Kenneth returned more quickly than he had gone. He was consumed with a feverish impatience to assure himself of Pariset's safety. Pariset had been very confident; but it was at least within the bounds of possibility that, if discovered by the Germans, he might be overpowered before he had time to fire a warning shot.
When he reached the trap-door he tapped lightly on it. It was raised at once.
"Good!" whispered Pariset. "Is it done?"
"Yes, the wire is cut."
"Capital! You have only been twenty minutes."
"Has anything happened?"
"A minute or two ago there was a ring at the bell, and I heard someone go to the door. I was afraid that some friend of these fellows had discovered the lancers and come to give warning; but it can't be that, because all is quiet."
"Still, he may be a friend, and that will mean that we have six men to deal with instead of five."
"It doesn't matter, now the wire is cut. We had better creep out again, go round by the field, cross the bridge, and join the lancers in an attack on the house."
"Suppose the lancers haven't come!"
"We have to reckon with that possibility, of course; but it's not probable. I'll just reconnoitre again; then we'll get back. If the lancers have not arrived, we must get the assistance of some stout fellows from the farm. I'm determined that these Germans shall not escape."
"Let me go," said Kenneth. "You don't know German; I do; and I might overhear something worth making a note of."
"That's a good notion. We may get on the track of other operations of theirs. Take off your boots; I'll tie them to mine."
A minute later Kenneth tiptoed in his stocking feet along the dark passage. Through the closed door of the kitchen on the left came the sounds of some one moving about. On the other side he heard the voices of the men in the dining-room, the door of which was ajar. Grasping his revolver, he bent his ear towards the opening. At the first words he caught he started. The voice was only too familiar to him. It was the voice of Kurt Hellwig.
Was he there before, Kenneth wondered, or was he the newcomer whose ring Pariset had heard? In a few seconds the point was cleared up.
"Yes," Hellwig was saying, "I had intended to give you the word by wireless myself. But the chief wanted me to come through and see that all was ready. The wire is fixed?"
"I guarantee that," was his friend's reply. "You don't want to go along the tunnel yourself?"
"No, I'll take your word for it. I'm very tired; thought I should never get through. Our friend Spiegel was caught in Liége before my eyes, and taken away to be shot. The soldiers could hardly save him from lynching, the mob was so furious."
"The Belgians are going to be troublesome, then?" said another voice.
"It appears so. We opened the attack on the forts yesterday, and the fools had the audacity to reply. They did some damage, too, worse luck. Von Emmich is attacking again to-day in full force, and with his numbers he'll sweep the idiots away. There'll not be a man left. The orders are to spare nothing and nobody."
"When are we likely to get the word?" asked his friend.
"Probably not at all. If our men are already in Liége, as I expect is the case, we shall leave the bridge intact: the railway will be useful. It is only to be blown up in case of a check, to prevent the Belgians from being reinforced from France. But that's not at all likely."
"I suppose it is true that England has declared war?"
Hellwig's ironical laugh made Kenneth's blood boil.
"Yes, it's true," he said. "It's the chance we've been waiting for for years. They've next to no army; they're never ready; and within a week there'll be a rebellion in Ireland which will keep the whole of their forces busy. Within a month we shall have France under our heel; then we'll turn back and crush the Russians, who've no organization. Then with the Channel ports in our possession the rest will be easy. By this time next year the Kaiser will be dictating peace in London."
"Well, you ought to know the English; you've lived among them. How they got their empire I can't understand.... Then we shall be leaving here soon? It's quite time."
"What do you mean?"
"It may be all right, but thinking it over I can't help feeling a little suspicious. The beer delivered to-day was brought by two clerks. They said the draymen had been called up, and they were doing duty in their place. It didn't occur to me till they were driving off that the clerks, well-set-up young fellows, were likely to have been called up before the draymen. The man who usually comes is a big fat fellow who couldn't march a mile without collapsing. But nothing has happened, so I suppose I was suspicious for nothing."
"They didn't come into the house?"
"No; the fellow who brought the cask into the lobby didn't seem at all curious. Ah!"
He was interrupted by the ticking of an instrument on a table at the far end of the room. There was silence for a moment as he read the message.
"The bridge is to be blown up," said the man, returning. "At last!"
