The Bomb-Makers

by William Le Queux

from the shed laughing and chatting insubdued tones. Drost was carrying his hat in his hand.

  They passed within ten yards of the lovers, and as they went by theyoverheard Drost say in German: "To-morrow night at 11:30 a heavymunition train will come through the tunnel. Then we shall see!"

  And at his words his three companions laughed merrily as they walkedback to the house.

  Kennedy and the popular revue artiste--the girl whose name was as ahousehold word, and whose songs were sung everywhere--crouched insilence watching the men until they had disappeared through that longFrench window opening on to the lawn.

  Then, when they were alone, Kennedy said in a low voice:

  "There's more going on here, Ella, than we at first anticipated--muchmore! I wonder what secret that old shed contains--eh?"

  "Let's investigate!" the girl beside him suggested eagerly.

  Five minutes later they emerged from the shadow, and hurrying quicklyacross the grass, entered the old tumbledown shed, whereupon Kennedyswitched on his electric torch, when there became revealed a wide holein the ground, which sloped away steeply in the darkness.

  "Hulloa! Why, here's a tunnel!" exclaimed Kennedy in surprise."They've been down there, evidently! I wonder where it leads to?"

  Then, as they both glanced around, they saw a thin, twisted electriccable containing two wires which led from a cigar-box on the ground in acorner away down into the tunnel. Kennedy lifted the lid of the box,and within found an electric tapping-key with ebonite base and two smalldry cells for the supply of the current.

  "Now what can this mean, I wonder? Some devil's work here, without adoubt!" he said. "Let us ascertain."

  Together the pair carefully descended into the narrow tunnel that hadbeen driven into the side of the hill, evidently by expert hands, forits roof had been shored up along the whole length with trees cut fromthe wood. Away along the narrow passage they groped, finding it so lowthat they were compelled to bend and creep forward in uncomfortablepositions until they came to a sudden turn.

  Whoever had constructed it had also succeeded--as was afterwards found--in cleverly disguising the great heap of earth excavated. He had alsoprobably misread his bearings, for at one point the subterranean gallerywent away at right angles for about fifty yards, until there--where theatmosphere was heavy and oppressive because of lack of ventilation--stood several petrol-tins. To one of them the end of the cable leadingfrom the unsuspicious cow-shed had been attached.

  As they stood staring at the petrol-tins a sudden roar slowlyapproaching sounded directly overhead--a heavy rumble of wheels. Thenit died away again.

  "Hark!" gasped Ella. "Isn't that a train? Why, we are directly underthe railway-line running through the tunnel."

  "Yes, dear. A touch upon that key up in the shed and we should be blownout of recognition, and the tunnel, one of the most important on theline of railway communication running east and west across England,would be blocked for months."

  "That is what those devils intend!" Ella declared. "How can wefrustrate them?"

  Seymour Kennedy reflected for a few seconds, holding his torch so thatits rays fell upon those innocent-looking petrol-tins at the end of thecunningly contrived sap. Then he took up one of them and carrying itsaid:

  "Let's get back, dear. We know the truth now."

  "It is evident that they intend to blow in the tunnel from below,"declared Ella, as they crept back along the narrow gallery.

  "Without a doubt," was her lover's reply. "Mr Horton, as he is known,took the house with but one object--namely, to cut the railway-line tothe coast--the line over which so much war material for the front goesnightly. Truly, the Hun leaves nothing to chance."

  "And my father is actually assisting in this dastardly work?"

  "I'm afraid he is, darling. But so long as we remain wary and watchful,I hope we may be able to combat the evil activities of these assassins."

  "I'm ready to help you always, as you know," was the girl's ready reply."But it grieves me that father is so completely German in his actions."

  "It is but natural, Ella. He is a German. If he were English, andlived secretly in Germany, he would act as an Englishman. All enemyaliens should have been interned long ago."

  Ever and anon, on their way back to the opening, they both stumbled uponthe wire, while Seymour, carrying the petrol-tin, evidently filled withsome heavy explosive, followed his well-beloved, who held the torch.

