see what was wanted and stood behind the servant who opened the
door. At the sight of their uniforms he drew himself up very
straight and saluted. But, formal as he was, there was a smile in
his eyes.

"Well, boys," he said, "what can I do for you? On His Majesty's
service, I suppose?"

"Yes, sir," said Dick. "We'd like to go up in your tower room, if
you don't mind."

"Scouting, eh?" said the old gentleman, mystified. "Do you expect
to locate the enemy's cavalry from my tower room? Well, well --
up with you. You can do no harm."

Dick was inclined to resent the old gentleman's failure to take
them seriously, but Harry silenced his protest. As they went up
the stairs he whispered: "It's better for him to think that. We
don't want anyone to know what we're doing, you know -- not yet."

So they reached the tower room, and, just as Harry had
anticipated, got a wonderful view of the surrounding country.
They found that the heliograph they had left behind was working
feverishly and Harry took out a pencil and jotted down the symbols
as they were flashed.

"It's in code, of course," he said, "but maybe we'll find someone
who can decipher it -- I know they have experts for that. It
might come in handy to know what they were talking about."