you think so?"

"I don't know -- I hope so. But you can't ever be sure."

"I wonder if they'd let us fight?"

"No, I don't think they would, Dick. There'd be plenty for the
Boy Scouts to do though, I believe."

"Would you stay over here if there was a war, Harry? Or would you
go home?"

"I think we'd have to stay over here, Dick. You see, my father is
here on business, not just for pleasure. His company sent him
over here, and it was understood he'd stay several years. I don't
think the war could make any difference."

"That's why you're here, then, is it? I used to wonder why you
went to school over here instead of in America."

"Yes. My father and mother didn't want me to be so far from them.
So they brought me along. I was awfully sorry at first, but now
it doesn't seem so bad."

"I should think not!" said Dick, indignantly. "I should think
anyone would be mighty glad of a chance to come to school over
here instead of in America! Why, you don't even play cricket over
there, I've been told!"

"No, but we play baseball," said Harry, his eyes shining. "I
really think I miss that more than anything else here in England.
Cricket's all right -- if you can't play baseball. It's a good
enough game."

"You can play," admitted Dick, rather grudgingly. "When you bowl,
you've got some queer way of making the ball seem to bend --"

"I put a curve on it, that's all!" said Harry, with a laugh. "If
you'd ever played baseball, you'd understand that easily enough.
See? You hold the ball like this -- so that your fingers give it
a spin as it leaves your hand."

And he demonstrated for his English friend's benefit the way the
ball is held to produce an out-curve.

"Your bowlers here don't seem to do that -- though they do make
the ball break after it hits the ground. But the way I manage it,
you see, is to throw a ball that doesn't hit the ground in front
of the bat at all, but curves in. If you don't hit at it, it will
hit the stumps and bowl you out; if you do hit, you're likely to
send it straight up in the air, so that some fielder can catch
it."

"I see," said Dick. "Well, I suppose it's all right, but it
doesn't seem quite fair."

Harry laughed, but didn't try to explain the point further. He
liked Dick immensely; Dick was the first friend he had made in
England, and the best, so far. It was Dick who had tried to get
him to join the Boy Scouts, and who had been immensely surprised
to find that Harry was already a scout. Harry, indeed, had done
two years of scouting in America; he had been one of the first
members of a troop in his home town, and had won a number of merit
badges. He was a first-class scout, and, had he stayed with his
troop, would certainly have become a patrol leader. So he had had
no trouble in getting admission to the patrol to which Dick
belonged.

It had been hard for Harry, when his father's business called him
to England, to give up a all the friendships and associations of
his boyhood. Had been hard to leave school; to tear up, by the
roots, all the things that bound him to his home. But as a scout
he had learned to be loyal and obedient. His parents had talked
things over with him very frankly. They had understood just how
hard it would be for him to go with them. But his father had made
him see how necessary it was.

"I want you to be near your mother and myself just now,
especially, Harry," he had said. "I want you to grow up where I
can see you. And, more-over, it won't hurt you a bit to know
something about other countries. You'll have a new idea of
America when you have seen other lands, and I believe you'll be a
better American for it. You'll learn that other countries have
their virtues, and that we can learn some things from them. But I
believe you'll learn, too, to love America better than ever. When
we go home you'll be broader and better for your experience."

And Harry was finding out that his father had been right. At
first he had to put up with a good deal. He found that the
English boys he met in school felt themselves a little superior.
They didn't look down on him, exactly, but they were, perhaps
the least bit sorry for him because he was not an Englishman,
always a real misfortune in their sight.

He had resented that at first. But his Boy Scout training stood
him in good stead. He kept his temper, and it was not long before
he began to make friends. He excelled at games; even the English
games that were new and strange to him presented few difficulties
to him. As he had explained to Dick, cricket was easy for any boy
who could play baseball fairly well. And it was the same way with
football. After the far more strenuous American game, he shone at
the milder English football, the Rugby game, which is the direct
ancestor of the sport in America.

All these things helped to make Harry popular. He was now nearly
sixteen, tall and strong for his age, thanks to the outdoor life
he had always lived. An only son, he and his father had always
been good friends. Without being in any way a molly-coddle, still
he had been kept safe from a good many of the temptations that
beset some boys by the constant association with his father. It
was no wonder, therefore, that John Grenfel, as soon as he had
talked with Harry and learned of the credentials he bore from his
home troop, had welcomed him enthusiastically as a recruit to his
own troop.

It had been necessary to modify certain rules. Harry, of course,
could not subscribe to quite the same scout oath that bound his
English fellows. But he had taken his scout oath as a tenderfoot
at home, and Grenfel had no doubts about him. He was the sort
of boy the organization wanted, whether in England or America, and
that was enough for Grenfel.

Though the boys, as they walked toward their homes, did not quite
realize it, they were living in days that were big with fate. Far
away, in the chancelleries of Europe, and, not so far away, in the
big government buildings in the West End of London, the statesmen
were even then making their best effort to avert war. No one in
England, perhaps, really believed that war was coming. There had
been war scares before. But the peace of Europe had been
preserved for forty years or more, through one crisis after
another. And so it was a stunning surprise, even to Grenfel,
when, as they came into Putney High street, just before they
reached Putney Bridge, they met a swam of newsboys excitedly
shrieking extras.

"Germany threatens Russia!" they yelled. "War sure!"

Mr. Grenfel brought a paper, and the scouts gathered about him
while he read the news that was contained on the front page, still
damp from the press.

"I'm afraid it's true," he said, soberly. "The German Emperor has
threatened to go to war with Russia, unless the Czar stops
mobilizing his troops at once. We shall know tonight. But I
think it means war! God save England may still keep out of it!"

For that night a meeting at Mr. Grenfel's home in West Kensington
had long been planned. He lived not far from the street in which
both Harry and Dick lived. And, as the party broke up, on the
other side of Putney Bridge, Dick, voicing the general feeling,
asked a question.

"Are we to come tonight, sir?" he said. "With this news -- ?"

"Yes -- yes, indeed," said the scoutmaster. "If war is to come,
there is all the more reason for us to be together. England may
need all of us yet."

Dick had asked the question because, like all the others, he felt
something that was in the air. He was sobered by the news,
although, like the rest, he did not yet fully understand it. But
they all felt that there had been a change. As they looked
about at the familiar sight about them they wondered if, a year
from then, everything would still be the same. War? What did it
mean to them, to England?

"I wonder if my father will go to war!" Dick broke out suddenly,
as he and Harry walked along.

"I hadn't thought of that!" said Harry, startled. "Oh, Dick, I'm
sorry! Still, I suppose he'll go, if his country needs him!"




CHAPTER II


QUICK WORK


At home, Harry had an early dinner with his father and mother, who
were going to the theatre. They lived in a comfortable house,
which Mr. Fleming had taken on a five-year lease when they came to
England to live. It was one of a row of houses that looked very
much alike, which, itself, was one of four sides of a square. In
the centre of the square was a park-like space, a garden, really.
In this garden were several tennis courts, with plenty of space,
also, for nurses and children. There are many such squares in
London, and they help to make the British capital a delightful
place in which to live.

As he went in, Harry saw a lot of the younger men who lived in the
square playing tennis. It was still broad daylight, although, at
home, dusk would have fallen. But this was England at the end of
July and the beginning of August, and the light of day would hold
until ten o'clock or thereabout. That was one of the things that
had helped to reconcile Harry to living in England. He loved the
long evenings and the chance they gave to get plenty of sport and
exercise after school hours.

The school that he and Dick attended was not far away; they went
to it each day. A great many of the boys boarded at the school,
but there were plenty who, like Dick and Harry, did not. But
school was over now, for the time. The summer holidays had just
begun.

At the table there was much talk of the war that was in the air.
But Mr. Fleming did not even yet believe that war was sure.

"They'll patch it up," he said, confidently. "They can't be so
mad as to set the whole world ablaze over a little scrap like the
trouble between Austria and Servia."

"Would it affect your business, dear?" asked Mrs. Fleming. "If
there really should be war, I mean ?"

"I don't think so," said he. "I might have to make a flying trip
home, but I'd be back. Come on -- time for us to go. What are
you going to do, boy? Going over to Grenfel's, aren't you ?"

"Yes, father," said Harry.

"All right. Get home early. Good-night!"

A good many of the boys were already there when Dick and Harry
reached Grenfel's house. The troop -- the Forty-second, of London
-- was a comparatively small one, having only three patrols. But
nearly all of them were present, and the scout-master took them
out into his garden.

