CHAPTER XI.
THE MAN IN THE LOCKER.
"Are you joking, Frank?" asked Billy, though he should have known hiscomrade better than to believe Frank would try to play any silly trickfor the sake of giving them a thrill.
Pudge opened his mouth, but for a wonder even one of his queer favoriteexpressions failed to drop from his lips. In fact, Pudge was renderedtemporarily speechless by the astounding nature of Frank'scommunication.
"Not at all, Billy," said the other, trying to act as though he might betelling them something of small importance. "I watched while I wassheltered under the plane, and twice I saw it shake a little as thoughsome one might be holding the door ajar so as to hear better."
"Door!" echoed Billy helplessly, as though more puzzled than ever.
"The door of the empty locker we thought we might need for storingthings away, but which has never been used," Frank explained.
"Gee whillikins! now I understand what you mean, Frank," said Billy."There is plenty of room in that locker to hold a man curled up."
"Popguns and pyramids, but how could he ever get there when we've beensitting around all morning?" asked Pudge, in a hoarse whisper.
"Only in one way," Frank told him. "Before they left here last nightthey must have fixed him there in the locker, believing we'd be backagain sooner or later, when some information of value might be pickedup."
"Oh! my stars, Frank," Billy ejaculated huskily. "What if, after all,he's heard enough talk here to guess about that big raid?"
Frank looked very serious.
"It's true that we've been pretty careful," he said, "and most of thetime just whispered while we talked about it; but all the same a manwith the ears of a spy might have picked up enough to arouse suspicions,and once that's done the rest would come easy."
"What can we do about it, Frank?" asked Billy.
"Our good friend, the Major, has extended the invitation to us so thatin a way I feel we're responsible for the secret being kept," Frank wenton to say, as though he might be revolving certain conditions in hismind before deciding.
On hearing him say that Billy began to work the muscles of his rightarm, at the same time opening and closing his fingers, as though eagerto clutch something.
"I agree with you, Frank," he hastened to say. "The great secret hasbeen placed in our keeping, and for one I would feel pretty small if itleaked out through any fault of ours. We've got to cage that spy as sureas you live."
"Punkins and partridges, that's right!" muttered Pudge, who, while notas a rule pugnaciously inclined, could nevertheless assume what he waspleased to call his "fighting face" when occasion arose.
"I'm glad to find both of you are of the same mind," Frank said. "Theonly question is to decide what our plan of campaign shall be."
"P'r'aps some of those Tommies in khaki would be only too glad of achance to step in and collar the spy?" suggested Pudge.
"But there are three of us here," objected Billy, "and I don't see whywe should want to call on the soldiers for such a little thing. Afterwe've grabbed Mr. Spy and have got him tied up it will be time enough tofigure on handing him over to the authorities."
"That's what's worrying me," admitted Frank.
"About handing him over, do you mean?" Billy demanded.
"Well, you know what the fate of a spy always is," the other said. "Weare supposed to be neutral in this war business. No matter whether oursympathy lies with Belgium, Germany, or France, we've got to try andtreat them as much alike as we can. Our company has been negotiatingwith the French Government for a long time, now, over this contract, andso, of course, we have to favor them if anybody; but boys, not one of uswould like to feel that we were the cause of a spy being shot orhanged."
"Oh well, we could kick him off the place after we got him out, Frank,"suggested Pudge so aggressively that Billy chuckled, and started tosmooth the fat chum down the back, just as one might a pugnaciousrooster who was boiling with a desire to plunge into carnage.
"That sounds all right," Frank told him; "but you forget the oneimportant thing. He has some knowledge of this raid, and if we let himgo it may mean a great disaster to the fleet of seaplanes taking part inthe dash up the coast."
"Whew! looks like we might be what my father would say was between theupper and the nether millstones," remarked Billy.
"Gatling guns and grasshoppers," Pudge added, "my father would gofurther than that, I guess, and say we were between the devil and thedeep sea. But Frank, you're the one to decide that question. What shallwe do?"
"There is a way," Frank announced, "by which we could settle it so theman wouldn't fall into the hands of the military authorities, who wouldexecute him, and at the same time he could be kept from betraying whathe may have learned."
"Glad to hear it," said Pudge; "because I don't want to know I've beeninstrumental in standing a poor fellow up before a file, and getting himfilled with cold lead. Tell us about it, please, Frank."
"After we've captured the man we'll get word to the civil authorities,saying we've caught a thief in our hangar, and asking them to keep himsafe for two or three days. I'll go and see the Major myself, and gethim to promise that the man will be treated only as a thief and not as aspy."
"You've guessed the answer, Frank," announced Pudge, with the enthusiasmhe always showed when the leader of the aviator boys blazed a trail outof some wilderness in which they had lost themselves.
"Then the sooner we get busy the better," hinted Billy, again workingthat good right arm of his as though it might be rapidly getting beyondhis restraint.
