beside him. It was very dark, but in a moment he caught the
tiniest movement over the hedge, and saw a spot a little darker
than the rest of the ground about it. Jack, he saw at once had
taken the one faint chance there was, dropped down, and crawled
away, trusting that their captures had not counted their party,
and might not miss the boy.

Just in time he slipped through a hole in the hedge. The next
moment one of the headlights in the grey motor flashed out, almost
blinding the the rest of them, as they held up their hands. In its
light from the car, four men, well armed with revolvers, were
revealed.

"Donnerwetter!" said one. "I made sure there were four of them!
So! Vell, it is enough. Into the car with them!"

No pretence about this chap! He was German, and didn't care who
knew it. He was unlike the man who had disguised himself as an
English officer, at the house of the heliograph, but had betrayed
himself and set this whole train of adventure going by his single
slip and fall from idiomatic English that Harry Fleming's sharp
ears had caught.

Dick was thrilled, somehow, even while he was being roughly
bundled toward the motor. If these fellows were as bold as this,
cutting telephone wires, driving about without lights, giving up
all secrecy and pretence, it must mean that the occasion for which
they had come was nearly over. It must mean that their task,
whatever it might be, was nearly accomplished -- the blow they had
come to strike was about ready to be driven home.