"I'm going to change the order a bit," he said, gravely. "I want
to do some talking, and then I expect to answer questions. Boys,
Germany has declared war on Russia. There are reports already of
fighting on the border between France and Germany. And there
seems to be an idea that the Germans are certain to strike at
France through Belgium. I may not be here very long -- I may have
to turn over the troop to another scoutmaster. So I want to have
a long talk to-night." There was a dismayed chorus.

"What? You going away, sir? Why?"

But Harry did not join. He saw the quiet blaze in John Grenfel's
eyes, and he thought he knew.

"I've volunteered for foreign service already," Grenfel explained.
"I saw a little fighting in the Boer war, you know. And I may be
useful. So I thought I'd get my application in directly. If I
go, I'll probably go quietly and quickly. And there may be no
other chance for me to say good-bye."

'Then you think England will be drawn in, sir?" asked Leslie
Franklin, leader of the patrol to which Dick and Harry belonged,
the Royal Blues.

"I'm afraid so," said Grenfels grimly. "There's just a chance
still, but that's all -- the ghost of a chance, you might call it.
I think it might be as well if I explained a little of what's back
of all this trouble. Want to listen? If you do, I'll try. And
if I'm not making myself clear, ask all the questions you like."

There was a chorus of assent. Grenfel sat in the middle, the
scouts ranged about him in a circle. "In the first place," he
began, "this Servian business is only an excuse. I'm not
defending the Servians -- I'm taking no sides between Servia and
Austria. Here in England we don't care about that, because we
know that if that hadn't started the war, something else would
have been found.

"England wants peace. And it seems that, every so often, she has
to fight for it. It was so when the Duke of Marlborough won his
battles at Blenheim and Ramillies and Malplaquet. Then France was
the strongest nation in Europe. And she tried to crush the others
and dominate everything. If she had, she would have been strong
enough, after her victories, to fight us over here -- to invade
England. So we went into that war, more than two hundred years
ago, not because we hated France, but to make a real peace
possible. And it lasted a long time.

"Then, after the French revolution, there was Napoleon. Again
France, under him, was the strongest nation in Europe. He
conquered Germany, and Austria, Italy and Spain, the Netherlands.
And he tried to conquer England, so that France could rule the
world. But Nelson beat his fleet at Trafalgar --"

"Hurrah!" interrupted Dick, carried away. "Three cheers for
Nelson!"

Grenfel smiled as the cheers were given.

"Even after Trafalgar," he went on, "Napoleon hoped to conquer
England. He had massed a great army near Boulogne, ready to send
it across the channel. And so we took the side of the weaker
nations again. All Europe, led by England, rose against Napoleon.
And you know what happened. He was beaten finally at Waterloo.
And so there was peace again in Europe for a long time, with no
one nation strong enough to dictate to all the others." But then
Germany began to rise. She beat Austria, and that made her the
strongest German country. Then she beat France, in 1870, and that
gave her her start toward being the strongest nation on the
continent.

"And then, I believe -- and so do most Englislmen -- she began to
be jealous of England. She wanted our colonies. She began,
finally, to build a great navy. For years we have had to spend
great sums of money to keep our fleet stronger than hers. And she
made an alliance with Austria and Italy. Because of that France
and Russia made an alliance, too, and we had to be friendly with
them. And now it looks to me as if Germany thought she saw a
chance to beat France and Russia. Perhaps she thinks that we
won't fight, on account of the trouble in Ireland. And what we
English fear is that, if she wins, she will take Belgium and
Holland. Then she would be so close to our coasts that we would
never be safe. We would have to be prepared always for invasion.
So, you see, it seems to me that we are facing the same sort of
danger we have faced before. Only this time it is Germany,
instead of France, that we shall have to fight -- if we do fight."

"If the Germans go through Belgium, will that mean that we shall
fight?" asked Leslie Franklin.

"Almost certainly, yes," said Grenfel. "And it is through Belgium
that Germany has her best chance to strike at France. So you see
how serious things are. I don't want to go into all the history
that is back of all this. I just want you to understand what
England's interest is. If we make war, it will be a war of self-
defence. Suppose you owned a house. And suppose the house next
door caught fire. You would try to put out that fire, wouldn't
you, to save your own house from being burned up? Well, that's
England's position. If the Germans held Belgium or Holland -- and
they would hold both, if they beat France and Russia -- England
would then be in just as much danger as your house would be. So
if we fight, it will be to put out the German fire in the house
next door.

"Now I want you to understand one thing. I'm talking as an
Englishman. A German would tell you all this in a very different
way. I don't like the people who are always slandering their
enemies. Germany has her reasons for acting as she does. I think
her reasons are wrong. But the Germans believe that they are
right. We can respect even people who are wrong if they
themselves believe that they are right. There may be two sides to
this quarrel. And Germans, even if they are to be our enemies,
may be just as patriotic, just as devoted to their country, as we
are. Never forget that, no matter what may happen."

He stopped then, waiting for questions. None came.

"Then you understand pretty well?" he asked. There was a murmur
of assent from the whole circle.

"All right, then," he said. "Now there's work for Scouts to do.
Be prepared! That's our motto, isn't it? Suppose there's war.
Franklin, what's your idea of what the Boy Scouts would be able to
do?"

"I suppose those who are old enough could volunteer, sir," said
Franklin, doubtfully. "I can't think of anything else --"

"Time enough for that later," said Grenfel, with a short laugh.
"England may have to call boys to the colors before she's done, if
she once starts to fight. But long before that time comes, there
will be a great work for the organization we all love and honor.
Work that won't be showy, work that will be very hard. Boys,
everyone in England, man and woman and child will have work to do!
And we, who are organized, and whose motto Be Prepared, ought to
be able to show what stuff there is in us.

"Think of all the places that must be guarded. The waterworks,
the gas tanks, the railroads that lead to the seaports and that
will be used by the troops."

A startled burst of exclamations answered him. "Why, there won't
be any fighting in England, sir, will there?" asked Dick Mercer,
in surprise.

"We all hope not," said Grenfel. "But that's not what I mean. It
doesn't take an army to destroy a railroad. One man with a bomb
and a time fuse attached to it can blow up a culvert and block a
whole line so that precious hours might be lost in getting
troops aboard a transport. One man could blow up a waterworks or
a gas tank or cut an important telegraph or telephone wire!"

"You mean that there will be Germans here trying to hurt England
any way they can, don't you sir? asked Harry Fleming.

"I mean exactly that," said Grenfel. "We don't know this -- we
can't be sure of it. But we've got good reason to believe that
there are a great many Germans here, seemingly peaceable enough,
who are regularly in the pay of the German government as spies.
We don't know the German plans. But there is no reason, so far as
we know, why their great Zeppelin airships shouldn't come sailing
over England, to drop bombs down where they can do the most harm.
There is nothing except our own vigilance to keep these spies,
even if they have to work alone, from doing untold damage!"

'We could be useful as sentries, then?" said Leslie Franklin. He
drew a deep breath. "I never thought of things like that, sir!
I'm just beginning to see how useful we really might be. We could
do a lot of things instead of soldiers, couldn't we? So that
they would be free to go and fight?"

"Yes," answered the scoutmaster. "And I can tell you now that the
National Scout Council has always planned to 'Be Prepared!' It
decided, a long time ago, what should be done in case of war. A
great many troops will be offered to the War Department to do odd
jobs. They will carry messages and dispatches. They will act
as clerks, so far as they can. They will patrol the railways and
other places that ought to be under guard, where soldiers can be
spared if we take their places. So far as such things can be
planned, they have been planned.

"But most of the ways in which we can be useful haven't showed
themselves, at all yet. They will develop, if war comes. We
shall have to be alert and watchful, and do whatever there is to
be done..."

"Who will be scoutmaster, sir. if you go to the war?" asked Harry.

"I'm not quite sure," said Grenfel. "We haven't decided yet. But
it will be someone you can trust -- be sure of that. And I think
I needn't say that if you scouts have any real regard for me you
will show it best by serving as loyally and as faithfully under
him as you have under me. I shall be with you in spirit, no
matter where I am. Now it's, getting late. I think we'd better
break up for tonight. We will make a special order, too, for the
present. Every scout in the troop will report at scout
headquarters until further notice, every day, at nine o'clock in
the morning.

"I think we'll have to make up our minds not to play many games
for the time that is coming. There is real work ahead of us if
war comes -- work just as real and just as hard, in its way, as if
we were all going to fight for England. Everyone cannot fight,
but the ones who stay at home and do the work that comes to their
hands will serve England just as loyally as if they were on the
firing line. Now up, all of you! Three cheers for King George!"

