CHAPTER XXVIII.
A DASH FOR FREEDOM.
Despite the fact that he was sadly lacking in a knowledge of court etiquette, Jack acquitted himself creditably in breakfasting with royalty. He recounted his adventures preceding the time he joined the British navy and gave the king an account of his early life. He spoke of Frank several times, and finally the king was moved to ask:
“And your friend—this American youth—is he as great a fighter as you are?”
“Well, Frank is a fighter,” was Jack’s reply. “I don’t know as I come in that class,” modestly, “but Frank is a mighty good friend to have around in time of need.”
“No better than you, I’ll warrant,” the king made answer, as he arose from the table. “But come, I have many affairs to attend to, which is the reason I came here from Copenhagen yesterday, so I shall have to turn you over to someone for safekeeping. It would not do to have you get away; and besides, I have promised myself more of your company.”
Jack followed the king back into the room where the general still sat at his desk, and was turned over to the latter by the king with this parting injunction:
“See that he has everything he wants, and see also that he is well guarded until I have decided what final disposition to make of him.”
“And the other prisoner?” questioned the general.
“Well, I haven’t much sympathy for the other,” said the king, “but he, too, must be treated well.”
The general bowed his head in assent, and the king left the room.
“I hardly know what to do with you,” mused the general, tapping on his desk with a lead pencil.
He was silent for some moments, meditating. Finally he struck a bell and a moment later an orderly entered the room and came to a salute.
“Summon Lieutenant Erickson,” commanded the general.
A few minutes later a young, pleasant-looking Danish officer entered the room.
The general introduced the two young men to each other, and then said to the lieutenant:
“Lieutenant, I turn Mr. Templeton over to you. You will treat him as a guest rather than as a prisoner. But you will be responsible for him. See that he does not escape.” To Jack he added: “You see, we are trying to make it as pleasant as possible for you. I hope that you will not make it necessary for us to use more forcible means to induce you to accept our hospitality.”
Jack bowed, but made no reply. He did not intend to commit himself one way or the other, but he had made up his mind to make a dash for liberty if the slightest chance offered. He had another thought in his head also: He did not intend to go back to the Sylph without the object of his chase—the traitor Hardy.
With Lieutenant Erickson, Jack wandered about the streets of the city all morning viewing the sights of interest. It was after 12 o’clock when they stopped into a little restaurant to get something to eat. Several other officers were in the café when the two entered, and Lieutenant Erickson introduced the lad to all of them.
Finally, when all the Danish officers were in the midst of a discussion of the great European war, the chance for which Jack had been impatiently waiting came. And the boy was not slow to take advantage of it.
The table at which the party was seated was near the door. The heads of all the officers were now close together, and so engrossed were they in their discussion that they paid no heed to Jack, as he quietly rose from the table and slipped toward the door.
But, just as Jack put his foot over the threshold, Lieutenant Erickson noticed his absence and sprang to his feet with a shout. The others followed his example and made a concerted rush for the door, through which Jack was at that moment disappearing.
Dashing out the door the lad ran madly down the street, and turned the first corner just before the officers emerged from the restaurant. For a moment they stood in the doorway puzzled, not knowing in which way the fugitive had fled.
But for a moment only. They hailed a passing pedestrian, and from him learned which way the lad had gone. All immediately dashed away in pursuit.
Now Jack was considerable of a sprinter, so when the officers rounded the corner the lad was nowhere in sight. For perhaps fifteen minutes Jack ran as fast as his legs could carry him, turning corner after corner, until at last he was forced to slow down to regain his breath. However, he now felt that he had given his pursuers the slip, so he continued to walk along more slowly.
But the lad’s utter ignorance of the city landed him in more trouble, for, in winding about through the various streets, as he had, he suddenly came right back to the starting point. Here, owing to the confusion occasioned by his dash for liberty, a crowd had gathered, the restaurant proprietor among them.
The latter recognized Jack the minute he came into sight, and yelled in a loud voice:
“There he is! There he is!”
Jack immediately took to his heels again, with the crowd in full chase. And, as he rounded the next comer, he came upon the party of officers, who, unable to find him, were returning to the starting point to take up the search anew.
Jack now was caught between two fires, so to speak. For a moment he halted, as his pursuers bore down on him from two directions with shouts and yells. But his inaction lasted only a moment. His roving eyes fell upon a little alleyway across the street, and into this he dashed at full speed, his pursuers hot on his trail.
Out of the alleyway and down the next street the lad ran, those behind being left farther in the rear at almost every stride. Then, espying another narrow alleyway, and thinking to give his pursuers the slip entirely, the lad dashed into it.
Had he made his way into this narrow alleyway unseen, it is likely he would have eluded his pursuers for good and all; but he didn’t. One man rounded the corner just in time to see the lad turn, and he made after him with a shout.
Jack still had quite a lead, however, and was not disheartened; but, as he rounded a little curve in his retreat, his heart almost stopped beating, and he came to a sudden pause. For the passageway was a blind one. The lad had run up against a solid wall.
And, at the same minute the lad stopped in his flight, the first pursuer came into view again. As Jack was just about to turn and give himself up—for he knew he could not hope to fight off his pursuers—a window suddenly opened above his head, and a woman’s head was poked out.
Jack glanced up. With outstretched hands he could easily grasp the window sill. He considered a fraction of a second, then reached up, grasped the sill, and pulled himself up into the open window.
The woman, startled at the sudden apparition, drew back, and attempted to close the window; but Jack threw one leg over the sill. The window came down on it with great force; but it did not close.
The woman grabbed the lad by the foot and attempted to force him out, but he was not to be thrust into the hands of his pursuers thus easily, and after several attempts the woman desisted and ran screaming through the house.
Immediately Jack pushed up the window and dropped lightly into the room. The window he closed and locked almost with a single move in the very faces of his trailers. Then he turned and dashed across the room, making for the front door.
But by the time he reached it he found this means of exit barred, for some of the pursuers, the moment they had seen him spring into the window, had rushed around to the front entrance.
Realizing that there was no hope of escape in that direction, the lad turned and dashed up the stairs to the second floor. There, in a back room, as his gaze roved about, he beheld a trap door in the ceiling. Pulling a chair to the middle of the room, he mounted it, laid his hands against the trap door and pushed.
The door fell off on the outside, and a moment later Jack was on the roof. The trap door he put back in its place, and sat on it a moment to regain his breath.
As he sat there looking around for some means of escape there came a fierce thumping on the door upon which he sat. Jack smiled to himself slightly.
“They can only come up one at a time,” he muttered. “I guess I can take care of them.”
He arose. There came another resounding smash, and the trap door flew off, splintered by a fierce blow.
Jack dropped to his knees beside the opening.