Chapter 3

THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY

Utterly bewildered, they stared down at the steel.

"Put out your light!" said Paul, suddenly. His voice was tense. "Keep still a moment! See if you can hear anyone moving around near us."

They were absolutely still for a full minute, but there were only the familiar sounds of the night.

"All right," said Paul. "Now you watch and listen while I dig down here and see what this is about."

"Why can't I dig, too?"

"Because it's better for you to watch. Besides, I want to dig so that I can put the earth back in a hurry, and fix this place so that it won't look as if it had been disturbed."

Then he fell to, working silently and quickly, like a mole, digging with his hands until his nails were torn and his fingers were raw and bleeding. But Paul did not mind that. He had already made a guess, and a shrewd one, as to the meaning of this strange discovery that they had made. It was not long before he found that the steel plate extended for only a short distance. Around this, and spreading beneath it, was a bed of cement. As soon as he had satisfied himself of that, using Arthur's flashlight, Paul stopped digging, and began carefully to replace the earth. Then, calling on Arthur to help him, he trampled down the earth.

"There!" he said. "I don't believe anyone would know we had been here, unless they were suspicious already."

"But what is it?" asked Arthur. "Paul, tell me!"

"I'm going to, Arthur. Don't worry. But come away from here. We don't want to be caught around here--and, besides, there's still a good deal for us to do."

Swiftly they made their way to the road, away from the cottage and the field where they had made their discovery.

"Now!" said Arthur, after a little distance had been covered, stopping short. "I won't go a step further until you tell me what that place is meant for!"

"It's meant for a big gun--that's what it's meant for!" said Paul, vehemently. "Can't you see? A siege gun can't be fired from a carriage, or even from ordinary ground. The recoil would bury it in the earth if they tried that. There's got to be a regular emplacement for it--a firm base of concrete and steel, so that it will withstand the shock of firing!"

"You mean they'd mount a gun here?"

"I mean just that! It takes days, almost weeks, to do that. They have to pour the concrete and let it stand until it's set. But here they've got everything ready! They can bring up their guns, place them, and begin firing, all in less than twenty-four hours! They must have been preparing for this for months--perhaps for years!"

"The cowards! We've never done anything to them!"

"No, they're not cowards," said Paul, thoughtfully. "I suppose they think they're right, and that as long as that is so, they are justified in using any means at all to win. But I think we can put a spoke in their wheel, just the same."

"I don't see how, Paul. There aren't enough soldiers in Liege to watch every spot where there's a cross marked on these maps."

"No, but that's not the only way, Arthur."

"It's the only way to stop them from bringing up their siege gun, isn't it? I know what the plan is in case of an attack. It is for the forts to hold off the Germans until there's time for the French army to come up and relieve them. And they're not supposed to be able to stand the fire of heavy guns. The plan was made for use against an army that wouldn't have time to bring up its siege artillery."

"Yes, that's true enough. But, just the same, I think we can help. I'm so sure of it that I'm going to take these plans into Liege to-night and try to get them to General Leman."

"I'm with you, Paul! Are we to go now?"

"Not quite yet. I'm interested in this house, too. I want to find out whatever we can about it before we go in. Don't you see what our finding that gun mounting means, Arthur? Finding it just where we did--in a field that belongs to that house?"

"You mean there may be spies there now?"

"I don't say that they're there now. But I think they have been there. And I know I'm going to find out all we can."

"All right. I think we ought to do that, too. Let's get along! It'll be awfully late when we get into Liege, I'm afraid."

The house that had suddenly assumed such an air of mystery, so great an importance, was dark as they approached. Not a light showed from its windows. But they took no chances, none the less. They got very close to it without detection; they were able to go up to the windows. And, listening there, they heard not a sound inside to indicate that anyone was within.

"I'm going in," said Paul, suddenly. "Let me have your light, Arthur."

"Can't I come in, too?"

"One of us must stay outside and keep watch," said Paul. "It's the hardest part of the job, Arthur. If you stay outside, watch carefully, especially near the door. Hide, so that you won't be seen, but in a place where you can see anyone who comes. And if anyone is coming, call like a quail. I'll be listening, and I'll slip out of this back window and get back to you. But if they catch me, go back and get the plans, and then hurry into Liege. Tell General Leman, if you can get to him, or a staff officer, if you can't, everything that has happened since we found these papers, whether it seems important to you or not. Something that may not seem to mean anything at all may really be very important."

"But it seems to me you're taking all the risk," protested Arthur. "That isn't fair."

"It's just as risky outside as in," said Paul. "Here goes! Off with you, now, and find a good place to hide! We haven't any time to lose, I can tell you. If there's no one inside now, they won't leave a place like this deserted very long, I'm sure."

