CHAPTER XII
A RACE FOR FREEDOM
"They've got us, Pete," said Jack, dejectedly.
"Here, who are you, and where did you come from?" said a sleepy officer,running up.
"We've caught a couple of spies, sir," said one of their captors.
"We are not spies!" cried Pete, indignantly. "Can't you see that we'rein uniform?"
"Hello, that's an aggressive young fighter, all right!" said theofficer, smiling at Pete's red-headed wrath. "No wonder--look at hishair! Boy Scouts, eh? Do you belong to Durland's Troop?"
"Yes, sir," said Jack.
"How did you get here?"
"I d--don't know, sir. We hadn't any idea we were right among you tillwe heard the sentry challenge us."
"Well, we won't eat you, my boy. No need to be frightened. Here,Corporal, put them in the guard tent. We haven't many prisoners--I guesswe can take them along in the morning and let them see us lick the Redsat Tryon Creek."
Jack almost betrayed himself by the involuntary gasp he gave as thelieutenant revealed the secret he had taken so much trouble to surprise.Here was luck with a vengeance! The very information they wanted wasbeing handed to them on a silver platter. But he managed to restrain hisemotions, so that no one should suspect the elation he felt at thediscovery.
Tryon Creek! That meant it was doubly important for the news to becarried back to General Harkness, for it showed that General Bliss hadseized upon the weak spot in the Red line of defense, the necessity forweakening one spot to strengthen another, and, moreover, that the Bluearmy was far from being out of it as a result of the success of GeneralBean in the minor engagement of Tuesday morning.
Jack nudged Pete as they were being led away to the guard tent. And Petenudged back, to show that he understood. That pleased Jack, for he knewnow that the all-important information had a double chance of beingcarried to General Harkness. If he were baffled in his attempt to escapeand Pete did manage to get away, the news would go with him.
"You two boys can give your parole in the morning," said the youngofficer. "The guard tent's the only place where there's room for youto-night, and anyhow you'll be just as comfortable there as if you'dgiven your parole."
Then he went off, leaving them to the care of the corporal of the guard,who seemed immensely amused. That relieved Jack, too. He had feared thatthey would be offered their parole, and that to refuse to give it wouldmean an added watchfulness on the part of their captors and jailers, asthe Blue soldiers had become. Now he was relieved from that danger. Itwas lucky, he thought, that the officer was loose and careless in hismethods.
In the guard tent they found themselves alone.
"Guess you can sleep all right in here," said the corporal. "It's apretty comfortable prison, and there's lots of room. If you get lonely,call the sentry. He'll talk to you."
"Thanks," said Jack. "I'm sure you're very kind."
But he was really angry at the condescending way in which the Bluecorporal spoke. As soon as he was alone with Pete he expressed hisdisgust, too.
"Gee, Pete," said he, "I thought this was going to be hard. It's liketaking candy from a kid. They'll catch us if we go up to them and askthem please to do it, just the way we did before. And that corporal wasacting as if we were little boys! I hope he finds out some time thatwe're the ones that spoiled their Tryon Creek plan for them."
"Hold on," said Pete, laughing. "We haven't done it yet, Jack. Gee,usually you're the one that keeps me from going off at halfcock. We'renot out of the woods yet, old boy."
"That's right, too, Pete, but he did get my goat. He's so cocky! Some ofour fellows are a little like that, too, I guess, but I haven't happenedto run into any of them yet."
"I was just as mad as you were, Jack, but we have got a lot to do yetbefore we get back to Tom. How are we going to get out of here?"
"Cut our way out," he said, shortly. He looked back toward the flap ofthe tent in disgust. "They didn't even take our knives away from us. Iwonder if they thought we were going to stay here like little lambs. Andthey didn't even ask us for our parole! I'll bet someone will getcourt-martialed for this--and they ought to, too."
Still looking his disgust, he began to cut through the stout canvas ofthe tent. As he had suspected, there was no sentry at all in the rear ofthe tent, and it was a matter of five minutes to cut a hole big enoughto let them get out.
"Here we go, Pete!" he whispered. "We can get away now any time we wantto. Might as well do it now, too. No use waiting any longer than we haveto."
They slipped out quietly, within ten minutes of the time when they wereput in the guard tent. Quietly still, and using every bit of Scout craftthat they knew, they made their way to the shelter of the woods,wondering every minute why some alarm was not raised. But a dead silencestill prevailed behind them when they crept into the sheltering shadowof the trees, and, once there, they straightened up and began to morefast.
First they went some distance into the woods, so as to lessen the dangerof discovery should their absence from the tent be discovered, and thenthey struck out boldly in the direction which they had traveled only ashort time before, making their way back toward the place where they hadleft Tom and the grey scout car.
"Gee," said Pete, drawing a long breath, "that certainly was easy! Youwere right, Jack. I thought they must be setting some sort of a trap forus. It didn't really seem as if they could be going to leave thingsfixed so nicely for us. Why, they might better have turned us loose atonce! Then someone with more sense might have picked us up and reallyheld on to us before we could get out."
"They ought to be licked for being so careless," said Jack. "I'll puteverything that happened in the camp into my report. I'll bet the nexttime they get prisoners, they'll look after them all right! It makes mesore, because they're supposed to be learning how to act in case of areal war just as much as we are, and it shows that there's an awful lotof things they don't know at all."
In the east now the first faint stirrings of the light of the comingmoon that would soon make the country light began to show.