"We have no firearms, though," suggested Pudge.
"There's no need of any," Frank told him. "I'll hold this wrench in away that'll make it seem like a six-shooter. The rest of you can helppile on the man when we drag him out of the locker, either feet or headfirst, it doesn't matter which."
"Just give me a chance to sit on him, that's all!" threatened Pudge, atwhich Billy could be heard to chuckle, as though he pitied anyone whowent through that far from enviable experience; perhaps Billy knew fromhis own associations with Pudge what such an operation meant.
"Now, here's the way we'll fix it," began Frank. "I'll step over againto the other side of the hangar to work at the motors of the _SeaEagle_. Pretty soon you'll hear me calling to you both to come aroundand see what a clever little arrangement I've fixed up."
"Which will, in other words, mean the fun is about to begin?" commentedBilly.
"When you join me," continued Frank, "we'll jabber for a minute, duringwhich I'll say we might as well go to town and get something decent toeat at noon. That will be apt to put him off his guard. Then we'll alltiptoe over to the locker, and at a signal throw the door open. As soonas you glimpse him, take hold, and start to pulling like a house afire.That will keep him from trying to fight back or use his weapon, for Iguess he'll have a gun of some kind. Understand it all, boys?"
"Go on, Frank. Please don't wait any longer than you have to," pleadedBilly.
So Frank, a minute or two later, called to them to come and see what asplendid little change he had made in the gear of the deflecting rudderof the big seaplane.
It was a thrilling moment for the three boys when they began to move inthe direction of the locker where Frank believed a spy had taken refugemany hours previously. As he had suggested, they walked on theirtiptoes, each fastening his eager gaze upon the door which they expectedto presently pull suddenly open.
When they had taken up their positions according to Frank's plan, hegave the expected signal.
"Now, everybody!"
The locker door was dragged open in spite of the fact that somethingseemed to be clinging desperately to it from the inside. No sooner hadthis been accomplished than the boys, stooping, seized hold of thedoubled-up figure they could see in the cavity under the bench, andstarted to drag with might and main.
"Don't try to draw a gun or you are a dead man!"--Page125.]
Although the man in hiding made a powerful effort to resist the pressurebrought to bear upon him, he was hardly in a position to do much.
They dragged him out, squirming like a rat taken by the tail, and tryingto hold on to every object, however small, as a drowning man will catchat a straw. No sooner was he in full view than Pudge dropped down on hisback with all his force.
A dismal groan announced that the breath had been pretty well drivenfrom the spy's lungs; and before he could recover his wits enough to tryand produce any weapon Frank clapped the end of his wrench against histemple while he called out in very commanding tones:
"Don't try to draw a gun or you are a dead man! I've got you covered,and will pull the trigger if you so much as move a hand!"
Having in this manner caused the prisoner to behave, Frank hastilysearched his pockets and confiscated a stubby little revolver which hefound there. Then he told Billy to tie the man's wrists together,placing them behind his back, with a stout piece of tarred rope that laywithin convenient reaching distance.
"Now he's helpless, and we can let him get to his feet if we want," saidBilly; but Frank thought otherwise.
"It's better to be on the safe side," he observed. "So use the balanceof the rope around his ankles, Billy. I want to leave you two here whileI go to town and make arrangements through Major Nixon to have the manheld simply as a thief and not as a spy. I'd like to know he couldn'tget away."
They found that he was rather a small man, with a cunning face. He didnot look very much like a German, and possibly had been picked out forhis hazardous pursuit on that very account.
To their surprise he addressed them in the best of English.
"I am an American citizen, you must know, and I have the papers to proveit. My name is Hans Larsen and I came from Sweden many years ago."
"Oh! is that so?" remarked Frank, who had lately read that many Germansacross the sea had been able to secure the naturalization papersbelonging to others in order to cross to Sweden or Italy without beingtaken prisoner by the English naval men, and Frank rightly guessed thespy had fortified himself in that way so as to have some means forescaping death in case of capture.
"Then what were you doing hidden in that locker?" demanded Billy.
"I have no money, and I was hungry," said the man. "I came here to pickup something I could sell for a few sous, and get some bread. Then Iheard voices and afraid to be seen I crawled under there. Let me go andI shall never bother you again."
Billy laughed in his face.
"They say a lame excuse is better than none," he remarked, "but whenFrank pulled that fierce-looking gun out of your pocket I saw a brightcoin fall to the floor. Here it is, and a gold coin in the bargain. AnEnglish sovereign at that. I wonder why anyone should go hungry long inDunkirk these days with all that money in his pocket? Don't try to trickus, my man. We know why you were hidden in that locker, and you don'tneed to be told what a spy can expect when caught in the act."
The man shut his teeth hard together, and gave a little groan, but saidnothing. He evidently expected that the fate he may have dared so oftenhad at last found him out.
Boy Aviators with the Air Raiders: A Story of the Great World War Page 11