Arthur went off reluctantly, but, as usual, he obeyed Paul to the letter. He found a clump of bushes from which, without being seen himself, he could watch the door of the house, and there he crouched down to wait. It was dull work, and, after he had once settled himself, he was afraid to move lest unseen eyes be watching somewhere in the neighborhood.

Meanwhile Paul was busy getting into the house. It was easier than he had thought it likely to be. The catch on the window was simplicity itself and he forced it with his penknife without any difficulty at all.

"I feel like a burglar," he thought to himself, as he climbed in. "But I don't care. Even if there's nothing wrong in here, I've got the right, in a time like this, to make sure. Every Belgian has to think of his country first now."

And he was pretty sure that there was a decided connection between this cottage, so strangely stout in its construction, and the unquestionably threatening and sinister discovery he and Arthur had made in the field only a stone's throw away.

Inside, he found himself in a large room that took up all save a very small part of the ground floor of the cottage. To the left there was a wall, and in it an open door--he could see that much through the very faint light that filtered through the windows. Seemingly, he was in luck. There was absolutely nothing to make him doubt that he was alone in the house. Everything was still. There was not even the ticking of a clock, the one sound he might reasonably have expected to hear even in a temporarily deserted house. But he waited for quite a minute, to make sure that no one was about. He felt certain that, had anyone been there, he would have heard breathing, no matter how anxious the other occupant of the house might be to conceal his presence.

Then he switched on the light, shielding it with his hand, so that no reflection of its faint glow should betray him, by means of the windows, to anyone approaching from outside.

About the big room in which he found himself there was nothing to excite suspicion at first sight. The room seemed ordinary enough; the usual living-room of a peasant. One thing was curious; he could see a trap door, evidently leading to a cellar below. But that he reserved for later inspection, preferring at first to look upstairs. He reached the second floor by the stairs; there, too, there seemed at first nothing out of the ordinary. But when he threw aside all scruples and looked everywhere, he found something that confirmed some at least of his suspicions--a bundle of letters, all written in German script. He did not stop to read the letters, but on the chance that they might contain something that would prove valuable or important, he slipped them into his pocket.

As yet, however, he had made no real discovery. The letters might prove a great deal; for the moment he was obliged to leave them unread, since his time might prove to be very short. Down he went, light out, pausing in the big living-room to listen for some sound from the watcher outside. There was none.

Now he lifted the trap door, and found, as he had been sure he would, a ladder leading to the cellar below. He hesitated for a moment now. There seemed to be no safe way of propping up the trap door. To descend, closing it after him, meant that he would be shut into the cellar, where he could not hear the warning signal from Arthur, should it be sounded. But his hesitation lasted only a minute.

"It's a chance, but I've got to take it," he said to himself. "After all, I haven't really found anything anywhere else. The cellar's the last place to look--and the most likely, too."

One thing was a relief; when he was safely down he could turn on his light, unafraid. From the cellar, without a window, with no means of egress save that by which he had entered it, there was no danger that a stray beam of light would betray his presence to the lawful dwellers in this cottage, should they chance to return while he was there. And what he saw in the light when he switched it on was ample reward for his daring in braving the dangers of the place.

The place was an arsenal! Arranged against one wall were the parts of three powerful guns, all ready to be assembled. And all about, neatly stacked, were shells. He looked at them, pointing his light at them, to make sure. They bore the stamp of the Krupp works at Essen in Germany, the world-famous works whence the greater part of German munitions of war come.

Here was a discovery indeed! The Germans were ready to attack Liege. Of that there could no longer be even the shadow of a doubt. Not only had they prepared a place for the reception of guns; they had even smuggled the guns themselves over the border. It was, as he could see, not a matter of really great difficulty. The border was not far distant; the guards, on the Belgian side at least, had had no great reason in the past year or so to be especially vigilant. But Paul was horrified by this proof of the determination of the great power to the east and north not to hesitate to invade Belgium, should that course be necessary to enable it to reach its most formidable antagonist, France.

There was something horrible and cold-blooded about such minute preparation. He was thrilled by his discovery. No less was he thrilled by the feeling that it was within his power now really to serve the land he loved. He was not old enough to be a soldier, but he felt that if he could get back to Liege with the information that he and Arthur had garnered that night they might serve Belgium as well as soldiers could do.

Light in hand, he made his way back to the ladder. Then he switched off the light and started to climb the ladder. And as he did so, he stopped, appalled. Above there was the sound of a closing door; then heavy footsteps sounded on the trap door over his head.