They were given with a will -- and Harry Fleming joined in as
heartily as any of them. He was as much of an American as he had
ever been, but something in him responded with a strange thrill to
England's need, as Grenfel had expressed it. After all, England
had been and was the mother country. England and America had
fought, in their time, and America had won, but now, for a hundred
years, there had been peace between them. And he and these
English boys were of the same blood and the same language, binding
them very closely together. "Blood is thicker than water, after
all!" he thought.

Then every scout there shook hands with John Grenfel. He smiled
as he greeted them.

"I hope this will pass over," he said, "and that we'll do together
during this vacation all the things we've planned to do. But if
we can't, and if I'm called away, good-bye! Do your duty as
scouts, and I'll know it somehow! And, in case I don't see you
again, good-bye!"

"You're going to stand with us, then, Fleming?" he said, as Harry
came up to shake hands. "Good boy! We're of one blood, we
English and you Americans. We've had our quarrels, but relatives
always do quarrel. And you'll not be asked, as a scout here,
to do anything an American shouldn't do."

Then it was over. They were out in the street. In the distance
newsboys were yelling their extra still. Many people were out,
something unusual in that quiet neighborhood. And suddenly one of
the scouts lifted his voice, and in a moment they were all
singing:

Rule, rule, Britannia!
Britannia rules the waves!
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves!

Scores of voices swelled the chorus, joining the fresh young
voices of the scouts. And then someone started that swinging
march song that had leaped into popularity at the time of the Boer
War, Soldiers of the Queen. The words were trifling, but there
was a fine swing to the music, and it was not the words that
counted -- it was the spirit of those who sang.

As he marched along with the others Harry noticed one thing. In a
few hours the whole appearance of the streets had changed. From
every house, in the still night air, drooped a Union Jack. The
flag was everywhere; some houses had flung out half a dozen to the
wind.

Harry was seeing a sight, that once seen, can never be forgotten.
He was seeing a nation aroused, preparing to fight. If war came
to England it would be no war decreed by a few men. It would be a
war proclaimed by the people themselves, demanded by them. The
nation was stirring; it was casting off the proverbial lethargy
and indifference of the English. Even here, in this usually quiet
suburb of London, the home of business and professional men who
were comfortably well off, the stirring of the spirit of England
was evident. And suddenly the song of the scouts and those
who had joined them was drowned out by a new noise, sinister,
threatening. It was the angry note that is raised by a mob.

Leslie Franklin took command at once. "Here, we must see what's
wrong!" he cried. "Scouts, attention! Fall in! Double quick --
follow me!"

He ran in the direction of the sound, and they followed. Five
minutes brought them to the scene of the disturbance. They
reached a street of cheaper houses and small shops. About one of
these a crowd was surging, made up largely of young men of the
lower class, for in West Kensington, as in all parts of London,
the homes of the rich and of the poor rub one another's elbows in
easy familiarity. The crowd seemed to be trying to break in the
door of this shop. Already all the glass of the show windows had
been broken, and from within there came guttural cries of alarm
and anger.

"It's Dutchy's place!" cried Dick Mercer. "He's a German, and
they're trying to smash his place up!"

"Halt!" cried Franklin. He gathered the scouts about him. "This
won't do," he said, angry spots of color showing on his cheek
bones. "No one's gone for the police -- or, if they have, this
crowd of muckers will smash everything up and maybe hurt the
old Dutchman before the Bobbies get here. Form together now --
and when I give the word, go through! Once we get between them
and the shop, we can stop them. Maybe they won't know who we are
at first, and our uniforms may stop them."

"Now!" he said, a moment later. And, with a shout, the scouts
charged through the little mob in a body.

They had no trouble in getting through. A few determined people,
knowing just what they mean to do, can always overcome a greater
number of disorganized ones. That is why disciplined troops can
conquer five times their number of rioters or savages. And so in
a moment they reached the shop.

"Let us in! We're here to protect you!" cried Franklin to old
Schmidt, who was cowering within, with his wife. Then he turned
to the rioters, who, getting over their first surprise, were
threatening again.

"For shame!" he cried. "Do you think you're doing anything for
England? War's not declared yet -- and, if it was, you might
better be looking for German soldiers to shoot at than trying to
hurt an old man who never did anyone any harm!"

There was a threatening noise from the crowd, but Franklin was
undismayed.

"You'll have to get through us to reach them !" he cried. "We --"

But he was interrupted. A whistle sounded. The next moment the
police were there.




CHAPTER III


PICKED FOR SERVICE


The coming of the police cleared the little crowd of would-be
rioters away in no time. There were only three or four of the
Bobbies, but they were plenty. A smiling sergeant came up to
Franklin.

"More of your Boy Scout work, sir?" he said, pleasantly. "I heard
you standing them off! That was very well done. If we can depend
on you to help us all over London, we'll have an easier job than
we looked for."

"We saw a whole lot of those fellows piling up against the shop
here," said Franklin. "So of course we pitched in. We couldn't
let anything like that happen."

"There'll be a lot of it at first, I'm afraid, sir," said the
sergeant. "Still, it won't last. If all we hear is true, they'll
be taking a lot of those young fellows away and giving them some
real fighting to do to keep them quiet."

"Well, we'll help whenever we can, sergeant," said Franklin. "If
the inspector thinks it would be a good thing to have the shops
that are kept by Germans watched, I'm quite sure it can be
arranged. If there's war I suppose a lot of you policemen will
go?"

"We'll supply our share, sir," said the sergeant. "I'm expecting
orders any minute -- I'm a reservist myself. Coldstream Guards,
sir."

"Congratulations!" said Franklin. He spoke a little wistfully.
"I wonder if they'll let me go? I think I'm old enough! Well, can
we help any more here tonight?"

"No, thank you, sir. You've done very well as it is. Pity all
the lads don't belong to the Boy Scouts. We'd have less trouble,
I'll warrant. I'll just leave a man here to watch the place. But
they won't be back. They don't mean any real harm, as it is.
It's just their spirits -- and their being a bit thoughtless, you
know."

"All right," said Franklin. "Glad we came along. Good-night,
sergeant. Fall in! March!"

There was a cheer from the crowd that had gathered to watch the
disturbance as the scouts move away. A hundred yards from the
scene of what might have been a tragedy, except for their prompt
action, the scouts dispersed. Dick, Mercer and Harry Fleming
naturally enough, since they lived so close to one another, went
home together.

"That was quick work," said Harry.

"Yes. I'm glad we got there," said Dick. "Old Dutchy's all right
- he doesn't seem like a German. But I think it would be a good
thing if they did catch a few of the others and scrag them!"

"No, it wouldn't," said Harry soberly. "Don't get to feeling that
way, Dick. Suppose you were living in Berlin. You wouldn't want a
lot of German roughs to come and destroy your house or your shop
and handle you that way, would you?"

"It's not the same thing," said Dick, stubbornly. "They're
foreigners."

"But you'd be a foreigner if you were over there!" said Harry,
with a laugh.

"I suppose I would," said Dick. "I never thought of that! Just
the same, I bet Mr. Grenfel was right. London's full of spies.
Isn't that an awful idea, Harry? You can't tell who's a spy and
who isn't!"

"No, but you can be pretty sure that the man you suspect isn't,"
suggested Harry, sagely. "A real spy wouldn't let you find it out
very easily. I can see one thing and that is a whole lot of
perfectly harmless people are going to be arrested as spies before
this war is very old, if it does come! We don't want to be mixed
up in that, Dick -- we scouts. If we think a man's doing anything
suspicious, we'll have to be very sure before we denounce him, or
else we won't be any use."

"It's better for a few people to be arrested by mistake than to
let a spy keep on spying, isn't it?"

"I suppose so, but we don't want to be like the shepherd's boy who
used to try to frighten people by calling 'Wolf! Wolf!' when there
wasn't any wolf. You know what happened to him. When a wolf
really did come no one believed him. Wo want to look before we
leap."

"I suppose you're right, Harry. Oh, I do hope we can really be of
some use! If I can't go to the war, I'd like to think I'd had
something to do -- that I'd helped when my country needed me!"

"If you feel like that you'll be able to help, all right," said
Harry. "I feel that way, too not that I want to fight. I
wouldn't want to do that for any country but my own. But I would
like to be able to know that I'd had something to do with all
that's going to be done."

"I think it's fine for you to be like that," said Dick. "I think
there isn't so much difference between us, after all, even if you
are American and I'm English. Well, here we are again. I'll see
you in the morning, I suppose?"