"Give me a few minutes to finish my meal," said Hellwig. "I've had nothing to eat for twelve hours. A quarter of an hour, say; that won't make any difference. I wish your cook would hurry up."
Kenneth turned to go back, anticipating a possible visit to the kitchen. At the same moment the kitchen door opened, and an old woman bearing a tray came into the passage. The light from the lamp behind her fell on an unfamiliar figure at the door of the dining-room--a bootless man with a revolver in his hand. The woman screamed; the tray fell from her hand, and a pool of soup spread over the floor. There was an outcry in the dining-room; the man nearest the door flung it fully open, to find the muzzle of a revolver within a few inches of his head.
In the moment allowed him for thought, Kenneth had realised that he could not escape if he dashed past the old woman with armed men at his back. With an inward tremor he made up his mind to the bold course.
"Hands up!" he cried, as the startled man recoiled.
The German instantly flung up his hands. But his companions realised the position. One of them sprang across the room to an electric push in the wall. Another, covered by the man who had flinched, whipped out his revolver, and took a snapshot at Kenneth. But a slight movement of the man between them brought him in the line of fire, and he fell with a bullet through his head.
It was no time for half measures. Kenneth covered his assailant, fired, and brought him down. Through the shrieks of the old woman in the passage there came to his ears a shout of encouragement, and immediately after he had fired his shot Pariset rushed up to the doorway, reaching over Kenneth's shoulder to point his revolver. At the sight of this the three remaining men dashed to the open window and leapt out; the last of them, pausing to close the window, was winged by Pariset's flying shot. Kenneth and his friend sprang across the room, threw the window open, and jumped into the yard. But the brief delay at the window had given the fugitives time to make their escape in the darkness. They were not to be seen.
"The lancers will get them!" Kenneth panted.
"If they've come!" replied Pariset.
He blew his whistle. There was no response. They dashed across the yard, wondering how the Germans could have escaped, for there was no outlet on this side of the house, and the wall was high and spiked. But after a minute or two they discovered a gap in the base of the wall, large enough to admit a man crawling. On the outside it was concealed by long grass and weeds. Wriggling through this they sprinted along by the wall to the road. And then they heard the distant galloping of a troop of horsemen. Pariset blew his whistle again, and in a few seconds a half squadron of Belgian lancers reined up.
"Three men have escaped," cried Pariset. "Round them up!"
The horsemen galloped off, some along the road, some along the grassy bank of the stream, the rest into the field beyond the hedge.
"A pity they were late," said Pariset, walking slowly with Kenneth back to the house. "When I heard your shot I expected that they'd force the door and rush in."
"I hope they will catch the Germans," said Kenneth. "One of them--it was the last comer, the man whose ring at the bell you heard--was Hellwig. I shall be particularly disgusted if he gets off."
"What led to the row? You weren't rash enough to attack them?"
"No; but I wasn't so careful as I ought to have been, I'm afraid. You see, hearing no knives and forks going, I thought they had finished their meal, and everything was cleared away, and didn't expect any danger from the kitchen. As soon as I knew there was something preparing for Hellwig I backed, straight into the old woman with a tray. It was all up then, of course."
"You've had a lucky escape. But we have saved the bridge."
"One of the fellows dashed to an electric push," said Kenneth, smiling. "I was too busy to notice how he looked when the explosion he expected didn't happen, but I've no doubt it was the surprise of his life."
"We'll have a look round. I'll give the old woman a soothing explanation, and borrow a lamp."
Their investigation added little to their knowledge. The luggage of the spies contained no papers bearing on espionage. But the wireless installation, carried up inside the chimney, was very powerful. The electrical apparatus for firing the mine was in perfect order.
"There is nothing amateurish about it," said Pariset. "This is spying reduced to a science."
It was some time before the lancers returned. They brought with them the man who had been wounded as he sprang through the window. The others had got away. The man who had fired at Kenneth was dead; his comrade, to whom he owed his death, Kenneth had wounded.
After consultation with the captain of lancers, it was decided to leave a dozen men to occupy the mill, pending the receipt of instructions from headquarters. Kenneth and Pariset begged a lodging for the night from the old miller, who was delighted at the success of their scheme, and lavishly hospitable.