"The place ought to be searched at once every-one there ought to
be arrested!" declared Jack, impulsively. His father smiled.

"Yes, but who's going to do it?" he said. "We've just one
constable here in Bray. And if there are Germans there in any
number, what could he do? I suppose we might send word to
Harobridge and get some polite or some territorials over. Yes,
that's the best thing to do."

But now Dick spoke up in great eagerness. "I don't know, sir," he
suggested. "If the soldiers came, the men in the house there
would find out they were coming, I'm afraid. Perhaps they'd get
away, or else manage to hide everything that would prove the truth
about them. I think it would be better to report direct to
Colonel Throckmorton. He knows what we found out near London,
sir, you see, and he'd be more ready to believe us."

"Yes, probably you're right. Ring him up, then. It's late, but
he won't mind."

What a different story there would have been to tell had someone
had that thought only half an hour earlier! But it is often so.
The most trivial miscalculation, the most insignificant mistake,
seemingly, may prove to be of the most vital importance. Dick
went to the telephone. It was one of the old-fashioned sort,
still in almost universal use in the rural parts of England, that
require the use of a bell to call the central office. Dick turned
the crank, then took down the receiver. At once he herd a
confused buzzing sound that alarmed him.