"Right oh! I'll come around for you early. Goodnight!"

"Goodnight!"

Neither of them really doubted for a moment that war was coming.
It was in the air. The attack on the little shop that they had
helped to avert was only one of many, although there was no real
rioting in London. Such scenes were simply the result of
excitement, and no great harm was done anywhere. But the
tension of which such attacks were the result was everywhere. For
the next three days there was very little for anyone to do.

Everyone was waiting. France and Germany were at war; the news
came that the Germans had invaded Luxembourg, and were crossing
the Belgian border.

And then, on Tuesday night, came the final news. England had
declared war. For the moment the news seemed to stun everyone.
It had been expected, and still it came as a surprise. But then
London rose to the occasion. There was no hysterical cheering and
shouting; everything was quiet. Harry Fleming saw a wonderful
sight a whole people aroused and determined. There was no foolish
boasting; no one talked of a British general eating his Christmas
dinner in Berlin. But even Dick Mercer, excitable and erratic as
he had always been, seemed to have undergone a great change.

"My father's going to the war," he told Harry on Wednesday
morning. He spoke very seriously. "He was a captain in the Boer
War, you know, so he knows something about soldiering. He thinks
he'll be taken, though he's a little older than most of the men
who'll go. He'll be an officer, of course. And he says I've got
to look after the mater when he's gone."

"You can do it, too," said Harry, surprised, despite himself, by
the change in his chum's manner. "You seem older than I now,
Dick, and I've always thought you were a kid!"

"The pater says we've all got to be men, now," said Dick,
steadily. "The mater cried a bit when he said he was going -- but
I think she must have known all the time he was going. Because
when he told us -- we were at the breakfast table -- she sort of
cried a little, and then she stopped.

"I've got everything ready for you,' she said.

"And he looked at her, and smiled. 'So you knew I was going?' he
asked her. And she nodded her head, and he got up and kissed her.
I never saw him do that before he never did that before, when I
was looking on," Dick concluded seriously. "I hope he'll come
back all right, Dick," said Harry. "It's hard, old chap!"

"I wouldn't have him stay home for anything!" said Dick, fiercely.
"And I will do my share! You see if I don't! I don't care what
they want me to do! I'll run errands -- I'll sweep out the floors
in the War Office, so that some man can go to war! I'll do
anything!"

Somehow Harry realized in that moment how hard it was going to be
to beat a country where even the boys felt like that! The change
in the usually thoughtless, light-hearted Dick impressed him more
than anything else had been able to do with the real meaning of
what had come about so suddenly. And he was thankful, too, all
at once, that in America the fear and peril of War were so
remote. It was glorious, it was thrilling, but it was terrible,
too. He wondered how many of the scouts he knew, and how many
of those in school would lose their fathers or their brothers in
this war that was beginning. Truly, there is no argument for peace
that can compare with war itself! Yet how slowly we learn!

Grenfel had gone, and the troop was now in charge of a new
scoutmaster, Francis Wharton. Mr. Wharton was a somewhat older
man. At first sight he didn't look at all like the man to lead a
group of scouts, but that, as it turned out, was due to physical
infirmities. One foot had been amputated at the time of the Boer
War, in which he had served with Grenfel. As a result he was
incapacitated from active service, although, as the scouts soon
learned, he had begged to be allowed to go in spite of it. He
appeared at the scout headquarters, the pavilion of a small local
cricket club, on Wednesday morning.

"I don't know much about this -- more shame to me," he said,
cheerfully, standing up to address the boys. "But I think we can
make a go of it -- think we'll be able to do something for the
Empire, boys. My old friend John Grenfel told me a little;
he said you'd pull me through. These are war times and you'll
have to do for me what many a company in the army does for a young
officer."

They gave him a hearty cheer that was a promise in itself.

"I can tell you I felt pretty bad when I found they wouldn't let
me go to the front," he went on. "It seemed hard to have to sit
back and read the newspapers when I knew I ought to be doing some
of the work. But then Grenfel told me about you boys, and what
you meant to do, and I felt better. I saw that there was a chance
for me to help, after all. So here I am. These are times when
ordinary routine doesn't matter so much you can understand that.
Grenfel put the troop at the disposal of the commander at Ealing.
And his first request was that I should send two scouts to him at
once. Franklin, I believe you are the senior patrol leader? Yes?
Then I shall appoint you assistant scoutmaster, as Mr. Greene has
not returned from his holiday in France. Will you suggest the
names of two scouts for this service?"

Franklin immediately went up to the new scoutmaster, and they
spoke together quietly, while a buzz of excited talk rose among
the scouts. Who would be honored by the first chance? Every scout
there wanted to hear his name called.

"I think they'll take me, for one," said Ernest Graves. He was
one of the patrol to which both Harry Fleming and Dick Mercer
belonged, and the biggest and oldest scout of the troop, except
for Leslie Franklin. He had felt for some time that he should be
a patrol leader. Although he excelled in games, and was
unquestionably a splendid scout, Graves was not popular, for some
reason, among his fellows. He was not exactly unpopular, either;
but there was a little resentment at his habit of pushing
himself forward.

"I don't see why you should go more than anyone else, Graves,"
said young Mercer. "I think they'd take the ones who are
quickest. We're probably wanted for messenger work."

"Well, I'm the oldest. I ought to have first chance," said
Graves.

But the discussion was ended abruptly.

"Fleming! Mercer!" called Mr. Wharton.

They stepped forward, their hands raised in the scout salute,
awaiting the scoutmaster's orders. "You will proceed at once, by
rail, to Ealing," he said. "There you will report at the
barracks, handing this note to the officer of the guard. He
will then conduct you to the adjutant or the officer in command,
from whom you will take your orders."

"Yes, sir," said both scouts. Their eyes were afire with
enthusiasm. But as they passed toward the door, Dick Mercer's
quick ears caught a sullen murmur from Graves.

"He's making a fine start," he heard him say to Fatty Wells, who
was a great admirer of his. "Picking out an AMERICAN! Why, we're
not even sure that he'll be loyal! Did you ever hear of such a
thing?"

"You shut up!" cried Dick, fiercely, turning on Graves. "He's as
loyal as anyone else! We know as much about him as we do about
you, anyhow -- or more! You may be big, but when we get back I'll
make you take that back or fight --"

"Come on," said Harry, pulling Dick along with him. "You mustn't
start quarreling now - it's time for all of us to stand together,
Dick. I don't care what he says, anyhow."

He managed to get his fiery chum outside, and they hurried along,
at the scout pace, running and walking alternately, toward the
West Kensington station of the Underground Railway. They were in
their khaki scout uniforms, and several people turned to smile
admiringly at them. The newspapers had already announced that the
Boy Scouts had turned out unanimously to do whatever service they
could, and it was a time when women -- and it was mostly women who
were in the streets -- were disposed to display their admiration
of those who were working for the country very freely.

They had little to say to one another as they hurried along; their
pace was such as to make it wise for them to save their breath.
But when they reached the station they found they had some minutes
to wait for a train, and they sat down on the platform to get
their breath. They had already had one proof of the difference
made by a state of war.

Harry stopped at the ticket window.

"Two-third class -- for Ealing," he said, putting down the money.
But the agent only smiled, having seen their uniforms.

"On the public service ?" he questioned.

"Yes," said Harry, rather proudly.

"Then you don't need tickets," said the agent. "Got my orders
this morning. No one in uniform has to pay. Go right through, and
ride first-class, if you like. You'll find plenty of officers
riding that way."

"That's fine!" said Dick. "It makes it seem as if we were really
of some use, doesn't it, Harry?"

"Yes," answered Harry. "But, Dick, I've been thinking of what you
said to Graves. What did you mean when you told him you knew more
about me than you did about him? Hasn't he lived here a long
time?"

"No, and there's a little mystery about him. Don't you know it?"

"Never heard of such a thing, Dick. You see, I haven't been here
so very long and he was in the patrol when I joined.",

"Oh, yes, so he was! Well, I'll tell you, then. You know he's
studying to be an engineer, at the Polytechnic. And he lives at a
boarding house, all by himself. Not a regular boarding house,
exactly. He boards with Mrs. Johnson, you know. Her husband died
a year or two ago, and didn't leave her very much money. He
hasn't any father or mother, but he always seems to have plenty of
money. And he can play all sorts of games, but he won't do them
up right. He says he doesn't care anything about cricket!"

"How old is he?"

"Sixteen, but he's awfully big and strong."