"I'm glad we got through so soon, anyhow," said Jack, then. "For TomBinns' sake, mostly. It must have been scary work for him, just sittingthere in the dark, waiting for us."
"He won't have to wait much longer, Jack. He's certainly a plucky one! Iknow that waiting that way scares him half to death, but you never heara peep out of him. He just does as he's told, and never whimpers atall."
"He's got what's really the highest courage of all, though he doesn'tknow it himself, Pete. He's got the pluck to do things when he's deadlyafraid of doing them. There are a lot of people like that who areaccused of being cowards, when they're really heroes for trying to dothings they're afraid of. I've got much more respect for them than Ihave for people who aren't afraid of things. There's nothing brave aboutdoing a thing you're not afraid of."
"There's the car now, Jack! We haven't wasted much time coming back,anyhow."
Jack put his hand to his lips and imitated the cry of a crow. That wasthe sign of the Crow Patrol, to which all three of the Scouts belonged.
"There comes his answer! That means the coast is clear. I was halfafraid they might have caught him and the car. It wouldn't have done atall for us to escape as we have and then walk into a trap here--thatwould make us look pretty foolish, it seems to me."
"You're right it would, Jack. Hello, Tom! Anything doing here while wewere gone?"
"Not a thing! How on earth did you get back so soon? Did you get whatyou were looking for?"
"I guess we did! Get the spark plug in, Tom, and we'll be off."
A few moments saw them on the road again, and moving fast. In thedistance now, as they sped along, Jack's practiced ear caught a strangesound, and he slowed down so that he might listen the better.
"Say," he cried, in sudden excitement, "that's another car! And what'san automobile doing here at this time of night?"
The same thought came to the three of them at once.
"I
wonder if it's one of their scout cars," cried Tom Binns, voicing thethought. "I've been thinking it was funny we hadn't run into them atall, Jack."
"Well, we'll have to look out if it is," said Jack.
The sound grew louder, and it was soon apparent that the other car wascoming toward them. Jack slowed down, and kept to a slow pace, keepinghis car as much as possible in the shadow of the trees that hung overone side of the road. The other car came on fast, and, as it sweptaround a bend of the road that had hidden it from them, they were almostblinded by the great ray from the searchlight it carried. Jack himselfhad been running without lights of any sort, for greater safety fromdetection.
As soon as the driver of the other car saw the machine in which thethree Scouts were riding, he slowed down. It came alongside in a fewmoments and a man leaned out and hailed Jack.
"What are you doing here?" he cried, and then, before Jack could answerthe question: "Come on, men, it's one of their cars! We've got tocapture them!"
As he spoke he slewed his car around, so that it half filled the road,and two men leaped to the ground and made for Jack's car.
But Jack had a different plan. He had no mind to surrender tamely nowwhen victory was within his grasp. In a moment the big grey car shotdown the road, and the next moment it was roaring at full speed ahead.Behind it, after a stunned moment of surprise and silent inaction,thundered the other car, a scout car of the Blue army.
"Gee, this is going to be a real road race!" yelled Jack. "That car isthis one's twin. They can go just as fast as we can. And they'restronger than we are, if they ever catch us--three men to three boys.But they'll have to go some to catch us!"
For the first time since his dash across the State line when the warbegan, Jack let the grey car do its best for him now. It leaped forwardalong the road as if it were alive. But behind, going just as fast,keeping the gap between the cars the same, pounded the hostile machine.
Over roads as empty as if they had been cleared by the police for a racefor the Vanderbilt cup, the two cars sped, kicking up a tremendous dust,their exhausts roaring and spitting blue flame, and the noise of theirpassage making a din that Jack thought could be heard for miles. Onlythe big metal hood saved them from being cut to ribbons by the wind andthe flying dirt and stones that their mad rush threw back from the roadbefore them. But Jack had one big advantage, as he guessed. He knew thecountry better, and he was making baffling turns every few minutes. Onething he dared not do. He stuck to the road, afraid, at the frightfulspeed, to risk a side trip into the fields, and equally afraid to slowdown, since that would mean that the other car, never very far behind,would be able to catch up to them.
So fast they went that, by making many corner turns, Jack was able toturn completely around without attracting the attention of the pursuingcar. He was heading straight for Bremerton, finally, and his heartleaped at the thought that this new and unforeseen danger was going tobe thrown off. Just to lose the car behind would not be enough, he knew.He was playing for high stakes now, and at last he slowed down--notmuch, but enough to let the other car make a perceptible gain. He feltsafe now. He knew that the other car was no faster than his own, thoughit was just as fast, and if he had even a hundred yards of lead, he wassure he could hold it.
Other campfires were twinkling near by now. The sentries that guardedthem, he knew, would not fail to hear and guess at the reason for theroaring race of the war automobiles.
And at last, making the sharpest sort of a turn, he baffled thepursuers. Before they realized what they were doing, they were in themidst of Colonel Abbey's regiment, and a minute later they were forcedto stop by a volley of shots, and instead of capturing the Red scoutcar, as they had hoped, were themselves prisoners.
"I guess that's going some!" cried Pete, as they turned back toward thecaptured car. "We got the news we were after, and we led one of theirscout cars into a trap, too. That's what I call a pretty good night'swork. Fine business, Jack! And that was certainly some ride, too! If youhadn't been able to drive as well as you do, we'd never have got awayfrom them."
"We had a lot of luck," said Jack. "But it certainly was a great race!I'll be glad to get some sleep, now. That was pretty tiring work."
Boy Scout Automobilists; Or, Jack Danby in the Woods Page 12