  At last they emerged from the close atmosphere of the long, tortuousgallery that had been secretly driven to a point exactly beneath therailway-line in the very heart of the hill, and once again stood uprightin the shed. Their clothes were muddy, and their hands and faces werebesmeared with mud.

  At last Kennedy put down the square heavy tin, the cap of which he verycarefully unscrewed, and then examined it by aid of his torch, smellingit critically.

  Taking from his pocket a strong clasp-knife he went back into the tunnelagain for about fifty yards. With a swift cut he severed the lead whichled away to the concealed tins of explosive, and bringing it back withhim to the shed, took the severed end, unravelled the silk insulation ofboth wires, bared them by scraping them thoroughly with his knife, andwith expert hand attached them to a detonator which he had taken fromthe tins concealed at the end of the gallery.

  Having done this he put the detonator into the opening of the petrol-tinwhich, with its wire lead, he afterwards carefully concealed behind aheap of straw in the corner. He had taken care to replace the cableleading from the cigar-box exactly as he had found it, therefore, to theeye, it looked as though nothing had been touched. The cable ran intothe underground passage, it was true, but it returned back again intothe cow-shed, and into the tin of high-explosive.

  Kennedy, who knew something of mining, had noticed that half-way alongthe working a quantity of earth had been left for the purpose of tampingthe gallery, in order that the force of the explosion should go upward,and not come back along the subterranean passage. Before the Kaiser'ssecret agents exploded the mine they would, no doubt, fill up thegallery at that point before completing the electric circuit.

  It was evident that on that night the four men had made a finalinspection before exploding the mine.

  Therefore, quite confident in what they had achieved, Ella and her lovercrept back, and away through the wood to where they had left the car.

  At six o'clock on the following morning, the Victoria Hotel in Sheffieldbeing always open, Ella entered alone, and ascended to her room.

  Next evening at half-past seven she met her lover again in the EcclesallRoad, and he drove her out in the car away through Eckington and Clowne,to the wood from which they had watched on the previous night.

  The weather was muggy and overcast, with low, heavy clouds precursory ofa thunderstorm.

  There was plenty of time. The attempt would probably be made athalf-past eleven when the munition train passed through, it beingintended to explode the whole train as well as the mine in the heart ofthe tunnel, so as to produce a terrific upheaval by which the tunnelwould be blocked for, perhaps, a mile.

  Arrived at the edge of the wood, in sight of the lawn and house beyond,soon after ten o'clock, the lovers sat together upon a fallen treeconversing in whispers, and awaiting the result of the counterplot.

  They were, however, in ignorance of what was transpiring within thehouse.

  Truth to tell, Ortmann and Drost were at that moment in one of theservants' bedrooms upstairs, which had been cleared out, and where, upona long table, stood a complete wireless set both for receiving andtransmission.

  "That fellow Kennedy is _here_!--and with my girl Ella!" gasped oldDrost, who had just come into the room. "I've been across to the wood.They're actually here!"

  "_Kennedy here_!" exclaimed Ortmann, his face pale in an instant. "Howcould he possibly know?"

  "Well, he's here! What shall we do?"

  Ortmann stood for a few moments reflecting deeply.

  Slow
ly an evil, sinister grin overspread his countenance.

  "Your girl," he said in German, in a deep voice. "She is your daughter.You wish to protect her--eh?"

  "No, she's English. We are Germans."

  "Excellent. I knew that you were a good Prussian. Then I may act--eh?"

  "Entirely as you wish. We must get rid of these watch-dogs," snarledthe old man in a venomous voice.

  Ortmann, without further word, descended the stairs and entered thedining-room wherein sat two men, Germans, naturalised as Britishsubjects, by name Bohlen and Tragheim.

  To the first-named he gave certain and definite instructions, thesebeing at once carried out.

  Kennedy and Ella, both, of course, quite unconscious that their presencehad been discovered by the wily Drost, saw a tall man, a