"He certainly is. He looks older than that, to me. Have you ever
noticed anything funny about the way he talks?"

"No. Why? Have you?"

"I'm not sure. But sometimes it seems to me he talks more like
the people do in a book than you and I do. I wonder why he
doesn't like me?" pondered Harry.

"Oh, he likes you as well as he does anyone, Harry. He didn't
mean anything, I fancy, when he said that about your being chosen
just now. He was squiffed because Mr. Wharton didn't take him,
that's all. He thinks he ought to be ahead of everyone."

"Well, I didn't ask to be chosen. I'm glad I was, of course, but
I didn't expect to be. I think perhaps Leslie Franklin asked Mr.
Wharton to take me."

"Of course he did! Why shouldn't he?"

Just then the coming of the train cut them short. From almost
every window men in uniform looked out. A few of the soldiers
laughed at their scout garb, but most of them only smiled gravely,
and as if they were well pleased. The two scouts made for the
nearest compartment, and found, when they were in it, that it
was a first-class carriage, already containing two young officers
who were smoking and chatting together.

"Hullo, young 'uns!" said one of the officers. "Off to the war?"

They both laughed, which Harry rather resented. "We're under
orders, sir," he said, politely. "But, of course, they won't let
us Scouts go to the war."

"Don't rag them, Cecil," said the other officer. "They're just
the sort we need. Going to Ealing, boys?"

Harry checked Dick's impulsive answer with a quick snatch at his
elbow. He looked his questioner straight in the eye.

"We weren't told to answer any questions, sir," he said.

Both the officers roared with laughter, but they sobered quickly,
and the one who had asked the question flushed a little.

"I beg your pardon, my boy," he said. "The question is withdrawn.
You're perfectly right - and you're setting us an example by
taking things seriously. This war isn't going to be a lark. But
you can tell me a few things. You're scouts, I see. I was myself,
once - before I went to Sandhurst. What troop and patrol?"

Dick told him, and the officer nodded.

"Good work!" he said. "The scouts are going to turn out and help,
he? That's splendid! There'll be work enough to go all around,
never you fear."

"If, by any chance, you should be going to Ealing Barracks," said
the first officer, rather shyly, "and we should get off the train
when you do, there's no reason why you shouldn't let us drive you
out, is there? We're going there, and I don't mind telling you
that we've just finished a two hour leave to go and say good-bye
to - to -"

His voice broke a little at that. In spite of his light-hearted
manner and his rather chaffing tone, he couldn't help remembering
that good-bye. He was going to face whatever fate might come, but
thoughts of those he might not see again could not be prevented
from obtruding themselves.

"Shut up, Cecil," said the other. "We've said good-bye - that's
the end of it! We've got other things to think of now. Here we
are!"

The train pulled into Ealing station. Here the evidences of war
and the warlike preparations were everywhere. The platforms were
full of soldiers, laughing, jostling one another, saluting the
officers who passed among them. And Harry, as he and Dick
followed the officers toward the gate, saw one curious thing. A
sentry stood by the railway official who was taking up tickets,
and two or three times he stopped and questioned civilian
passengers. Two of these, moreover, he ordered into the ticket
office, where, as he went by, Harry saw an officer, seated at a
desk, examining civilians.

Ealing, as a place where many troops were quartered, was plainly
very much under martial law. And outside the station it was even
more military. Soldiers were all about and automobiles were
racing around, too. And there were many women and children here,
to bid farewell to the soldiers who were going - where? No one
knew. That was the mystery of the morning. Everyone understood
that the troops were off; that they had their orders. But not
even the officers themselves knew where, it seemed.

"Here we are - here's a car!" said the officer called Cecil.
"Jump aboard, young 'uns! We know where you're going, right
enough. Might as well save some time."

And so in a few minutes they reached the great barracks. Here the
bustle that had been so marked about the station was absent. All
was quiet. They were challenged by a sentry and Harry asked for
the officer of the guard. When he came he handed him Wharton's
letter. They were told to wait - outside. And then, in a few
minutes, the officer returned, passed them through, and turned
them over to an orderly, who took them to the room where Colonel
Throckmorton, who was seemingly in charge of important affairs,
received them. He returned their salute, then bent a rather
stern gaze upon them before he spoke.




Chapter IV


The House of the Heliograph


"You know your way about London?" he asked.

"Yes, sir," said Harry.

"I shall have messages for you to carry," said the colonel, then.
"Now I want to explain, so that you will understand the importance
of this, why you are going to be allowed to do this work. This
war has come suddenly -- but we are sure that the enemy has
expected it for a long time, and has made plans accordingly.

"There are certain matters so important, so secret, that we are
afraid to trust them to the telephone, the telegraph -- even the
post, if that were quick enough! In a short time we shall have
weeded out all the spies. Until then we have to exercise the
greatest care. And it has been decided to accept the offer of Boy
Scouts because the spies we feel we must guard against are less
likely to suspect boys than men. I am going to give you some
dispatches now -- what they are is a secret. You take them to
Major French, at Waterloo station."

He stopped, apparently expecting them to speak. But neither said
anything.

"No questions?" he asked, sternly.

"No -- no, sir," said Dick. "We're to take the dispatches to
Major French, at Waterloo? That all, is it, sir? And then to
come back here?"

The colonel nodded approvingly.

"Yes, that's all," he said. "Except for this. Waterloo station is
closed to all civilians. You will require a word to pass the
sentries. No matter what you see, once you are inside, you are
not to describe it. You are to tell no one, not even your parent
- - what you do or what you see. That is all," and he nodded in
dismissal.

They made their way out and back to the railway station. And Dick
seemed a little disappointed.

"I don't think this is much to be doing!" he grumbled.

But Harry's eyes were glistening.

"Don't you see ?" he said, lowering his voice so they could not be
overheard. "We know something now that probably even a lot of the
soldiers don't know! They're mobilizing. If they are going to be
sent from Waterloo it must mean that they're going to Southampton
-- and that means that they will reach France. That's what we'll
see at Waterloo station -- troops entraining to start the trip to
France. They're going to fight over there. Everyone is guessing
at that -- a lot of people thought most of the army would be sent
to the East Coast. But that can't be so, you see. If it was,
they would be starting from King's Cross and Liverpool street
stations, not from Waterloo."

"Oh, I never thought of that!" said Dick, brightening.

When they got on the train at Ealing they were lucky enough to
get a compartment to themselves, since at that time more people
were coming to Ealing than were leaving it. Dick began at once to
give vent to his wonder.

"How many of them do you suppose are going?" he cried. "Who will
be in command? Sir John Frencli, I think. Lord Kitchener is to
be War Minister, they say, and stay in London. I bet they whip
those bally Germans until they don't know where they are --"

"Steady on!" said Harry, smiling, but a little concerned, none the
less. "Dick, don't talk that! You don't know who may be
listening!"

"Why, Harry! No one can hear us -- we're alone in the carriage!"

"I know, but we don't know who's in the next one or whether they
ean hear through or not. The wall isn't very thick, you know.
We can't be too careful. I don't think anyone knows what we're
doing but there isn't any reason why we should take any risk at
all."

"No, of course not. You're right, Harry," said Dick, a good deal
abashed. "I'll try to keep quiet after this."

"I wonder why there are two of us," said Dick presently, in a
whisper. "I should think one would be enough."

"I think we've both got just the same papers to carry," said
Harry, also in a whisper. "You see, if one of us gets lost, or
anything happens to his papers, the other will probably get
through all right. At least it looks that way to me."

"Harry," said Dick, after a pause, "I've got an idea. Suppuse we
separate and take different ways to get to Waterloo? Wouldn't
that make it safer? We could meet there and go back to Ealing
together."

"That's a good idea, Dick," said Harry. He didn't think that
their present errand was one of great importance, in spite of what
Colonel Throckmorton had said. He thought it more likely that they
were being tried out and tested, so that the colonel might draw
his own conclusions as to how far he might safely trust them in
the future. But he repressed his inclination to smile at this
sudden excess of caution on Dick's part. It was a move in the
right direction, certainly.

"Yes, we'll do that," he said. "I'll walk across the bridge, and
you can take the tube under the river from the Monument."

They followed that plan, and met without incident at the station.
Here more than ever the fact of war was in evidence. A
considerable space in and near the station had been roped off and
sentries refused to allow any to pass who could not prove that
they had a right to do so. The ordinary peaceful vocation of the
great terminal was entirely suspended.

"Anything happen to you ?" asked Harry with a smile. "I nearly
got run over -- but that was my own fault."

