CHAPTER XICAUGHT AT LAST
OutsideDanny’s garden gate, an important-looking group of people were standing. In fact, they looked so important and so interesting that most of the inhabitants of the village had turned out to stare at them. Two Sixes of Cubs had been posted as a cordon to keep the staring crowd from touching the three grey motor cars or otherwise annoying the group.
This consisted of Captain Miles and a young officer, a sergeant and ten hefty privates, a police inspector and three constables, a private detective, Dick and Danny.
“Here he comes!” said Dick. The Scout who had been sent up to the Hall was returning, accompanied by the pompous butler, bearing the great iron key that unlocked the gate of the Abbey ruins. It would have beenrather ignominious for an officer of the British army to have to crawl through cabbages and gooseberry bushes and a small hole in a privet hedge—or so thought the Scouts—though Captain Miles was quite prepared to do so.
“But it would be difficult bringing the prisoners out that way,” said Danny. The constables grinned at the small boy’s assurance. And the private detective (therealone) looked green with envy.
“Lead the way, young Cub,” said Captain Miles, as the gate swung open with a screech of rusty hinges.
For the second time that day, Danny walked across the grassy space of the Abbot’s garden. And his heart was light and his ambitious soul satisfied, for behind him walked an officer, and men with fixed bayonets. Two privates relieved the Scouts who still crouched in the darkness within the ruin of the Abbot’s House. They blinked like owls as they climbed out into the sunlight again.
“We will deal with the tower first,” said Captain Miles.
Danny led the way to the tower door.
To their disappointment, the officer ordered Danny and the Scouts to retire to a safe distance. But from there they watched, their hearts beating with excitement.
Two of the privates, after several efforts, succeeded in bursting open the little door. Then, with his revolver in his hand and followed by the sergeant and three privates, Captain Miles entered. Several breathless minutes passed. And then they reappeared, but not alone. Sheepish, sullen, and securely handcuffed, three Germans stepped out between their burly guards.
“Come on!” called Captain Miles to the Scouts, a grin of satisfaction on his cheery face.
Danny and the Scouts obeyed with alacrity.
“Well, we’ve caught Fritz and his pals, all right,” said Captain Miles, “thanks to ‘Danny the Detective.’”
The three Germans stared at Danny with an expression of such loathing that it made cold shivers run down his back.
Two sentries were posted with fixed bayonets each side of the tower door, for the fourth spy was to be caught before the tower was investigated.
The party moved over to the Abbot’s House. Captain Miles, the sergeant, and four privates climbed through the ruined window, and disappeared into the darkness. The group outside stood listening breathlessly. They heard the iron door creak as it swung back on its rusty hinges. Then silence.
But suddenly a yell rent the air, followed by a great explosion. Then silence again. The young officer, accompanied by the privates and constables, climbed through the window and dashed across the dark house into the passage. Feverishly the Scouts waited without. The minutes seemed to drag by like hours. What had happened? Then a sound fell on their ears. Heavy, shufflingsteps were crossing the rough floor of the house.
“Here, give us a hand,” said a voice within. The Scouts were ready.
One by one the members of the first party were passed through the window. They were badly wounded. Several were unconscious. Laying them on the grass, the Scouts turned to Dick for instructions. Each received his orders promptly and clearly. One sped off for a doctor, another to telephone for an ambulance, another to fetch such articles as could be borrowed to render first aid to the wounded men.
Quickly and skilfully tourniquets were applied to arrest the flow of blood that already dyed the grass red. Everyone was pale and horrified.
“What happened?” was the whisper that passed from one to the other.
“The—chap—threw a bomb—and—made off,” said the only man fit to speak.
The young officer had returned.
“Captain Miles has had a narrow shave,” he said, “but he’s all right. He’s gone on with some more men. Now, let’s see to these poor chaps.”
But he found they were all being seen to very well, and he learnt for the first time what the Scout motto means. Through years of peace the Scouts had been preparing themselves. With keenness and energy they had been learning, practising much that seemed to outsiders of but little use. “Be Prepared,” was the motto their Chief had given them. And “Stick to it,” was the one they had added. The war has proved who, after all, was in the right.
The Kangaroos had been told to guard the mill pond. They had not been told why it was necessary to keep a sharp watch upon it, beyond that it was being used by the enemy. But, being Scouts, they had obeyed the order and kept a vigilant lookout, though it seemed quiet and peaceful enough.
The two whose turn it was to watch werelying well ambushed, their eyes upon the water, when to their immense surprise a head suddenly rose above the surface.
Its hair was plastered down with slime and duck-weed. Its eyes looked about in a terrified manner. Seeing no one, the owner of the head swam to the side of the pond, and quickly, cautiously, clambered on to the bank.
Then the two Scouts dashed forward. In a minute they had him down, his arms pinned to his sides.
A long “Coo-ee!” brought up the other Kangaroos at the double, and “Fritz” found himself a helpless prisoner.
Leaving the rest to keep watch on the pond, the Leader of the Kangaroos marched off his prisoner between two hefty guards.