Part 5 (1/2)

As they watched they saw that, having crossed the lawn, the four men entered a meadow adjoining, and they then recognised the figures of Drost and Ortmann with two strangers. They all walked straight to the corner where stood an old cow-shed, and into this they all four disappeared.

For a full half-hour they remained there, Kennedy and his well-beloved crouching beneath a bush in wonder at what there could be in the cow-shed to detain them so long.

The shed was at the base of a high wooded hill. Away, at some distance on the left, the railway-line entered the great tunnel which pierced the hill, and through it ran one of the most important railways from the Midlands to the East Coast.

The reason of their long absence in that tumbledown cow-shed was certainly mysterious. The lovers strained their ears to listen, but no sound reached them.

”Very curious!” whispered Kennedy. ”What, I wonder, should detain them so long? There is some further mystery here, without a doubt.

Something of interest is in progress.”

Suddenly, all four men emerged from the shed laughing and chatting in subdued tones. Drost was carrying his hat in his hand.

They pa.s.sed within ten yards of the lovers, and as they went by they overheard Drost say in German: ”To-morrow night at 11:30 a heavy munition train will come through the tunnel. Then we shall see!”

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

Kennedy and the popular revue artiste--the girl whose name was as a household word, and whose songs were sung everywhere--crouched in silence watching the men until they had disappeared through that long French 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 antic.i.p.ated--much more! 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 quickly across the gra.s.s, entered the old tumbledown shed, whereupon Kennedy switched on his electric torch, when there became revealed a wide hole in 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 electric cable containing two wires which led from a cigar-box on the ground in a corner away down into the tunnel. Kennedy lifted the lid of the box, and within found an electric tapping-key with ebonite base and two small dry cells for the supply of the current.

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

Together the pair carefully descended into the narrow tunnel that had been driven into the side of the hill, evidently by expert hands, for its roof had been sh.o.r.ed up along the whole length with trees cut from the wood. Away along the narrow pa.s.sage they groped, finding it so low that they were compelled to bend and creep forward in uncomfortable positions 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 also probably misread his bearings, for at one point the subterranean gallery went away at right angles for about fifty yards, until there--where the atmosphere was heavy and oppressive because of lack of ventilation-- stood several petrol-tins. To one of them the end of the cable leading from the unsuspicious cow-shed had been attached.

As they stood staring at the petrol-tins a sudden roar slowly approaching sounded directly overhead--a heavy rumble of wheels. Then it died away again.

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

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

”That is what those devils intend!” Ella declared. ”How can we frustrate them?”

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

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

”It is evident that they intend to blow in the tunnel from below,”