"No, nothing. I saw Graves. And he wanted to know what I was
doing."

"What did you tell him?"

"Nothing. I said, 'Don't you wish you knew?' And he got angry,
and said he didn't care."

"It wasn't any of his business. You did right," said Harry.

They had to wait a few moments to see Major French, who was
exceedingly busy. They need no one to tell them what was going
on. At the platform trains were waiting, and, even while they
looked on, one after another drew out, loaded with soldiers. The
windows were whitewashed, so that, once the doors of the
compartments were closed, none could see who was inside. There
was no cheering, which seemed strange at first, but it was so
plain that this was a precautionary measure that the boys
understood it easily enough. Finally Major French, an energetic,
sunburned man, who looked as if he hadn't slept for days, came to
them. They handed him the papers they carried. He glanced at
them, signed receipts which he handed to them, and then frowned
for a moment.

"I think I'll let you take a message to Colonel Throckmorton for
me," he said, then, giving them a kindly smile. "It will be a
verbal message. You are to repeat what I tell you to him without
a change. And I suppose I needn't tell you that you must give it
to no one else?"

"No, sir." they chorused.

"Very well, then. You will tell him that trains will be waiting
below Surbiton, at precisely ten o'clock tonight. Runways will be
built to let the men climb the embankment, and they can entrain
there. You will remember that ?"

"Yes, sir."

"You might as well understand what it's all about," said the
major. "You see, we're moving a lot of troops. And it is of the
utmost importance for the enemy to know all about the movement
and, of course, just as important for us to keep them from
learning what they want to know. So we are covering the movement
as well as we can. Even if they learn some of the troops that are
going, we want to keep them from finding out everything. Their
spy system is wonderfully complete and we have to take every
precaution that is possible. It is most important that you
deliver this message to Colonel Throckmorton. Repeat it to me
exactly," he commanded.

They did so, and, seemingly satisfied, he let them go. But just
as they were leaving, he called them back.

"You'd go back by the underground, I suppose," he said. "I'm not
sure that you can get through for the line is likely to be taken
over, temporarily, at any moment. Take a taxicab -- I'll send an
orderly with you to put you aboard. Don't pay the man anything;
we are keeping a lot of them outside on government service, and
they get their pay from the authorities."

The orderly led them to the stand, some distance from the station,
where the cabs stood in a long row, and spoke to the driver of the
one at the head of the rank. In a moment the motor was started,
and they were off.

The cab had a good engine, and it made good time. But after a
little while Harry noticed with some curiosity that the route they
were taking was not the most direct one. He rapped on the window
glass and spoke to the driver about it.

"Got to go round, sir," the man explained. "Roads are all torn up
the straight way, sir. Won't take much longer, sir."

Harry accepted the explanation. Indeed, it seemed reasonable
enough. But some sixth sense warned him to keep his eyes open.
And at last he decided that there could be no excuse for the way
the cab was proceeding. It seemed to him that they were going
miles out of the way, and decidedly in the wrong direction. He
did not know London as well as a boy who had lived there all his
life would have done. But his scout training had given him a
remarkable ability to keep his bearings. And it needed no special
knowledge to realize that the sun was on the wrong side of the cab
for a course that was even moderately straight for Ealing.

They had swung well around, as a matter of fact, into a
northwestern suburban section, and once he had seen a maze of
railway tracks that meant, he was almost sure that they were
passing near Willisden Junction. Only a few houses appeared in
the section through which the cab was now racing and pavements
were not frequent. He spoke to Dick: in a whisper.

"There's something funny here," he said. "But, no matter what
happens pretend you think it's all right. Let anyone who speaks
to us think we're foolish. It will be easier for us to get away
then. And keep your eyes wide open, if we stop anywhere, so that
you will be sure to know the place again!"

"Right!" said Dick.

Just then the cab, caught in a rutty road where the going was very
heavy, and there was a slight upgrade in addition, to make it
worse, slowed up considerably. And Dick, looking out the window
on his side, gave a stifled exclamation.

"Look there, Harry!" he said. "Do you see the sun flashing on
something on the roof of that house over there? What do you
suppose that is?"

"Whew!" Harry whistled, "You ought to know that, Dick! A
heliograph - field telegraph. Morse code - or some code - made by
flashes. The sun catches a mirror or some sort of reflector, and
it's just like a telegraph instrument, with dots and dashes,
except that you work by sight instead of by sound. That is queer.
Try to mark just where the house is, and so will I."

The cab turned, while they were still looking, and removed the
house where the signalling was being done from their line of
vision. But in a few moments there was a loud report that
startled the scouts until they realized that a front tire had
blown out. The driver stopped at once, and descended, seemingly
much perturbed. And Harry and Dick, piling out to inspect the
damage, started when they saw that they had stopped just outside
the mysterious house.

"I'll fix that in a jiffy," said the driver, and began jacking up
the wheel. But, quickly as he stripped off the deflated tire, he
was not so quick that Harry failed to see that the blow-out had
been caused by a straight cut -- not at all the sort of tear
produced by a jagged stone or a piece of broken glass. He said
nothing of his discovery, however, and a moment later he looked up
to face a young man in the uniform of an officer of the British
territorial army. This young man had keen, searching blue eyes,
and very blond hair. His upper lip was closely shaven, but it
bore plain evidence that within a few days it had sported a
moustache.

"Well," said the officer, "what are you doing here?"

The driver straightened up as if in surprise. "Blow-out, sir," he
said, touching his cap. "I'm carrying these young gentlemen from
Waterloo to Ealing, sir. Had to come around on account of the
roads."

"You've have your way lost, my man. Why not admit it?" said the
officer, showing his white teeth in a smile. He turned to Harry
an Dick. "Boy Scouts, I see," he commented. "You carry orders
concerning the movement of troops from Ealing? They are to
entrain -- where?"

"Near Croydon, sir, on the Brighton and South Coast Line," said
Harry, lifting his innocent eyes to his questioner.

"So! They go to Dover, then, I suppose - no, perhaps to
Folkestone --- oh, what matter? Hurry up with your tire, my man!"

He watched them still as the car started. Then he went back to
the house.

"Whatever did you tell him that whopper about Croydon for?"
whispered Dick. "I wasn't going to tell him anything -"

"Then he might have tried to make us," answered Harry, also in a
whisper. "Did you notice anything queer about him ?"

"Why, no --"

"You have your way lost!' Would any Englishman say that, Dick?
And wouldn't a German? You've studied German. Translate 'You've
lost your way' into German. 'Du hast dein weg --' See? He was a
German spy!"

"Oh, Harry! I believe you're right! But why didn't we --"

"Try to arrest him? There may have been a dozen others there,
too. And there was the driver. We wouldn't have had a chance.
Besides, if he thinks we don't suspect, we may be able to get some
valuable information later. I think --"

"What?"

"I'd better not say now. But remember this -- we've got to look
out for this driver. I think he'll take us straight to Ealing
now. When we get to the barracks you stay in the cab -- we'll
pretend we may have to go back with him."

"I see," said Dick, thrilling with the excitement of this first
taste of real war.

Harry was right. The driver's purpose in making such a long
detour, whatever it was, had been accomplished. And now he
plainly did his best to make up for lost time. He drove fast and
well, and in a comparatively short time both the scouts could see
that they were on the right track.

"You watch one side. I'll take the other," said Harry. "We've
got to be able to find our way back to that house."

This watchfulness confirmed Harry's suspicions concerning the
driver, because he made two or three circuits that could have no
other purpose than to make it hard to follow his course.

At Ealing he and Dick carried out their plan exactly. Dick stayed
with the cab, outside the wall; Harry hurried in. And five
minutes after Harry had gone inside a file of soldiers, coming
around from another gate, surrounded the cab and arrested the
driver.




Chapter V


On the Trail


Harry had reached Colonel Throckmorton without difficulty and
before delivering Major French's message, he explained his
suspicions regarding the driver.

"What's that? 'Eh, what's that?" asked the colonel. "Spy? This
country's suffering from an epidemic of spy fever -- that's what!
Still -- a taxi cab driver, eh? Perhaps he's one of the many
who's tried to overcharge me. I'll put him in the guardhouse,
anyway! I'll find out if you're right later, young man!"

As a matter of fact, and as Harry surmised, Colonel Throckmorton
felt that it was not a time to take chances. He was almost sure
that Harry was letting his imagination run away with him, but it
would be safer to arrest a man by mistake than to let him go if
there was a chance that he was guilty. So he gave the order and
then turned to question Harry. The scout first gave Major
French's message, and Colonel Throckmorton immediately dispatched
an orderly after giving him certain whispered instructions.

"Now tell me just why you suspect your driver. Explain exactly
what happened," he said. He turned to a stenographer. "Take
notes of this, Johnson," he directed.

Harry told his story simply and well. When he quoted the
officer's remark to the cab driver, with the German inversion, the
colonel chuckled.

"You have your way lost!' Eh ?" he said, with a smile. "You're
right -- he was no Englishman! Go on!"

When he had finished, the colonel brought down his fist on his
desk with a great blow.


"You've done very well, Fleming -- that's your name? -- very well,
indeed," he said, heartily. "We know London is covered with spies
but we have flattered ourselves that it didn't matter very much
what they found, since there was no way that we could see for them
to get their news to their headquarters in Germany. But now --"

He frowned thoughtfully.

"They might be able to set up a. chain of signalling stations,"
he said. "The thing to do would be to follow them, eh? Do you
think you could do that? You might use a motorcycle -- know how
to ride one?"

"Yes, sir," said Harry.

"Live with your parents, do you? Would they let you go? I don't
think it would be very dangerous, and you would excite less
suspicion than a man. See if they will let you turn yourself over
to me for a few days. Pick out another scout to go with you, if
you like. Perhaps two of you would be better than one. Report to
me in the morning. I'll write a note to your scoutmaster -- Mr.
Wharton, isn't it? Right!"

As they made their way homeward, thoroughly worked up by the
excitement of their adventure, Harry wondered whether his father
would let him undertake this service Colonel Throckmorton had
suggested. After all, he was not English, and he felt that his
father might not want him to do it, although Mr. Fleming, he knew,
sympathized strongly with the English in the war. He said nothing
to Dick, preferring to wait until he was sure that he could go
ahead with his plans.

But when he reached his house he found that things had changed
considerably in his absence. Both his parents seemed worried; his
father seemed especially troubled.

"Harry," he said, "the war has hit us already. I'm called home by
cable, and at the same time there is word that your Aunt Mary is
seriously ill. Your mother wants to be with her. I find that, by
a stroke of luck, I can get quarters for your mother and myself on
tomorrow's steamer. But there's no room for you. Do you think
you could get along all right if you were left here? I'll arrange
for supplies for the house; Mrs. Grimshaw can keep house. And you
will have what money you need."

"Of course I can get along!" said Harry, stoutly. "I suppose the
steamers are fearfully crowded?"

"Only about half of them are now in service," said Mr. Fleming.
"And the rush of Americans who have been travelling abroad is
simply tremendous. Well, if you can manage, it will relieve us
greatly. I think we'll be back in less than a month. Keep out of
mischief. And write to us as often as you can hear of a steamer
that is sailing. If anything happens to you, cable. I'll arrange
with Mr. Bruce, at the Embassy, to help you if you need him, but
that ought not to be necessary."

Harry was genuinely sorry for his mother's distress at leaving
him, but he was also relieved, in a way. He felt now he would not
be forbidden to do his part with the scouts. He would be able to
undertake what promised to be the greatest adventure that had ever
come his way. He had no fear of being left alone for his training
as a Boy Scout had made him too self reliant for that.

Mr. and Mrs. Fleming started for Liverpool that night. Train
service throughout the country was so disorganized by the military
use of the railways that journeys that in normal, peaceful times
required only two or three hours were likely to consume a full
day. So he went into the city of London with them and saw them
off at Euston, which was full of distressed American refugees.

The Flemings found many friends there, of whose very presence in
London they were ignorant, and Mr. Fleming, who, thanks to his
business connections in London, was plentifully supplied with
cash, was able to relieve the distress of some of them.

Many had escaped from France, Germany and Austria with only the
clothes they wore, having lost all their luggage. Many more,
though possessed of letters of credit or travellers' checks for
considerable sums, didn't have enough money to buy a sandwich;
since the banks were all closed and no one would cash their
checks.

So Harry had another glimpse of the effects of war, seeing how it
affected a great many people who not only had nothing to do with
the fighting, but were citizens of a neutral nation. He was
beginning to understand very thoroughly by this time that war was
not what he had always dreamed. It meant more than fighting, more
than glory.

But, after all, now that war had come, it was no time to think of
such things. He had undertaken, if he could get permission, to do
a certain very important piece of work. And now, by a happy
accident, as he regarded it, it wasn't necessary for him to ask
that permission. He was not forbidden to do any particular thing;
his father had simply warned him to be careful.

So when he went home, he whistled outside of Dick Mercer's window,
woke him up, and, when Dick came down into the garden, explained
to him what Colonel Throckmorton wanted them to do.

"He said I could pick out someone to go with me, Dick," Harry
explained. "And, of course, I'd rather have you than anyone I can
think of. Will you come along?"

"Will I!" said Dick. "What do you think you'll do, Harry?"

"We may get special orders, of course," said Harry. "But I think
the first thing will be to find out just where the signals from
that house are being received. They must be answered, you know,
so we ought to find the next station. Then, from that, we can
work on to the next."

"Where do you suppose those signals go to?"

"That's what we've got to find out, Dick! But I should think, in
the long run, to someplace on the East coast. Perhaps they've got
some way there of signalling to ships at sea. Anyhow, that's
what's got to be discovered. Did you see Graves tonight ?"

"No," said Dick, his lips tightening, "I didn't! But I heard
about him, all right."

"How? What do you mean?"

"I heard that he'd been doing a tot of talking about you. He said
it wasn't fair to have taken you and given you the honor of doing
something when there were English boys who were just as capable of
doing it as you."

"Oh!" said Harry, with a laugh. "Much I care what he says!"

"Much I care, either!" echoed Dick. "But, Harry, he has made some
of the other chaps feel that way, too. They all like you, and
they don't like him. But they do seem to think some of them
should have been chosen."

"'Well, it's not my fault," said Harry, cheerfully. "I certainly
wasn't going to refuse. And it isn't as if I'd asked Mr. Wharton
to pick me out."

"No, and I fancy there aren't many of them who would have done as
well as you did today, either!"

"Oh. yes, they would! That wasn't anything. We'd better get to
bed now. I think we ought to report just as early as we can in
the morning. If we get away by seven o'clock, it won't be a bit
too early."

"All right. I'll be ready. Good-night, Harry!"

"Good-night, Dick!"

Morning saw them up on time, and off to Ealing. There Colonel
Throckmorton gave them their orders.

"I've requisitioned motorcycles for you," he said. "Make sure of
the location of the house, so that you can mark it on an ordnance
map for me. Then use your own judgment, but find the next house.
I have had letters prepared for you that will introduce you to
either the mayor or the military commander in any town you reach
and you will get quarters for the night, if you need them. Where
do you think your search will lead you, Fleming?"

He eyed Harry sharply as he asked the question. "Somewhere on the
East coast, I think, sir," replied Harry.

"Well, that remains to be seen. Report by telegraph, using this
code. It's a simplified version of the official code, but it
contains all you will need to use. That is all."

Finding the house, when they started on their motorcycles, did not
prove as difficult a task as Harry had feared it might. They both
remembered a number of places they had marked from the cab
windows, and it was not long before they were sure they were
drawing near.

"I remember that hill," said Harry. "By Jove -- yes, there it is!
On top of that hill, do you see? We won't go much nearer. I
don't want them to see us, by any chance. All we need is to
notice which way they're signalling."

They watched the house for some time before there was any sign of
life. And then it was only the flashes that they saw. Since the
previous day some sort of cover had been provided for the man who
did the signalling.

"What do you make of it, Dick ?" asked Harry eagerly, after the
flashing had continued for some moments.

"It looks to me as if they were flashing toward the north and a
little toward the west," said Dick, puzzled.

"That's the way it seems to me, too," agreed Harry. "That isn't
what we expected, either, is it?"

"Of course we can't be sure."

"No, put it certainly looks that way. Well, we can't make sure
from here, but we've got to do it somehow. I tell you what.
We'll circle around and get northwest of the house. Then we ought
to be able to tell a good deal better. And if we get far enough
around, I don't believe they'll see us, or pay any attention to us
if they do."

So they mounted their machines again, and in a few moments were
speeding toward a new and better spot from which to spy on the
house. But this, when they reached it, only confirmed their first
guess. The signals were much more plainly visible here, and it
was obvious now, as it had not been before, that the screen they
had noticed had been erected as much to concentrate the flashes
and make them more easily visible to a receiving station as to
conceal the operator. So they turned and figured a straight line
as well as they could from the spot where the flashes were made.
Harry had a map with him, and on this he marked, as well as he
could, the location of the house. Then he drew a line from it to
the northwest.

"The next station must be on this line somewhere," he said.
"We'll stick to it. There's a road, you see, that we can follow
that's almost straight. And as soon as we come to a high building
we ought to be able to see both flashes -- the ones that are being
sent from that house and the answering signals. Do you see?"

"Yes, that'll be fine!" said Dick. "Come on!"

"Not so fast!" said a harsh voice behind them.

They spun around, and there, grinning a little, but looking highly
determined and dangerous, was the same man they had seen the day
before, and who had questioned them when the tire of their taxicab
blew out! But now he was not in uniform, but in a plain suit of
clothes.

"So you are spying on my house, are you?" he said. "And you lied
to me yesterday! No troops were sent to Croydon at all!"

"Well, you hadn't any business to ask us!" said Dick, pluckily.
"If you hadn't asked us any questions, we'd have told you no
lies."

"I think perhaps you know too much," said the spy, nodding his
head, "You had better come with me. We will look after you in
this house that interests you so greatly."

He made a movement forward. His hand dropped on Dick's shoulder.
But as it did so Harry's feet left the ground. He aimed for the
spy's legs, just below the knee, and brought him to the ground
with a beautiful diving tackle - the sort he had learned in his
American football days. It was the one attack of all others that
the spy did not anticipate, if, indeed, he looked for any
resistance at all. He wasn't a football player, so he didn't know
how to let his body give and strike the ground limply. The result
was that his head struck a piece of hard ground with abnormal
violence, and he lay prone and very still.

"Oh, that was ripping, Harry!" cried Dick. "But do you think
you've killed him?"

"Killed him? No!" said Harry, with a laugh.

"He's tougher than that, Dick!"

But he looked ruefully at the spy.

"I wish I knew what to do with him," he said. "He'll come to in a
little while. But --"

"We can get away while he's still out," said Dick, quickly. "He
can't follow us and we can get such a start with our motorcycles."

"Yes, but he'll know their game is up," said Harry. "Don't you
see, Dick? He'll tell them they're suspected -- and that's all
they'll need in the way of warning. When men are doing anything
as desperate as the sort of work they're up to in that house, they
take no more chances than they have to. They'd be off at once,
and start up somewhere else. We only stumbled on this by mere
accident -- they might be able to work for weeks if they were
warned."

"Oh, I never thought of that! What are we to do, then?'

"I wish I knew whether anyone saw us from the house or if they
didn't - ! Well, we'll have to risk that. Dick, do you see that
house over there? It's all boarded up -- it must be empty."

"Yes, I see it." Dick caught Harry's idea at once this time, and
began measuring with his eye the distance to the little house of
which Harry had spoken. "It's all down hill -- I think we could
manage it all right."

"We'll try it, anyhow," said Harry. "But first we'd better tie up
his hands and feet. He's too strong for the pair of us, I'm
afraid, if he should come to."

Once that was done, they began to drag the spy toward the house.
Half carrying, half pulling, they got him down the slope, and with
a last great effort lifted him through a window, which, despoiled
of glass, had been boarded up. They were as gentle as they could
be, for the idea of hurting a helpless man, even though he was a
spy, went against the grain. But --

"We can't be too particular," said Harry. "And he brought it on
himself. I'm afraid he'll have worse than this to face later on."

They dumped him through the window, from which they had taken the
boards. Then they made their own way inside, and Harry began to
truss up the prisoner more scientifically. He understood the art
of tying a man very well indeed, for one of the games of his old
scout patrol had involved tying up one scout after another to see
if they could free themselves. And when he had done, he stepped
back with a smile of satisfaction.

"I don't believe he'll get himself free very soon," he said.
"He'll be lucky if that knock on the head keeps him unconscious
for a long time, because he'll wake up with a headache, and if he
stays as he is he won't know how uncomfortable he is."

"Are we going to leave him like that, Harry?"

"We've got to, Dick. But he'll be all right, I am going to
telephone to Colonel Throckmorton and tell him to send here for
him, but to do so at night, and so that no one will notice. He
won't starve or die of thirst. I can easily manage to describe
this place so that whoever the colonel sends will find it. Come
on!"

They went back to their cycles and rode on until they came to a
place where they could telephone. Harry explained guardedly, and
they went on.




CHAPTER VI


THE MYSTERY OF BRAY PARK


"I hope he'll be all right," said Dick.

"They'll find him, I'm sure," said Harry. "Even if they don't,
he'll be all right for a few days, two or three, anyhow. A man
can be very uncomfortable and miserable, and still not be in any
danger. We don't need half as much food as we eat, really. I've
heard that lots of times."

They were riding along the line that Harry had marked on his map,
and, a mile or two ahead, there was visible an old-fashioned
house, with a tower projecting from its centre. From this, Harry
had decided, they should be able to get the view they required and
so locate the second heliographing station.

"How far away do you think it ought to be, Harry?" asked Dick.

"It's very hard to tell, Dick. A first-class heliograph is
visible for a very long way, if the conditions are right. That
is, if the sun is out and the ground is level. In South Africa,
for instance, or in Egypt, it would work for nearly a hundred
miles, or maybe even more. But here I should think eight or ten
miles would be the limit. And it's cloudy so often that it must
be very uncertain."

"Why don't they use flags, then?"

"The way we do in the scouts? Well, I guess that's because the
heliograph is so much more secret. You see, with the heliograph
the flashes are centered. You've got to be almost on a direct
line with them, or not more than fifty yards off the centre line,
to see them at all, even a mile away. But anyone can see flags,
and read messages, unless they're in code. And if these people
are German spies, the code wouldn't help them. Having it
discovered that they were sending messages at all would spoil
their plans."

"I see. Of course, though. That's just what you said. It was
really just by accident that we saw them flashing."

Then they came to the house where they expected to make their
observation. It was occupied by an old gentleman, who came out to
see what was wanted and stood behind the servant who opened the
door. At the sight of their uniforms he drew himself up very
straight and saluted. But, formal as he was, there was a smile in
his eyes.

"Well, boys," he said, "what can I do for you? On His Majesty's
service, I suppose?"

"Yes, sir," said Dick. "We'd like to go up in your tower room, if
you don't mind."

"Scouting, eh?" said the old gentleman, mystified. "Do you expect
to locate the enemy's cavalry from my tower room? Well, well --
up with you. You can do no harm."

Dick was inclined to resent the old gentleman's failure to take
them seriously, but Harry silenced his protest. As they went up
the stairs he whispered: "It's better for him to think that. We
don't want anyone to know what we're doing, you know -- not yet."

So they reached the tower room, and, just as Harry had
anticipated, got a wonderful view of the surrounding country.
They found that the heliograph they had left behind was working
feverishly and Harry took out a pencil and jotted down the symbols
as they were flashed.

"It's in code, of course," he said, "but maybe we'll find someone
who can decipher it -- I know they have experts for that. It
might come in handy to know what they were talking about."

"There's the other station answering!" said Dick, excitedly, after
a moment. "Isn't it lucky that it's such a fine day, Harry? See,
there it is, over there!"

"Let me have the glasses," said Harry, taking the binoculars from
Dick. "Yes, you're right! They're on the top of a hill, just
about where I thought we'd find them, too. Come on! We've got no
time to waste. They're a good seven miles from here, and we've a
lot more to do yet."

Below stairs the old gentleman tried to stop them.

He was very curious by this time, for he had been thinking about
them and it had struck him that they were too much in earnest to
simply be enjoying lark. But Harry and Dick, while they met his
questions politely, refused to enlighten him.

"I'm sorry, sir," said Harry, when the old gentleman pressed him
too hard. "But I really think we mustn't tell you why we're here.
But if you would like to hear of it later, we'll be glad to come
to see you and explain everything."

"Bless my soul!" said the old man. "When I was a boy we didn't
think so much of ourselves, I can tell you! But then we didn't
have any Boy Scouts, either!"

It was hard to tell from his manner whether that was intended for
a compliment or not. But they waited no longer. In a trice they
were on their motorcycles and off again. And when they drew near
to the hilltop whence the signals had come, Harry stopped. For a
moment he looked puzzled, then he smiled.

"I think I've got it!" he said. "They're clever enough to try to
fool anyone who got on to their signalling. They would know what
everyone would think -- that they would be sending their messages
to the East coast, because that is nearest to Germany. That's why
they put their first station here. I'll bet they send the flashes


 


Back to Full Books